You Can Use A Taylor Swift Song In A TV Special For Big $$$
My bank account is crying.
It’s not cheap to feature a Taylor Swift song in a TV special. Marc Maron, whose comedy special Marc Maron: Panicked premieres on HBO Max in August, knows the cost firsthand. For his show, the comedian wanted to feature Swift’s “Bigger Than The Whole Sky” from her Midnights album. The song plays a crucial part in his final bit, but he almost was not able to make it happen. Turns out, using the song for less than a minute cost about $50,000.
“I think it came out to $50K, around that,” Maron said on a July 25 episode of Vulture’s Good One podcast. “I did everything I could to get the joke in front of her.”
“I know Jack Antonoff enough to text him, and he’s the co-writer on that song,” Maron explained. “I said, ‘I don’t know what’s proper or how to do this, but we’re running out of money on this thing. It’s probably going to come out of my pocket. Is there anything you can do about this song or talk to Taylor?’”
According to Maron, Antonoff was not really able to help. “He goes, ‘Well, why don't you go through the proper channels first and then and let let me know what happens with that,’ and I never heard back from him,” he said. “It was doable. We made enough money. It was tight, but because of the ticket sales for the special, we were able to get that song.”
The hefty price tag came with certain parameters. “It’s up to a minute. If I would have gone over the minute, it would be more money,” he added.
Maron still felt like it was worth the cost. “My relationship with that song, and just the fact that I’m playing it on my phone [in the special]... it had to happen,” he said.
“The real fear is like she [won’t] let you use it,” Maron added. “And then if you do, they sue you, you know. But they signed off on it. I have no idea if Taylor Swift saw the bit or not.”
Swift’s music has been featured in other projects, too. Every season of The Summer I Turned Pretty includes Swift’s songs. In July, And Just Like That used her song “How Did It End?” to punctuate a breakup in Season 3.
