Q: Who do you call to get clearance to use a song? How long does it take? What's the average cost?
Were there any songs you wanted but couldn't get? [Jim King]A: Shain Miller at a Los Angeles company called EMG has handled the music clearances on The Wire since the very beginning. Shain is the one who actually negotiates with the labels and publishers to get the contracts and licenses completed. A lot of music clearance work for film and TV is a pretty straight-forward corporate process - you contact the film licensing person at Universal, they fax you back a quote based on industry standards, and these huge corporate entities end up signing paperwork and transferring money back and forth between their bank accounts. But on The Wire it often gets more complicated. Hip-hop is notoriously difficult to license because most hip-hop tracks have several writers and producers and often side artists, and all of these people potentially need to sign off on a deal. I would say that over 50% of the major label hip-hop we try to license ends up not being used in the show. Usually it's because no one knows who owns the rights to a portion of the track or a sample, or because the multiple writers can't agree on the percentages they own, or because one of the many people involved fails to respond.
Whenever we go outside of the usual corporate arena, clearances become more unusual and challenging. For unsigned acts like the local Baltimore artists and others, Shain and I have often talked to someone's mom at home when trying to reach them, and during Season 4, on more than one occasion we had to send papers to someone who was in jail. Sometimes they might not believe that we actually work for HBO or think they are in trouble.
It can take anywhere from two days to never to clear a track. One of the longest and most complicated clearances we ever did was for "Lean Wit It, Rock Wit It" by Dem Franchize Boyz, which was used in Season 4. It took about six months, during which time, dozens of phone calls, faxes, and emails made the rounds.
I think it's in bad taste to get into specific budget figures for The Wire, but I can tell you ballpark numbers for a cable TV show in general. For all the various rights including home video and now internet, a show will pay about $1,000 for a piece of library music or a track from an unknown artist, somewhere around $10,000 - $20,000 for a track from an established indie label, and up to $50,000 or even more for a major hit from a major label. There's always a huge range of variations depending on the usage and prior relationships - a five second clip playing in the background from a car that drives by is cheaper than a two-minute usage over the main titles of a show, and when you license multiple tracks from a single source they might make deals. The music budget for a single episode of a show that uses a lot of source music might be $150,000 - $200,000.
Songs we wanted and couldn't get?
"Gotta Give The Peeps What They Need" by Public Enemy
(Chuck D didn't want his music used in a show that features drug use and drug dealing)
"Be Without You" by Mary J. Blige (The label needed her approval and she never responded)
"Business" by Eminem (He won't license his music for TV shows)
"Magic Stick" by Lil' Kim (someone didn't respond/sample couldn't be found, etc.)
"Jesus Walks" by Kanye West (don't remember why)
"Clipse of Doom" by Ghostface Killah (no response)
"Hard Knock Life" by Jay-Z (don't remember why)
"Gasolina" by Daddy Yankee (didn't respond)
"Jiggle It" by Young Leek (couldn't determine who owned the rights)
"96 Tears" by ? And the Mysterians (too expensive)
...and about a hundred more.
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