Soundtrack Issues

March 20, 2005 1:10 PM

After recently having seen The Life Aquatic, I noticed that the soundtrack missed a song from one of the key scenes in the movie. This is not the first time I have come across this phenomenon and I wondered if anyone knew whether it was a legal issue with copyright or something as mundane as CD capacity. After all, if an artist/label allows their song to feature in a movie, why not on the soundtrack too?
posted by ulanbator3 to media & arts (13 comments total)

because the contracts are different? ie you can license a song only for the movie but you want to keep the rights for cd publication etc for yourself?
funny things happen with movies and soundtracks -- see the Ghost Dog strck -- all the good RZA stuff is in the Japan-only cd (white/red cover), the worldwide release (blue cover) sucks ass
posted by matteo at 1:14 PM on March 20, 2005

It's not uncommon for a soundtrack album to be missing huge chunks of the music which appeared in the film; in many cases I think it has to do with executives making decisions about which subset of the film's music will sell the best.

This problem is horrendous for people (like myself) who enjoy film scores, because it's almost impossible to get the full score for a movie on CD these days unless you're a member of the Academy who gets sent one for voting purposes...
posted by ubernostrum at 1:55 PM on March 20, 2005

It's most definitely not CD capacity. Licensing a song for a soundtrack is separate from licensing a song for a film. You have to obtain rights from the publisher as well as the record company that owns the master recordings. Sometimes the publisher will grant rights and a label will not (and vice versa). The decision can be based on quite a bit. It could be as simple as the license being too expensive for a music budget on a film or a record company saying that you can't have the song unless you release the album on their label. There are often times political reasons as well. There's no easy answer, really.

Most of the time scores are not released simply because they don't sell. Your best bet for getting a score to a film is to contact the composer's agent or manager and pose as a music supervisor or coordinator. It probably won't work all the time, but you may get lucky.
posted by whatevrnvrmind at 2:12 PM on March 20, 2005

I meant to link to this article in my reponse, but forgot. It's a simple explanation of master vs. sync.
posted by whatevrnvrmind at 2:16 PM on March 20, 2005

all the good RZA stuff is in the Japan-only cd I've seen that quite often. Seems like a good idea to always try for the Japanese version of an album. Maybe some quirk in international copyright law causes this? Maybe the Japanese just demand more? Maybe we only THINK we got the better end of WWII, and the treaty secretly included them getting CD bonus tracks forever?

I'm big in Japan, oh yeah I'm big in Japan...
posted by NickDouglas at 4:16 PM on March 20, 2005

Usually I get the scores from DVD now. Occasionally you'll have to remove the speech and it doesn't sound too good, but it'll mostly work.

(The Japanese got a Harold and Maude soundtrack. I want a Harold and Maude soundtrack. Why don't I get a Harold and Maude soundtrack?)
posted by holloway at 5:20 PM on March 20, 2005

Just curious: what was the key scene, and the song? I bought the soundtrack a couple of months after seeing the movie.

Sadly, the soundtrack also leaves out the other six Seu Jorge pieces. Villains!
posted by DrJohnEvans at 5:49 PM on March 20, 2005

I just saw the movie last night, and I'm guessing the original poster is referring to the scene in the submarine near the end when they're playing Sigur Ros's "Staralfur" all the way through.
posted by matildaben at 7:41 PM on March 20, 2005

I believe that this decision was made to increase piracy and, thus, to make the record companies prophecy self-fulfilling.
posted by crazy finger at 7:53 PM on March 20, 2005

I remember running into this with a song from the soundtrack of a film of similar lineage, Rushmore. It had one version of a The Who song on the DVD and another on the CD. I believe that was due to licensing costs. Still frustrates me.
posted by jbrjake at 8:31 PM on March 20, 2005

Yeah, I'd imagine he's referring to the Sigur Ros song.

Is there life on Maaaaaaars...

~Steve
posted by ludwig_van at 11:21 PM on March 20, 2005

I remember running into this with a song from the soundtrack of a film of similar lineage, Rushmore. It had one version of a The Who song on the DVD and another on the CD. I believe that was due to licensing costs.

I think for the Who song, it was just an edited version of "A Quick One While He's Away" that's in the movie, which I think appears full-length (with lengthy non-you-are-forgiven parts in it) on the soundtrack. That soundtrack is, however, totally lacking "I Am Waiting" by the Rolling Stones, who are absolute bastards when it comes to licensing their work (just ask the Verve). You can find that song on Aftermath; it might be the missing song you're looking for. The Royal Tenenbaums soundtrack is probably also missing the two Rolling Stone songs from Between the Buttons that are featured in the movie as well.
posted by LionIndex at 10:44 AM on March 21, 2005

I've seen that quite often. Seems like a good idea to always try for the Japanese version of an album. Maybe some quirk in international copyright law causes this? Maybe the Japanese just demand more?

Can't remember where I read it, or how close to the truth it is, but it seems reasonable enough: Japanese releases of CDs contain lots of bonus tracks as an incentive for Japanese customers to stray from the US release, as they apparently sell more than their domestic versions.
posted by jimmy at 9:05 AM on March 26, 2005