From Noah Kalina:
“A few months back a producer from the Simpsons contacted Carly about using her song ‘everyday’ for an upcoming episode in which they were going to parody my video. She was negotiating a rate for the song, until they never got back to her. No fee was agreed on, no contracts signed. She and I both assumed that they were no longer interested in using her song for the show. Last night the episode aired and sure enough her song is part of the show.
What’s up with that?!
I am thrilled that the Simpsons parodied me, but Carly should have been compensated.”
bk’s note:
Look, I don’t mind if the media industry gets a bad wrap because of the bahavior/leadership of the dinosaurs atop the corporate heirarchy; however, FIFTEEN Tumblr users reblogged this post and many cried foul at Fox. Let’s all take a moment to be educated:
From: My Buddy Who Does Synchronication Licensing for SonyATV
Sent: Monday, December 17, 2007 10:49 AM
To: bk
Subject: Re: Simpsons
20th Century Fox handles the production on “The Simpsons,” and they don’t just use songs w/o permission…They usually get quotes for several different uses (i.e., if they’re going to use it on TV only, or in “all media,” for a limited time or in perpetuity). They’ve got a finance guy tracking production and then, once the show airs and they know the song has made the final edit (and that the broadcast didn’t get interrupted for some national emergency), he (in Fox’s case, a guy named [redacted]) will send out letters to all the publishers/labels with songs in the show letting them know that the song did air and telling them which of the quotes Fox is accepting (the letter almost always comes with a check and a cue sheet).
My guess is that since the song is an integral part of the scene and likely couldn’t be swapped out for something cheaper prior to the show going to DVD (like they could with some random background music), they’ll take the “all media-worldwide-perp” quote and send her a check in the next couple of months.
[redacted] would be the guy to talk to…
