
Something happened to Ghost in the Shell soundtrack; 100s of fans want answers - firasd
https://medium.com/@firasd/something-happened-to-the-ghost-in-the-shell-soundtrack-and-hundreds-of-fans-want-answers-477706053561
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taneq
It's probably some stupid licensing issue. They'll have found out that a
background sample in one of the tracks is actually copyrighted by some obscure
artist who's demanding 50% of all revenues, or something silly like that, and
they'll be running around behind the scenes trying to fix it.

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Cshelton
It's most likely an artist or producer on one of the tracks. This happens a
lot with labels and releases, mostly collaborations. The song is made with two
artist, then a year later, the labels are working on a joint release, but then
one of the labels decides the song is no longer the right
direction/fit/whatever at the current time. The song then is pretty much held
captive indefinitely. Maybe it'll be released at a later time. Sometimes
never. Happens with some movies too. There are movies out there that have been
made with famous actors that have never been seen by the public and never will
be.

In this case, I would think they can remove the problem song. Unless it's a
co-producer on most of the score...then yeah... probably won't see the light
of day if they can't resolve with that producer.

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logfromblammo
Since the presumption by copyrights-holders is that each instance of piracy is
a foregone retail sale, what would the monetary damages calculations look like
for works that are never made available for sale?

Would anyone feel guilty for violating copyright on a work the rights-holder
refuses to license?

As Hollywood films, AAA video games, television shows, and such are huge
undertakings, with possibly hundreds of constructive participants, along with
their administrators and coordinators, I wonder why major studios,
distributors, and labels have not lobbied for a new category of protected
work, such that one or a handful of individuals can't scuttle the whole
project or any significant portion of it. It really doesn't promote the
creation of new works if any collaboration means that the other people
involved in it could make it a waste of your time after the fact.

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Overtonwindow
One would think that they would have all of the licensing deals, etc. signed,
sealed, and ready to go long before we got to this point. What if the movie
had been a hit (a longshot of course but it's possible) and the soundtrack
delayed?

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firasd
Yeah. I was thinking maybe execs got spooked because the movie didn't make a
return on its massive budget but (1) it costs virtually nothing to put the
album on Spotify, iTunes etc right? and (2) as you said, the last minute
cancellation is just strange because everything should have been worked out
already.

An interesting data point is that there was supposed to be an official
'novelization' of the movie that is now in limbo as well. If Hollywood really
gets cold feet so easily I hope our campaign can help them change their minds.
The movie made $160m worldwide, so there are definitely fans out there--these
artefacts don't need to get cancelled. There's also a 'The Art of Ghost in the
Shell' book that already came out, so at least that's safe.

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lloeki
This kind of licensing shenanigans are just terrible, whatever the subjective
quality of the work behind. Has "Her" soundtrack by Arcade Fire been made
available anywhere yet? The only way to listen to it is apparently to get it
bootlegged, maybe this one will suffer the same fate.

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ashark
This sort of thing happens a lot. There's a TVtropes page for it and there's a
_not tiny_ list of affected works.

[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/KeepCirculatingTh...](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/KeepCirculatingTheTapes)

[EDIT] though those include works unavailable (in their original form, anyway)
for reasons other than licensing disputes, like simple publisher neglect.

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INTPenis
Literally hundreds of fans? And here I thought there were only dozens of us.

~~~
firasd
Haha. We just crossed 700 signatures in about 10 days but consider that these
are people who heard of the fan campaign and made the effort to go to the
link, fill out the form and sign the petition. The much greater latent demand
is clear in the Youtube stats in this unofficial 90 second 'Lights of Soho'
clip: it 16,000 views already.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSN8ndwJPVo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSN8ndwJPVo)

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johnnyo
Maybe someone realized that producing an album that only "100s of fans" will
actually buy is a bad business decision.

~~~
Raphmedia
How hard is it to throw the MP3 onto an online marketplace? Nobody is asking
for hardcopies.

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relics443
Demand? Sheesh!

~~~
firasd
When mysterious corporate hijinx subdue a work of art from reaching an
appreciative audience, why should The People not demand they Free The Music!
Especially as consumers who are willing to pay for the album.

We don't really know what the hold-up is so we are assuming the responsibility
lies with the record label until we get a comment. I sent them this email last
week but didn't hear back:
[https://twitter.com/gitsost/status/854018297980887040](https://twitter.com/gitsost/status/854018297980887040)

Obviously if the conflict is further 'upstream' in terms of personal issues
between people who worked on the music or something that's a harder issue to
solve. But at least the campaign will show there's demand for the album.

