A reader who shall at his own request remain anonymous writes…
I was delighted to read that classic episodes of The Tonight Show hosted by Johnny Carson will soon be airing on Antenna TV but I was upset to read that some of them may not be airable in full due to music clearance problems. I watched a few old episodes on YouTube and it was infuriating when they cut a guest's walk-on because they couldn't afford the music or when a whole musical number was cut. I know Antenna TV says they think they can clear it all but they're hedging their pledge and I'm sure there will be some music owner who will try to hold them up for big money and then they will not be able to air that episode or they will cut things from it.
This bothered me a lot with WKRP in Cincinnati. The complete set Shout Factory put out managed to clear most of the music but not all and that seriously mars the shows for me. What is it with these greedy music owners? Don't they realize that getting paid something is better than getting paid nothing?
I think you're making the mistake of presuming that the fault in these cases is always with the music owners. There are instances when the company trying to license the music goes to them, makes a real insulting offer and says, "We're not paying another cent. Take it or leave it!" If you're in the business of licensing the rights to something you control, there are cases when you just don't want to empower those who use those tactics or you just don't want to lower your price too often.
If you're routinely charging $500 for the rights to something and you start getting offers of $100 ("Take it or leave it!") and you give in to enough of those offers, eventually the folks who were paying you $500 are going to start offering $100 ("Take it or leave it!"). In fact, sometimes you've assured the guy paying $500 that that's your absolute bottom line so a bit of your honor and ethics are at stake.
Very often, it works like this: Harry the Business Affairs Guy comes to you representing a company that wants to license a piece of music or a story or something you own. You tell him the price is $1000 and that's firm. He goes to his boss and says, "If we want this, it's going to be $1000. They won't sell us the rights for a cent less." The boss okays it and the fee is paid. Later, the boss hears that someone else got the same thing from you for $300…so you've made Harry look bad to his boss. That's not nice, it's not really ethical and it may cost you money the next time you have to deal with Harry.
All that said, there certainly are rights holders who are greedy or who think that in the long run, holding firm on a high price will yield more revenue even if it sometimes means losing out on some small amounts. Also, it has been known to happen that the rights holders are warring partners who can't agree on a lower price…or any price. I just wouldn't leap to assume that when a deal can't be made, the fault is always with the seller. Sometimes, not always.