How Music On TV Actually Works

wildinout8

Moderator
Good article by Pitchfork interviewing music supervisor Liza Richardson, music supervisor for The Leftovers, Friday Night Lights, Narcos.

How Music on TV Actually Works, According to ‘The Leftovers’ and ‘FNL’ Music Supervisor | Pitchfork

Excerpt:
Can you give a few examples of how much particular songs have cost for placement? That part of the process seems to vary a lot.
The prices of songs are negotiable and depend on a lot of factors: budget, length of use, distribution plan for the project (or commercial—what’s the media buy?), interest from artist, interest from rights holders. Even how much the actors got paid can affect the price of a song.
Some songs are flexibly priced and some have a lot of precedent. A typical very popular song for TV is about $30,000 to $40,000, but a lot of discovery artists may be $1,000 to $10,000. All songs are split in half, so if an original song is $10,000 total, that’s $5,000 for the writers of the song and $5,000 for the recording of it. Cover songs may not be equal on both sides. A legacy artist like the Beatles or the Rolling Stones is a lot more. Studio film prices for songs are more than TV and more than indie film. Commercial song placements are the most expensive, like a Rihanna song for a Super Bowl ad might be around $1 million, maybe.
 
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