mad men

Mad Men Music-Licensing Team Basically As Conniving As Don Draper

Our favorite droid-referencing turntablist RJD2 tells Spinner about having his track, “A Beautiful Mine,” used as Mad Men’s opening theme: “It was really peculiar because usually when you [license music], they just license both the master recording and the publishing. This time they wanted to buy the publishing. It was kinda weird.” He turned them down repeatedly, because “that’s not the kind of thing I normally do,” before ultimately giving in and selling away the rights to the song, probably meaning that instead of paying a per-use fee they gave him one lump payment. Now he sees Mad Men’s entire clever plan: “They knew they had a great show on their hands, and for whatever reason, a license just wasn’t sufficient … It was almost as if they knew the show was not only gonna go through numerous seasons, but be very successful.” Diabolical. [Spinner]

Mad Men Music-Licensing Team Basically As Conniving As Don Draper