Remember trying to get a client's jingle cleared for a national radio spot?

Back in 2012, we had a spot ready for a big auto dealer in Cleveland, but the rights for the 8-second music clip were a total mess. It took nearly six weeks of calls with three different publishers to finally get the green light. The whole process felt like it belonged to a different era. Anyone else have a rights clearance story that ate up way more time than the creative work itself?

2 comments

2 Comments

grantp282d ago

Tell me about it. We once spent two whole months trying to clear a ten second clip of a bird sound effect for a nature doc. The sound library swore it was original, but then some guy in Sweden claimed he recorded it first. The legal back and forth cost more than the footage. It makes you want to just hum the tune yourself.

uma_martinez2d ago

Heard similar stuff from a buddy in indie film. @grantp28 That Swedish guy thing is wild, but not even the worst. My buddy had to scrap a whole scene because a song playing faintly in a cafe was copyrighted. Couldn't afford the fee. Ended up dubbing in some generic jazz he made on his computer.