The music and video game industries are partnering for synchronized licensing opportunities, but many rights holders are losing money due to pre-licensed music libraries and compulsory licensing. Learn how game placements can revive entire catalogs and provide artists and their organizations with a lucrative revenue stream that has been overlooked.
Beyond excuses – understanding the realities and opportunities of game music licensing
Deborah Mannis-Gardner, DMG Clearances Owner and President
Much has been said about the music industry and the video game industry and how they work together in terms of synchronization and clearance. But much of the conversation has focused on how to make things easier for licensors, usually through pre-authorized music libraries or requiring compulsory licenses. These solutions would certainly speed up the process, but at the cost of songwriters, publishers, and other rights holders having to negotiate copyright rates and consider the context in which their songs will be used. become unable to do so. A better approach would be to educate rights holders, from major artists to families who inherited musicians’ properties, about what they can get out of a license.
Having a song featured in a game can offer vastly different opportunities than in film or television, and a single placement can revitalize a song or even a catalog.
The main complaint I hear from game companies is that there are too many copyright holders per song, making music licensing for games prohibitive. Having a large number of copyright holders on a recording can certainly be daunting, but it shouldn’t be an excuse or a barrier to clearing music for use in games. In fact, you’ll be thrilled to see so many writers and artists contributing to one song. In many cases, these musicians have not received much recognition in the past, but now they are able to earn income that they would not otherwise have had. This has become especially important since the 2010s, when termination rights began to take effect for many artists who had been subject to predatory contracts, allowing them to regain the rights to their songs. Video game licensing is an opportunity for them to finally get paid and reinvigorate interest in their songs on streaming, where catalog tracks typically do very well.
fallout and ink spots
Take a recent example from the game and TV series Fallout. Each game has a radio station where you can select and listen to the songs played as if you were listening to a regular radio station. In Fallout 3, this station is Galaxy News Radio. Fallout 4, Diamond City Radio. And Appalachian Radio in Fallout 76. One of the songs featured on all these stations is “I Don’t Want to Set the World on Fire” by the Ink Spots. After being featured as a song in each of the games mentioned above, it was used as the main music in the highly anticipated Fallout TV show trailer, and even in the Amazon Prime TV show itself.
“Streaming numbers jump to 115 million on Spotify alone.”
As a result of these syncs, the song appears on multiple albums, has seen its streams jump to 115 million on Spotify alone, and is featured as the lead song on the “Fallout Radio” playlist on Spotify, which has approximately 11,000 followers. It was done. . With TV synchronization alone, the song’s streaming numbers doubled within weeks of the show’s premiere, reaching over 1 million weekly plays and reaching No. 1 on Billboard’s Top TV Songs list in April 2024. It has become. The Ink Spots’ most popular songs have been featured in five Fallout games since the series began in 1997, used in multiple episodes of the television show, and have been used in other video games as a result. This doesn’t even take into account the hundreds of thousands of TikToks, Reels, and other UGC content types that are created using these songs to talk about games and shows.
A small PC gaming opportunity in 1997 turned The Ink Spots’ music into a regularly used soundtrack for one of the most popular game series of all time, and in 2024 it became Billboard’s most valuable for sync. It ended up being listed in the top 20 of certain shows. After that, the song evolved further. It gained more and more synchronization in various media and became a success in its own right. And most importantly, it generated fans from people who would never have otherwise been exposed to the band’s music.
Not too bad for a song released in 1941. This is an example that should be used to educate rights holders about the potential of video game synchronization licensing. Understanding the benefits will make it easier to negotiate. That’s the real solution. Don’t throw forced royalties into a black box where you’ll never see a penny.
This is especially important for songs where one or more of the original rights holders have passed away. All four original songwriters of “I Don’t Want to Set the World on Fire” have passed away, and their rights to the song are now in the hands of others. They could take advantage of this opportunity, but in cases where music rights are passed on to family members who don’t know how to manage them, or where a large portion of song publishing becomes unlicensable because owners cannot be found. There are many. . It’s my job to find them, make them realize the value of the catalog they’re in, and make sure they can make some money from their contemporaries while also honoring the legacy of their ancestors by keeping their music alive. It is our duty.
Licensees, including game studios, should empathize with artists and songwriters whose income streams have significantly diminished over time. Take a look at what Spotify is currently doing with bundles to reduce royalties for songwriters.
The solution to this problem is not to overhaul the system and create more opportunities for compulsory licensing, which would make life easier (and often cheaper) for video game companies. Licensing a song must be done jointly by the publisher and game studio. We are not curing cancer. I work in the entertainment field. We need to work together to ensure that the end product we’re creating is great for consumers and provides an experience that keeps them coming back for more. Over and over again. Music is emotional for those who create it, those who listen to it, and those who interact with it, and we all keep that in mind as we work together to bring these projects to life. There is a need.
Deborah Manis Gardner – the “Queen of Sample Clearance” by Billboard, Forbes, Midem, Music Week, Okay Player, Variety, and more – is the go-to expert on music copyright clearance worldwide. After founding DMG Clearances, Inc. in 1996, Deborah’s sample clearance skills quickly became legendary, working with artists such as Drake, Tyler, The Creator, DJ Khaled, Eminem, De La Soul, Pop Smoke, Logic, Justin Bieber, Kendrick, and more. We have cleared the releases of artists. Lamar, Lil Wayne, Frank Ocean, Jay-Z, John Legend, Megan Thee Stallion, Big Klit, Brockhampton, French Montana, Big Sean, J. Cole, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Beyonce etc. Deborah also did music clearance for video games such as Rockstar Game Series’ Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption, and Turtle Rock Studios’ Back 4 Bloods. Metaverse platforms like Meta and Roblox (including Post Malone’s live concerts). A film by Martin Scorsese, the Coen brothers, and Richard Linklater. TV series from networks such as HBO, Showtime, Netflix, and Paramount+. Google, Ciroc, Kmart advertising campaigns. There are also podcasts such as “Broken Record” by Rick Rubin and Malcolm Gladwell, and “The Midnight Miracle” by Dave Chappelle, Talib Kweli, and Yassin Bey. Additionally, Deborah provided grand rights clearance for Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Broadway sensation “Hamilton” and music clearance for release on Disney+, as well as political campaign music for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ 2020 presidential campaign. I was in charge of clearance. Deborah was the award-winning music director for HBO’s Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine documentary series The Defiant Ones, and most recently directed the Neil Bogart biopic Spinning Gold and U2 Sarajevo’s He expanded his music director credits with the documentary “Kiss the Future.” ” was produced by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. She was recently named to Forbes magazine’s “50 over 50” list and Billboard magazine’s “Women in Music” and “R&B/Hip-Hop Power Players” lists.
Alana Bonilla on 10/04/2024 in Music Business | Permalink | Comments (0)
Source link
