Why music credits in movies, but not TV shows?

August 26, 2021 6:22 PM

This AskMe reminded me of a long held question, most likely related: Why is it that when you watch a movie’s credits, you see information for every song used in the movie—songwriter, performer, publisher—but when you watch a TV show’s credits, they don’t even list the names of the songs?
posted by ejs to Media & Arts (4 answers total)

But they do? Maybe you'd better provide some examples, because if you look up "$show_name outro" in my experience you'll generally see some degree of information about the music used in the show.
posted by aspersioncast at 6:59 PM on August 26, 2021

Answers in this 2019 Ask on the subject.
You might like the TuneFind site.
posted by Iris Gambol at 7:11 PM on August 26, 2021 [1 favorite]

Many shows, especially broadcast don't have any, or very minimal credits, because to show them it would take time away from the content of the show, or more cynically could be sold for more advertising time.

On more premium services where scheduling is more flexible and there aren't advertisements you will see more credits.

Movies nobody* stays to watch the credits, so they can be 10 minutes long (*unless after the credits scenes). And everyone and their cousins are listed in the credits.
posted by TheAdamist at 4:39 AM on August 27, 2021

Contacts for use of any 3rd party materials, like archival footage, music, logos, in TV broadcasts usually include a sentence stating that credits will be at the broadcasters’ discretion, time and space permitting, etc..
posted by Ideefixe at 8:05 AM on August 27, 2021