Stupidity Of Licensing Demands Means The Wrecking Crew Can't Help Sell More Music With Documentary

from the this-makes-no-sense dept

A couple years ago, we wrote about a panel discussion with a couple of music documentary filmmakers, who discussed the ridiculousness of trying to clear the samples used in their films, even though the works almost certainly could only lead to increased music sales. The NY Times recently had a similar story, as a documentary movie about the group of studio musicians known as "The Wrecking Crew," who performed on a ton of the biggest musical hits ever, has been sitting around, finished but unreleased for over four years because of the impossibility of clearing the music in the film. Even though the music was all performed by The Wrecking Crew, whose members would love to see the film out there, the copyrights are held by a variety of entities, including the various major labels.

The article notes that the labels are so desperate for extra cash, that they're asking much more than they have in the past for licensing fees. But that's incredibly, stupidly, short-sighted. Getting a documentary like this out in the world could only serve to increase demand for a bunch of those songs, which would open up all sorts of opportunities to make some more money. But the labels can't seem to see past today in any of their activities.

Separately, as the article notes, the filmmaker could try to rely on fair use... except that the cost of actually defending a lawsuit (even if the lawsuit is bogus) could be quite prohibitive, especially since he's already spent a ton of his life's savings on the movie itself. And I thought copyright was supposed to encourage ways to get the music out there...

Filed Under: licensing, samples, the wrecking crew