‘The Biggest TV Talk I’ve Ever Seen’: Behind Kate Bush’s ‘Stranger Things’ Sync Deal

Kate Bush’s 1985 single “Running Up That Hill” took on a “whole new life” with her starring role in the pivotal scene of Netflix’s fourth season. Weird stuffThe music star announced in June. The song soon topped the charts in many countries, breaking records in the process.

The integration’s success has drawn attention to distribution (or synchronization) deals that incorporate music into TV series, movies, video games or other content and are fueled, among other things, by the growth of streaming services. . (In 2021, sync royalties for licensing music in media, including TV shows and movies, totaled $302.9 million, up 14% from $265.2 million a year earlier.)

“TV in general has exploded in the last three or four years with Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney and everyone else trying to break into that space,” Tim Miles, Senior Vice President Sync, UK and Europe, Warner en Music Group. tell him the hollywood reporter. “But we’ve never seen anything like this in terms of getting a #1 record,” adds Tom Gallacher, senior director of marketing and digital at Rhino, the catalog division of Warner Music. Warner Music and Rhino distribute music from Bush’s Noble and Brite label.

There was a lot of hard work behind the success, as sync deals traditionally don’t happen overnight. “It’s not like an ad where we’re very quick to ask, ‘Can we use this song?’ and we have to find out if we can and if they can afford it,” explains Miles. “Television has very long deadlines. And because the music was so crucial to the scene, they needed to know if the music could be used. And it took about two years to really figure out with Kate and her team what that would be. It is likely The longest televised negotiation I’ve ever seen, because they had to get it right. Music is obviously very powerful. They must have had some backups, but I’m sure this one was their absolute favorite.

As is often the case when older songs go viral these days, interest in “Running Up That Hill” has led consumers to seek out additional music from the artist. “There was a huge boost across the entire catalogue,” including “Babooshka” and “Wuthering Heights.” “People went to explore the rest, which is great,” says Gallacher. “And we work with DSP [Digital Service Providers], like Amazon, Apple, and Spotify, encourage their editorial teams to distribute curated playlists that include Keith’s incredibly extensive catalogue. Kate is always very careful with what she does and takes time with her catalog and wants to make sure it shows up right away.

Other artists are also hesitant about whether or not to allow their music to be integrated into television, movies, video games, etc. So what do music execs tell them to get a sync deal? “When we talked to some of our artists who may have recently released music, we talked about the power of using their music on television,” says Miles. “We’re making it clear that it’s not just about your music being used in an amazing TV show, which is an amazing thing in itself. But if it’s used a lot, maybe 10,000 people can make their own playlist with your music. And then they can share that playlist on their Facebook or Instagram. And suddenly there are all these almost fan-centric soundtracks.”

Warner Music executives note that they have already had a successful integration in season three. Weird stuff, which used “Never Ending Story” by Limal, which is distributed by Warner Music. “We all saw it and thought, oh my God, if ‘Running Up That Hill’ was used in a similar way, we’d be in luck,” Miles recalls.

He sees the rise of global streamers and other digital platforms as opening up all kinds of new opportunities for music and artists. “We’ve seen this increase in interest in music,” he says. “If you go back 10 or 15 years, in the UK we just had the BBC and ITV and the dramas they were doing didn’t use music the way we see music being used now. So it was really fascinating to see that acceleration. ”

Don’t overlook movies as a huge potential generator of interest in catalog music, executives said. For example, “Immigrant Song” by Led Zeppelin, distributed by Warner Music, was featured Thor: Ragnarok And its teaser trailer has generated interest across all platforms. “It was a great way to not only introduce him to a new audience, but also change the group’s perception of how these things can be used,” says Gallacher.

Sometimes songs are suddenly sought after, even when they appear in movies that are not new. “Sometimes they’re in a movie that came out 10 years ago but just got added to Netflix,” explains the exec.

TikTok and other digital players also enrich the music catalog. “We saw something else [successes]Non-film related, e.g. TikTok like Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Dreams’ which returned in 2020 advertising panel Thanks to a viral video on the charts, says Gallacher. “There are all these old tracks that are being released in different ways now and they might find a new audience that treats them the same way as a song that came out last week.

In general, the music world is different than it was a few years ago. “We live in a world where it’s normal to listen to a playlist at home or in the car that has a lot of music from different eras,” says Miles. “I have two kids. It’s very normal to listen to music from the 70s, 80s, 90s on a Sunday morning. And I’m not sure it was like that 15 years ago because you had to install a CD. And television obviously plays a crucial role. now, because the normality of music over the ages means that when a song is used, it’s not necessarily old or new. It just feels new. And I think that’s the point. Television has a great opportunity to bring songs to life and show it’s not about age, it’s about how fresh it is. As for Kate Bush, this song could have been written this year. It’s so new.”

So how does the time business model work? “First of all, we obviously get paid when music is used. Just like a director gets paid, a makeup artist gets paid, we have to pay, but it’s a very fair deal,” says Miles without revealing details. in the movie’s budget. So you can be a big artist using a small movie and the movie company won’t have to pay a lot for it. Obviously, if this movie is very successful, we often don’t get additional income. However, if is very successful and the song is used, of course there will be flows and interest in the artist. But still, if it’s a big, big production, we’ll get a fair fee for it.”

Miles says the team at Warner Music uses a system he developed called Color Cues to match colors that represent different moods for pieces of music. “We’re always looking for ways to speak the creators’ language,” he explains. “So what we did was make, I think, 50 different colored cards. So green, for example, means natural, beginning, unity, construction. We look at scientific research in music and colors.”

Not all songs are classified in the Color Cues system yet, but “Wuthering Heights”, for example, is white here, which means dreams. “Running Up That Hill,” which has yet to be released on Color Cues, will range between green (construction), black (control) and orange (invention), while the fact that it encompasses so much is testament to its breadth. About the music, says Miles.

“As a team, we are inherently visual in the way we approach music because we work with creators who create visual content,” explains an executive at Warner Music. “So we do a lot of preemptive work to classify our music based on how it sounds. It may seem silly, but color plays an important role in initiatives like this. It helps a lot when we talk to directors and creators when they are looking for the right song and starting with the visuals.”