from the promoting-the-progress dept
We were just talking about how DVDs of various TV shows, like
The State and
WKRP in Cincinnati were being crippled by music licensing rights that forced them to remove the original, classic music, and replace it with bland copies. However, in some cases, it's much, much worse.
Michael Scott lets us know that some TV shows are being
totally prevented from coming to DVD. The latest is the TV show
Werewolf, which was apparently working on a DVD release, but
the project has now been shut down, due to music licensing problems:
The Shout Factory had to cancel the release because of two artists (which will remain unnamed) that would not play ball. Sony does not have the individual audio tracks, so they were unable to replace the songs, as the audio was mixed together. The two songs were featured over dialogue scenes that could not be cut. The Shout Factory's only option, even after spending a lot of time and money on it, was to cancel it and give the title back to Sony. If Sony had the audio tracks, it would have been easy to replace the two songs.
It's still difficult to see how this makes any sense at all. It shouldn't require relicensing, and even if it does, it's plainly ridiculous for the musicians to refuse. It's difficult to see how this benefits them in any way.
Filed Under: dvd, licensing, music, werewolf
