New Beavis & Butt-head To Contain Less Music... Because MTV (MTV?!?) Says It's Too Expensive To License Music

from the check-that-out dept

We've talked a few times in the past about how ridiculous music licensing restrictions on TV shows have made formerly fantastic TV shows that included period music, such as WKRP In Cincinnati, The Wonder Years and The State, come out on DVD with generic crappy music replacing the original pieces that often made the shows what they were. In part, that's because there was no "DVD market" for TV shows when the originals were made, and it's now effectively impossible and/or ridiculously expensive, to go back and get the necessary licenses. In some cases, that's because it's impossible to find the license holders, but mostly it's because all it takes is a single license holder to demand crazy amounts of money, and the whole project becomes impossible.

Another show that faced the same problem was apparently the original Beavis and Butt-head, when it tried to come out on DVD. And now that the show is returning to MTV years later, apparently the folks behind it are dealing with it by... including significantly fewer music videos, because it's a total licensing nightmare. And, yes, this is on MTV, the channel that used to be (way back in the day) dedicated to showing music videos and promoting musicians via those videos. But, of course, a few years back, the record labels, in their desperate grab for cash, suddenly started bitching about "how dare MTV promote our music without paying us," and suddenly promotional videos became expensive... which is part of the reason why it's difficult to find them on MTV at all any more.

Filed Under: beavis & butt-head, licensing, music