The impact of Running Up That Hill used in Stranger Things was so great and unprecedented that even Kate Bush was taken aback, calling it “quite shocking” in a rare interview with BBC Radio 4’s Women’s Hour. The placement of the song on the wildly popular Netflix show gave Bush His first UK No. 1 in 44 years and his first US Top 10 hit, 37 years after Running Up That Hill was first released.
“We’re going to hear about it for at least the next 10 years, in terms of reference points in marketing meetings,” said Jonathan Palmer of record label and music publisher BMG, of what will surely be called the Stranger Things effect.
Palmer is BMG’s senior vice president of creative sync, the music industry terminology for someone who keeps “sync,” where a song – often a classic that is prioritized for younger generations to rediscover – is placed into TV shows, movies, commercials, video games. or movie trailers. Think about how Something in the Way of Nirvana was the cornerstone of The Batman earlier this year, or ’70s soft rock cliché dominated Guardians of the Galaxy, and thanks to Stranger Things this synchronization is becoming a bigger part of the music industry than ever.
Palmer warns that Running Up That Hill is “a bit of a unicorn — most of my colleagues will admit it’s a once-in-a-decade thing,” but Bush is no stranger. Something similar happened to Metallica’s Master of Puppets from 1986: since being used in the Stranger Things finale earlier this month, it’s currently climbing the Top 40 in the UK.
“It’s hard to predict how strong the sync will be,” says Tim Miles, SVP of sync for UK and Europe at Warner Music Group, which distributes Bush’s music (he owns the recording and publishing rights). But, he says, “we knew it was going to be used a lot [in Stranger Things] and you could tell it was going to be a big moment.”
The proliferation of streaming platforms like Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video opens up huge new opportunities for music syncing, especially for catalog titles like Running Up That Hill. They are the current priority platform for sync teams and music supervisors for two reasons: huge reach, and huge budgets.
Connie Farr is the founder of music monitoring company ThinkSync and has worked on films and shows such as Rocks, After Love, Creation Stories, and The Essex Serpent. He said that if streaming platforms got involved, music publishers and record labels would charge exponentially more fees to use songs in their catalogs.
“The likes of Amazon and Netflix are making a lot of money during the pandemic and I feel like the dynamic has changed a bit, with rights holders saying, ‘Right, you can afford a decent fee for this,’” he said. “Even if the show hasn’t been picked up by Netflix, the rights holders will still remember that.”
The power of sync is twofold: they generate fees for music use and they also provide a promotional stepping stone for music that might otherwise be overlooked. They’ve been used for decades – remember John Cusack holding the boombox playing Peter Gabriel’s In Your Eyes on Say Anything? – but the difference today is that because of streaming, live TV shows are global, not regional. “It’s been unprecedented,” says Miles, “and that’s why we have such a great effect with music when used well.”
Record company marketing activities can be planned and coordinated around major syncs, as streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music are lobbied to support it. The new wildcard is TikTok: clips from events can be decontextualized and cut into various memes that might go viral, providing a powerful acceleration. This is something no record company can anticipate or manipulate.
“The sync of TV and film is still driving culture, but now people have the ability to take that culture and go elsewhere with it,” explains Tom Gallacher, senior director of digital and marketing at Rhino UK, part of WMG. “If you look at TikTok, the hashtag #runningupthathill has gotten almost a billion views and there have been over two million voice creations.”
A certain era of music is currently hot on TV shows, and Stranger Things, set in the 1980s, is both a cause and a symptom. “A lot of the scripts I get now look for music from the 1980s, which reflects the age of the director,” says Farr, noting that when music is in vogue, synchronization costs increase. “I knew it would be very expensive to clean.”
This trend is also partly reflected in the catalogs of songs purchased by companies such as Hipgnosis, BMG, Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, WMG and Primary Wave. Artists such as Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and various members of Fleetwood Mac have sold the rights to their songs to these companies for large sums of cash in recent years, allowing the company to generate future revenue from them – and sync is a source of income. main income. These companies would aggressively launch the music they had acquired, heavily skewed to the 1960s to 1980s, for the greatest and fastest return on investment.
These companies highlight the success of their sync departments when purchasing catalogs, as evidence that they can proactively land syncs (the so-called procurement synchronizations) rather than just approving sync requests when they fall on their lap (unheld syncs).
They also had to be careful not to reduce the one-act catalog to one or two songs. Therefore, the sync team is actively working on obscure music one level down, which Palmer calls “second-level copyright” in the catalog. Farr says he sometimes gets requests for certain tracks but then might offer alternatives the show’s creators never thought of: for example, suggesting Little Simz’ Picture Perfect for Sarah Gavron drama Rocks instead of the much more expensive and clearer God’s Plan. by Duck. “They will often go with hidden gems because it’s unique,” he said. “I always try to find that catalog, it’s not that big of a catalog.”
