Have you ever wondered what’s involved in licensing a popular band’s music? A few years ago I was curious and wanted to see about using a rock band’s song (signed to a major record label, Sony’s Epic music) for a marketing project. There are some bands who get the internet, and some who don’t, and this band (one of my favorites) is probably somewhere in between.
First, I had to spend quite a bit of time googling and navigating around their record label’s website. Finally, I found an obscure reference to call a certain phone number. I called it, and had to navigate through a maze of IVR options, pressing several numbers to wade through several different menu levels. Finally, I got dumped out to an answering service that played a message instructing you to write a physical letter describing the band, song, use you had in mind, and several other criteria. The message helpfully repeated itself, then hung up.
I remember being shocked at how arcane the entire thing was, despite the well documented track record of major media labels and distributors to make things as difficult as possible for consumers. Needless to say we never sent in the physical letter, and I never actually found out what it would cost.
I like to remember this experience when thinking about the barriers our customers have when attempting to give us money.
PEEBS.ORG 