TV Licensing, Nirvana

23 June 2006

Licensing music for use in TV shows is a major new avenue for artists.

...even a middlebrow soap such as “One Tree Hill” has a far more varied playlist than the vast majority of FM radio stations. “TV is now driving radio,” Though television soundtracks don’t offer the massive payouts that top bands can get from ad campaigns, TV shows don’t carry the “sellout” baggage that ads sometimes do. More importantly, the best programs offer the kind of emotional engagement rarely found in summer blockbusters or car ads. And when the right song is used in an emotionally evocative scene, the pairing can make a good song even more memorable. When the song “Chasing Cars,” by the UK band Snow Patrol was featured in the closing moments of the “Grey’s Anatomy” finale in May, the song rocketed to the top of the iTunes singles chart within days. Bloom, who said that song-licensing prices have “skyrocketed” in recent years as foundering record companies have attempted to wring profits from their artists in new ways, estimates that if a “major studio came calling and wanted a song for a summer tentpole film,” the price tag for a Nirvana song could be up to $500,000, or even more. When it comes to the top tier of artists, “for $2 million, nobody’s going to turn down [having] the lead track of `Spiderman 3,’” Bloom said. Asher and Mestel don’t necessarily rule out allowing Nirvana’s music to be used in a commercial, especially if it were for a hybrid car or for something else that’s environmentally friendly or socially redeeming. “It would have to be an amazing use,” Mestel said.

http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/entertainment_tv/2006/06/the_selling_of_.html