Sometimes music companies voluntarily license these lesser-known songs, perhaps at a lower rate, because they see a wider promotional opportunity that far outweighs the cost of a one-time sync. “I definitely found it with a big label,” Farr said. “If you show an interest in something that is lesser known, they will really cooperate to make it happen because it really helps them.”
Streaming TV allows catalog tracks to find their way to younger audiences in ways that were unimaginable even a decade ago. “Summer used to be about going to the movies and talking about the big movies that have come out, but streaming has changed that dynamic,” argues Miles. “Now we are talking about a big TV show. I find it much more natural for a younger audience to hear a song on a TV show because it’s culturally relevant to them.”
An added bonus today is that unexpectedly successful syncs can be monetized instantly via music streaming services, avoiding historical lags in product delivery to record stores. This means that while TV streaming is now a huge catalyst for catalog success, it’s not the only one. Tracks will be constantly added to playlists focused on the era and genre of the music streaming service while trends on TikTok are closely monitored so that when an old track suddenly takes off, it can be leveraged – the most obvious example being Dreams by Fleetwood Mac, which go viral in 2020.
The three advantages of syncing TV revolving to music streaming services and TikTok are that they cannot be controlled, only capitalized. For all the best plans from the synchronization department, it’s often less about strategy and more about chance. “I’ve been doing this for long enough,” Palmer said, “that I resign myself to not fully understanding where alchemy is, how it works and how it actually connects on a larger level.”
Who is Nico di Angelo girlfriend?
Does Nico have a crush on Will Solace? At some point during the following months, Nico finally came out and confessed to Will Solace about his strong crush on the latter, and the two started dating.
Who does Nico di Angelo have a crush on?
In the fifth book, Nico tells his father, Hades, that he holds a grudge that could eventually kill the Olympians and the campers. In The House of Hades, Nico is forced by Cupid to reveal that he has a crush on Percy Jackson. This shows that he is homosexual.
Who does Nico di Angelo date?
Nico di Angelo. Nico di Angelo is the son of Maria di Angelo and the Greek god Hades, the younger brother of Bianca, half-brother of Hazel Levesque, Will Solace’s current girlfriend. Read also : Summer Music Series at Bushwick Inlet Park is Back for the Second Year. He is one of the main characters in Percy Jackson & the Olympians and The Heroes Of Olympus.
Does Nico have a love interest?
Unlike Nami, there is no clear love interest. To see also : New rock music as a strange musical niche. In particular, his possible love interests include the likes of Luffy and Sanji.
Is Rick Riordan done with the Percy Jackson series?
Fans of the Camp Half-Blood Chronicles series must say goodbye to Percy Jackson in 2020 when writer Rick Riordan writes the final book in the series, The Trials of Apollo: The Tower of Nero. To see also : For the Kiev techno collective, “now it’s all about politics”.
Is Percy Jackson going to be an animated series? Percy Jackson: The Animated Series is an American animated action-adventure fantasy TV series. It first premiered on April 19, 2016 and is based on Percy Jackson’s books by Rick Riordan, as well as from his other works such as Kane Chronicles.
Is the Percy Jackson series complete?
‘ Percy Jackson: The Complete Series includes all five novels in Rick Riordan’s thrilling and action-packed series: The Lightning Thief, The Sea of Monsters, The Titan’s Curse, The Battle of the Labyrinth, and The Last Olympian. Now I spend my time fighting monsters and usually try to stay alive.
Will there be a Part 3 of Percy Jackson?
The movie ‘Percy Jackson 3’ didn’t happen, and writer Rick Riordan couldn’t be happier. A Percy Jackson 3 film following the events of the book The Titan’s Curse is not in development and never will be. However, Disney rebooted the entire series with writer Rick Riordan.
Do you have to read The Kane Chronicles before the trials of Apollo?
You need to read the Percy Jackson series and the Heroes of Olympus series before reading The Hidden Oracle. However, you don’t need to read the Kane Chronicles.
Should I read the Kane Chronicles or the Apollo trials first? Kane Chronicles is the first Chronology, but you can read MCGA first or TKC first. Just fine. Just make sure you’ve completed the Trials of Apollo so you can read Magnus Chase. I personally have read TKC first.
Can I read trials of Apollo without reading Heroes of Olympus?
No, no, you can’t read it straight after Percy Jackson and the Olympians. The events of The Trials of Apollo began right after the events of The Heroes of Olympus. It focuses on characters you won’t know, and you’ll lack some important knowledge of what’s going on.
What should I read before the trials of Apollo?
These are in chronological order as I can tell: Experiment: The Hidden Oracle. Magnus: Summer Sword. Magnus: The Hammer of Thor…. The order in which they should be read first
- Lighting Thief.
- Sea of Monsters.
- Titan’s Curse.
- Labyrinth Battle.
- The Last Olympics.
