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Info: Movies/TV shows with lack of distribution on home video due to music rights

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 (Edited)

This is a thread where I want to go into about how movies and TV shows have lack of distribution on DVD or streaming due to the amount of music featured. This is different from my thread about TV shows edited on DVD due to music, this is where TV shows haven’t been able to be properly distributed due to the music featured. (however, individual episodes may count as well) Examples of movies include FM (1978) and The Wild Life (1984), TV shows would include WKRP (though really only a problem till 2014) and Cold Case.

Raccoons

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My favourite example is the 1987 BBC TV film Coast to Coast. It has never received a home video release and according to the distributor and a co-star, it never will because the cost of re-licencing the Motown laden soundtrack would not be economically viable.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090858/

Dancing in the Street aka Rock & Roll (1996). A stupendous PBS/BBC produced documentary on the history of Rock & Roll and its derivatives. There was a UK VHS release but it has never officially seen the light of day on DVD - or any other digital format and the volume of music involved means that this situation is highly unlikely to ever change.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0375293/

“Logic is the battlefield of adulthood.”

  • Howard Berk
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possibly “The Keep” (1983) but this just fan speculation, nothing official.

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Another entry is The Wackness (2008). Its original cut was screened at Sundance but due to an inability to licence many of the songs that were used on the soundtrack, it has never been exhibited since. A re-edited version featuring a largely different soundtrack was released on home video - and aired on BBC Two.

“Logic is the battlefield of adulthood.”

  • Howard Berk
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FM is on Blu-ray disc in both the USA and UK from Arrow Video. DVDCompare didn’t even mention if any of the music were missing and stated no cuts at the bottom of the page regarding runtimes.