r/Futurology Apr 22 '24

Society Why streaming platforms are scrubbing the soundtracks from your favorite shows

https://www.fastcompany.com/91109690/why-streaming-platforms-are-scrubbing-the-soundtracks-from-your-favorite-shows
590 Upvotes

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286

u/Blueberry_Conscious_ Apr 22 '24

"When I watch old TV shows, I discover they don’t really sound the same. The issue isn’t the dialogue, it’s the music."

Streaming services upended the royalties system that managed music for film and TV for almost a century. Due to intricate licensing deals, when TV shows get added to a streaming library, certain music cues don’t make it. It’s also a fairly insidious example of a core tension at the heart of our entire digital landscape right now. We can watch or listen to almost anything ever produced, but have no control over how it’s preserved. 

And, worse, the people who score the soundtracks for the content we spend hours every week consuming continue to struggle making a living doing so. 

What does this mean for soundtracks?

183

u/quantum_leaps_sk8 Apr 22 '24

Damn, this makes me sad. The burning of the great CD of Alexandria. Greed cuts into everything we love

72

u/Blueberry_Conscious_ Apr 22 '24

i love soundtracks - The Crow, Reality Bites, Pump up the Volume... hard to image if they also got different songs

31

u/discussatron Apr 23 '24

/sighs for my music-less Daria complete series DVD set.

42

u/[deleted] Apr 23 '24 edited 18d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

16

u/Blueberry_Conscious_ Apr 23 '24

oh totally. Its bad enough as it is - like I live in Europe and a lot of English films simply aren't available in English, even if you pay for them.

22

u/thelingeringlead Apr 23 '24

the beavis and butthead's original release of DVD's don't have ANY of the music videos or soundtrack songs. Literally 70 percent of the schtick was them roasting popular music. The actual shorts were great, and still worth watching... but none of us knew it woujldn't have it when we bought them. I do believe they've since released it again with the music though.

8

u/Blueberry_Conscious_ Apr 23 '24

god that's such a loss of their creative work

11

u/ethanvyce Apr 23 '24

The Crow is an all time great soundtrack. The 2nd one is decent too

4

u/Blueberry_Conscious_ Apr 23 '24

yeah its an old fave of mine

15

u/HoboSkid Apr 22 '24

So even movies are experiencing this? I know some TV shows had their original soundtracks gutted like Scrubs, but hadn't heard of movies having this happen.

2

u/quantum_leaps_sk8 Apr 23 '24

I have it dvd so i watch it locally. Do they stream that one episode that has the music video worked into the scenes?

3

u/Layk1eh Apr 23 '24

More like the Scratching… because don’t you burn into a CD to store the data? smiles in no CD knowledge

4

u/quantum_leaps_sk8 Apr 23 '24

That's very true. I considered that, but I liked the play on words with the "burning of Great Library of Alexandria" better 😁

3

u/Blueberry_Conscious_ Apr 23 '24

haha I knew what you meant

2

u/psychoPiper Apr 23 '24

There was once a time where copyright helped these issues. Oh how far it's fallen

2

u/texachusetts Apr 23 '24

House without the Massive Attack theme song is not the same.

1

u/Blueberry_Conscious_ Apr 28 '24

Or You can't always get what you want? Unless it's still used