Questo of The Roots
On Sunday 24th January 2010, @questlove said:
all who want an explanation of the world of walk on music enter this post.
ok. this is the definitive answer on the world of walkons and publishing for tv. most of yall seem confused about the whole conan/500k walkon song.
(this is what happens when 10 people plan on snowmobiling and all but 1 cancels when the sunday of clarity kicks in....i supertweet)
every public song you hear on the radio. tv. and yes even nightclubs are paid for (when a business opens you have to be very specific in the role that music plays in that establishment: will you have a jukebox in your diner? you pay a fee for public music. will you have "elevator music" in your supermarket? you pay a fee for public music. will you allow dancing in your establishment? if the answer is "yes" then you will pay an even HIGHER fee.
back in the day ---let's say 85, 86....publishing cats would come to the club and literally take a log of the songs played by the dj. now i believe you just pay a flat fee. some college radio stations STILL do that. and gone are the days in which an A list dj at a major radio station plays the music they want to play (top of the week a computer log is loaded and every SECOND of the following week is planned from commercials to the amount of time we will spread out the 145 "single ladies" for the next 7 days.
this is why the industry is up in arms over the internet. cause for the first time ever HERE is a medium in which the RIAA cant get a cut of the pie when it comes to songs played/shared/stolen etc. so all the cry over "the music industry is done" is based on the internet being a sort of crazy riot scene going down in the world's largest wrecka stow (prince heads know what's up) and the cops cant control the rioting.
all of this needed to be explained so that you know how taxing the industry is when it comes to music in a public forum. if its performed in public then it (should be?) paid for. so that said, let's go over to the walk on songs.
now for those who live on mars and say that they are roots fans (and ive been on many a message board where a "how come i aint know the roots were a band on jimmy kimmel's show?") imma TRY and explain the science of a walkon song.
for a quick Roots walkon history click here http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/30970253/uestloves_late_night_with_jimmy_fallon_countdown/4
late night with david letterman's own paul schaffer invented the walk on song.
previously when 60's carson introduced a guest it was to applause.
then in the 70s generic big band music became the standard.
paul schaffer came up with the idea of customizing songs for walkon guests:
tom cruise would get "cruisin" by smokey robinson
or maybe ted danson would get "the theme to cheers" when he walked out.
because its only played for about 10 seconds the "walk on" song rate is cheaper than the rate of a song played when its time to go to commercial.
when it was first announced we were taking over for late night i too thought "oh cool! so when we go to commercial we can play all the jams we know like "jungle boogie" and "sex machine"" and when nbc was like "nope we want all originals" i thought of it as a nightmare scenario cause now i gotta come up with "how many songs in 3 weeks???!"
---lemme also say i underestimated the power of practice--something the roots NEVER did--and now i can proudly say that this was the best move for us as a group: 1. its more money 2. we've never been more focused in our songwriting until now and that will DEEPLY effect our next album....which is a GREAT thing.
---anywho.
in order to cut down costs in these frugal times the deal between publishing companies (the people who allow you to use the song you want to use) and the people that use the music for commercials spots, radio, movies has changed. of course with a ratings winner like letterman and leno things like shelling out 5 figures to play a song by Eric Clapton is nothing but a thang. but until the day we post ratings so strong that our advertisers pay more loot and then we have a bigger budget, then we kinda have to be the freshman in class and wait our turn.
it also helps to know a friend or two.
back when i was the music guy at the chapelle show, outkast's publisher might tell us they want $150,000 for "the way you move" in that puffy/real world/fonzworth bentley/cambodian breast milk sketch....BUT if you just ring up Big Boi and explain to him the nature of the sketch and how we just want 6 secs of it next thing you know Big Boi says "ill tell my lawyers to request the standard basic rate....if yall write me into a sketch"
deal done. we get our outkast song for 10 secs, dave and neal write big boi in that "nick cannon is hiwwalrious" sketch and the rest is comedy history.
--ive had to make ALOT of phone calls of that nature (hey ahmir do you know blah blah? can you do me a favor and make a call?) for projects im not even involved in. but of course the "see what happens when lawyers run the industry?" blog is a WHOLE nother lesson. (just found out bruuuuuuce cut max a break on conan by charging basic rates instead of his normal $tandard.
i dunno why the whole tom hanks "lovely rita" walkon $ong is such a big deal but then again i also understood that most people understood the holy grail that is the Beatles and their music---and in light of the fact that its owner mr michael jackson's passing has definitely played a roll in what the rates are nowaday$ is a major factor. (back in 2004 the roots utilized the jackson owned "everybody is a star" by sly and the family stone and it was a surprisingly easy business deal not uber cheap but hardly the rate i thought it would be, which THEN led me to believe that all the songs in the ATV publishing cannon that he owns with sony was having some sort of fire sale in order to generate some much needed loot.---but since he died ALL of the publishing jackson owns: beatles, sly, elvis...and a gazillion others has tripled in value.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Sony/ATV_Music_Publishing_artists
so its not like there was a "restricted" list im stuck with at late night with jimmy fallon....
but there is a midas "im not going to pay alot for this muffler" thing going on and the songs i have access to play are the publishers that agree to the basic rate.
sometimes its bitten me in the ass.
one day i gave my last minute clearance list in before a show only to be told mid show i couldn't use "cry me a river" for joan rivers because justin timberlake charged an enormous rate. i "think" he is the only non dead/non rock and roll hall of famer to charge this strange rate....which kills me because the second we get any Richard on the show i wont even be allowed to do "Dick In A Box"---unless we pay the rate.
some artists are just dicks and are like "NO!"
THE MOST HILLLLLARIOUS of them all (and yeah ill mention the rate cause that is ridiculous) has to be chuck berry who i believe has the highest rate charge for "johnny b good" in which i think in between chokes and laughter i was told he wanted $1.75 million.
good luck with that one charles.
this is by no means the law in how the music publishing world works but this should at least give you a clue as to what it entails.
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