RTE and Irish composers / music (1 Viewer)

pete · Nov 30, 2011

from today's Irish Times letters page

Sir, – RTÉ’s Prime Timeof the November 28th on the bailout almost exclusively used incidental music composed by the Hollywood composer Hans Zimmer from his movie Inception. I know this because I own the soundtrack album and am a media composer.

It is ironic that for a programme reporting the devastation of the Irish economy our national broadcaster chooses to pay several thousand euro in royalties to a multi-millionaire composer from Hollywood for this one edition of Prime Timealone; rather than commission original music from one of the many exquisite composers in Ireland who could do with the work and who would do an outstanding job.

This is far from an isolated incident. I have totted up that RTÉ Factual has paid out several hundred thousand euro in music royalties alone in the past few years to major composers – rather than employ Irish composers.

This is disgrace, in my opinion. – Yours, etc,

KEVIN NOLAN,
Composer,
Glendoher Park,
Rathfarnham,
Dublin 16.

http://www.irishtimes.com/letters/index.html#1224308333393

rettucs · Nov 30, 2011

Kevin is a good buddy of mine. Good on ya Kev!

Diumraid · Nov 30, 2011

Positive discrimination for local art - fuck the begrudgers!

pete · Nov 30, 2011

This just in from Colm Tobin via the twitter machine:

That post is factually incorrect. RTE have a blanket licence to use commercial music pretty much for free.

From a producer's perspective, we don't pay for any music on RTE. Not sure how royalties gets filtered down through IMRO though.

If every single programme in RTE, which uses commercial music, has to pay top dollar as he says, then there'd be no money left...

To which I said

I suppose the question then is should Irish producers making public service TV, paid for by irish audience, use Irish music?

That's a fair point. It'll only ever happen if there is a financial imperative. Composers should get together and lobby them.

rettucs · Nov 30, 2011

whatever about the money side of things I'm sure all Irish composers would at least appreciate the exposure that using their music would give them.

it seems to me that the only Irish composer who ever did anything that appeared on any Irish TV show was Ronan Johnson.

GO · Nov 30, 2011

The mechanical royalties on sound recordings used on tv are substantial afaik.

therealjohnny · Nov 30, 2011

I heard that the lads from Alabama 3 are each getting something like a grand a week due to the Sopranos theme tune...I heard this from a drunk guy in a pub mind

Unknown Convict · Nov 30, 2011

scutter said:
it seems to me that the only Irish composer who ever did anything that appeared on any Irish TV show was Ronan Johnson.

tg4 recently ran a few early 80s (bob quinn) docs, at least one of which had an amazing roger doyle soundtrack. couldn't find them on the tg4 player afterwards alas.

Theseus Mock · Nov 30, 2011

At least Fade Street are flying the flag for Irish music. (although most of it is crap).

GrumpyEditor · Nov 30, 2011

If a show is on RTE, BBC or TG4 you can use pretty much any music you want and it doesn't the station extra. This is why when a band gets big you find them plastered all over shows. Remember how much Sigur Ros you used to hear on BBC sports montages a few years ago?

The reason editors don't use Irish composers is quite frankly because they don't know about them. When I cut shows for RTE and I try to get Irish music in there as much as I can but most stuff is cut on a really tight deadline so there isn't always the time to spend ages finding the right track.

Incidentally I'm cutting shows for RTE right now so if anyone wants their music considered then get in touch.

therealjohnny · Nov 30, 2011

Hey Gurmpy..how does one go about submitting music top you and other people in your profession?

GrumpyEditor · Nov 30, 2011

johnnystress said:
Hey Gurmpy..how does one go about submitting music top you and other people in your profession?

Drop me a PM here and I'll give you my email address.

The only thing is that music needs to be covered by IMRO for rights but I presume most people's would be these days.

I think there's certain labels that aren't covered - Italians Do It Better and Dischord for example.

hugh · Nov 30, 2011

I'm confused about this ..... can someone (Grumpy) tell me if I have this correct?

It doesn't cost RTE any extra to use Hans Zimmers music as opposed to Kevin Nolans because it is all covered by some blanket license, correct? So, if the editor or whoever has the time and inclination to do so they might use the Irish music instead of the easy, international option.

If they do choose to do this, then some sort of forms get filled in (like the ones radio stations do), and theoretically some amount of money of the overall slice of money that RTE pay for their music license will eventually wind it's way to the Irish composer, correct?

So, basically Nolan is right. He is saying that RTE are paying thousands for the use of "music" and why not try and make sure that a substantial chunk of that goes to Irish composers rather than Hans Zimmer. Or am I missing something?

I have another question. Isn't there some rule about duration? i.e. if a programme uses a music clip than is less than x seconds long then the above-mentioned forms don't even have to be bothered with?

therealjohnny · Nov 30, 2011

Can someone explain why Cry Before Dawn is being used in the latest Kia commercials?

Unicron · Nov 30, 2011

johnnystress said:
I heard that the lads from Alabama 3 are each getting something like a grand a week due to the Sopranos theme tune...I heard this from a drunk guy in a pub mind

I have heard that they took a single lump sum up front to licence the song in lieu of residual payments so they don't make as much as they could have.

Unicron · Nov 30, 2011

hugh said:
I'm confused about this ..... can someone (Grumpy) tell me if I have this correct?

It doesn't cost RTE any extra to use Hans Zimmers music as opposed to Kevin Nolans because it is all covered by some blanket license, correct? So, if the editor or whoever has the time and inclination to do so they might use the Irish music instead of the easy, international option.

If they do choose to do this, then some sort of forms get filled in (like the ones radio stations do), and theoretically some amount of money of the overall slice of money that RTE pay for their music license will eventually wind it's way to the Irish composer, correct?

So, basically Nolan is right. He is saying that RTE are paying thousands for the use of "music" and why not try and make sure that a substantial chunk of that goes to Irish composers rather than Hans Zimmer. Or am I missing something?

I have another question. Isn't there some rule about duration? i.e. if a programme uses a music clip than is less than x seconds long then the above-mentioned forms don't even have to be bothered with?

My reading of Tobin's comments is that it doesn't cost thousands to use Zimmer's music it costs far less than that and yes while there may be an argument for using an Irish composer's work and having the money go to someone local it would not be a windfall in the thousands that Nolan was implying.

It'd certainly be more expensive to commission a composer to come up with an original work, and record it, for a programme that is very likely to be broadcast once, and maybe again in the middle of the night later that week than to use an existing work and just pay whatever fee RTE's blanket licence says they have to.

rettucs · Nov 30, 2011

johnnystress said:
Can someone explain why Cry Before Dawn is being used in the latest Kia commercials?

I get the impression they were approached for it and are being compensated. They posted a message on their facebook page telling people to look out for it.

therealjohnny · Nov 30, 2011

thanks for that

I'm baffled as to why anyone would think their music worthy of an ad campaign right now though..due to their overall shitness

rettucs · Nov 30, 2011

johnnystress said:
thanks for that

I'm baffled as to why anyone would think their music worthy of an ad campaign right now though..due to their overall shitness

shut up, they're deadly.

therealjohnny · Nov 30, 2011

do you know them.. and are they sound?

RTE and Irish composers / music (1 Viewer)

chronic procrastinator

Well-Known Member

Active Member

chronic procrastinator

Well-Known Member

Now Is Go

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

New Member

Well-Known Member

New Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Users who are viewing this thread

21 Day Calendar

Similar threads

Support thumped.com

Support thumped.com and upgrade your account

Latest Activity

We value your privacy