Music Interpolation is an interesting concept that has seen a new wave in the African music industry as it is great to see old elements being reused to retain existing sonic identities. The Zinolesky interpolation of Asa “My Man” for his new release “Loving You”, Burna Boy Interpolation of Toni Braxton Hit “He wasn’t Man Enough” for his new release “Last Last” and Asake creative interpolation of “Got to get it” by Sisqo in his new release “Palazzo”. Interestingly, the three tracks were released the same day but that is just an aspect of interpolation, another aspect of interpolation can be see in Cover recordings. Interpolation in the form of covers is remarkable and we have also seen amazing case studies get awesome recognition and volume. In this article, I will be explaining the impacts of licensed covers in a sync project.
In the last edition of this article we covered interesting trends on the euphoria tv series that drove streaming numbers and promised to “cover” the power of “covers” in Sync licensing using Bridgerton as a case study as well as the intricacies in a cover licensing process. The beauty of cover music is the ability to personalise music for the exact visuals, personalization is not something new to the use of music as we have heard of music being made slower or faster on Tiktok to capture moments as well as music being played at the club at a faster tempo to match the ongoing high energy in the club or at parties.
The historical-romance streaming television series Bridgerton deployed the use of new covers of pop songs as a perfect soundtrack to the series. The string quartet version of these pop songs were so remarkable and remain a beautiful complement to exciting moments in the series with amazing renditions like “Wrecking Ball” by Miley Cyrus to “Sign of the Times” by Harry Styles etc. Three interesting trends from the Licensing of Covers for Bridgerton include
- Music Covers jogs the memory of the original song:
The Audience gets to experience music in a new way remains an exciting trend in the business of Music Licensing. Music Licensing is great when the music connects with the audience. Recently we talked about sync making old catalogue new again but this time around it’s not just making it new but new and fit to be in sync with the visuals. The classical covers deployed for the series were without lyrics giving the audience room to interpret what the song means to that scene when they recall the lyrics.
This is an interesting licensing trend as you feel the same way you will feel listening to the original song in a well performed cover. Covers were deployed at various intervals from the choreography at the ballroom scene, to scenes where characters emotions is being expressed, Sex Scene and particularly the scenes involving the main characters numerous dates in the quest to find a wife which is “synced” with the cover of the fast tempo song “Stay Away” by Nirvana which is a perfect high musical energy song to fit visual energy communicating the main character urgency to find a wife.
2. Music Covers create a great balance to different eras and setting of the Film:
The time period location of a story is capable of impacting the style of music desired for a scene. The Bridgerton series is set in the early 1800s with a certain music style and heritage prevalent in that era, hence the deployment of Classical Chamber Music covers to reinforce the setting of the film. In music licensing, clearing older catalogs can be extremely uneasy to clear particularly when it involves legacy artistes and estates. It may involve a clearance specialist/music supervisor tracking obituaries to find the heirs of the estate, estate approval, deep conviction to the administrators on the significance of the music to the film and other issues that may arise.
An interesting trend deployed by the Music team is the use of covers to retain the music style of the setting of the story but also introduce modern pop songs to fit in the audience watching the series. Hence the license of covers of songs like Rihanna “Diamonds”, Taylor Swift “Wildest Dreams,”Ariana Grade “thank u next”, Billie Eilish “bad guy” etc
3. Another Spike in Streaming Numbers:
The TV series has inspired a lot from people searching the internet for Fashion items peculiar to the time period of the TV series to increase in streams of classical cover versions of contemporary top songs. Covers used in the show were not created for the show as they have always existed but we can see the show being instrumental to the discovery and spike to the streaming numbers of the covers as well as streaming to the original song as well.
Vitamin String Quartet, who has helped establish classical crossover as a force in contemporary music have had a significant increase in the number of people streaming their work since the first season of bridgerton was released. After the first season the group had a 350% increase in streams across streaming music services as well as a 50% increase of monthly listeners on spotify and Amazon music as reported on Variety. Also noteworthy is the six-song soundtrack EP released which is still on iTunes Top 100 Soundtracks after being on the top for a while.
This article won’t be complete without emphasis laid on the challenges of clearing covers. As mentioned earlier clearing older catalogs can be extremely uneasy to clear particularly when it involves legacy artistes and estates and it’s worse where there are no paper works to track ownership and right holders. For new catalogs, clearing may also be difficult in a situation where the distribution right has been assigned exclusively and the mechanical rights as well is exclusive to the label and master owner.
On the face of it, Covers should be cheaper to License but this is impossible as clearance has to be both ways, Master and Publishing, It may not be exciting to pay a little fee for the masters and high fee for the publishing so both sides of the coin are usually “not” negotiated on an MFN basis hence, the publishing fee can be times two of the quote for the masters.
Well, despite the challenges, covers are also exploited in other forms like On-Camera music performances and this was used in the party scene of the Nigerian Netflix series released this month titled “Blood Sisters”.
