Licensing: The expensive sound of music
Music licensing is an essential element in television and film. Hernan alcerreca found that australian creatives need to plan ahead to secure that song they really want and need.
“I don’t believe in putting in music as a band-aid to get you over some rough parts or bad film making. If it’s there it’s got to add to it or take it to another level,” director Quentin Tarantino once said. Saturday Night Fever’s “Staying Alive”, Flashdance’s “What a Feeling”, The Graduate’s “Mrs. Robinson”, Titanic’s “My Heart Will Go On”, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert’s “I Will Survive”, Ghost’s “Unchained Melody”, Muriel’s Wedding’s inherent ABBA-ness or The Bodyguard’s “I Will Always Love You”, to name a few, became as indelible in pop culture as the films or shows they were included in – sometimes, even more so. 
Nonetheless, for several local film and TV projects, licensing songs is close to an afterthought while budgeting. “Unfortunately, music licensing is frequently the last thing considered when it comes to allocating resources for a new project,” says music supervisor Belinda Yates, who has spent over 30 years working in the Australian Music Industry and recently opened her own music consultancy firm, Belinda Yates & Associates. “It’s not until the people involved get to the very end of the production process and realise that a particular scene needs something extra that they think of licensing a song. By then, there’s very little left in the budget.” Gary Seeger, film and television manager at Music Mill, one of the major music supervision companies in Australia, agrees. “Budgets are tight. Many of our films are around the milliondollar mark – in the United States you spend that amount just on the script process. Normally the producer and the director are too busy with all the other bits and pieces of the production to concentrate on the music. Nonetheless, you still have your ‘Tarantinos’ out there who understand the importance of music in a film and try to get the rights for the songs early.”
THE PERILOUS ROAD TO SECURING A SONG
