4 Musicians Who Refused to License Their Music for Commercials and Film

Brands love to use popular songs in their advertisements. If a particular company can pair the right earworm song with the right product, the results can yield a lot of success (and money). Bands can usually make a pretty penny from licensing their songs to such brands. However, some artists have refused to allow companies to use their music for marketing purposes. Let’s explore four musicians who refused to license their music for television, movies, and commercials!

1. Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Springsteen is one of many musicians who refused to license their music for commercials. The once-massive car company Chrysler once offered Springsteen a substantial amount of money to use “Born In The USA” in a marketing campaign in the 1980s. The number was estimated to be around $12 million. Still, Springsteen turned them down. You’ve got to hand it to him for having the most artistic integrity, like, ever.

[See Bruce Springsteen Live In 2024]

2. Frank Sinatra

This could very well be speculative. However, Martin Scorsese’s famed editor Thelma Schoonmaker once spoke about this situation in an interview with Empire Magazine years ago. Allegedly, Scorsese wanted to use Frank Sinatra’s song “My Way” to play through the end credits of the classic 1990 crime thriller Goodfellas. Obviously, the original Sinatra version of the song wasn’t used and the film features Sid Vicious’ cover instead. So, what happened?

“Sinatra would never let Marty use his music,” said Schoonmaker. “Why didn’t he let us? Because he didn’t want to be associated with the Mafia. Which, of course, he was!”

3. Prince

Kevin Smith went in depth about this situation with Prince in a much funnier way than this writer ever could. To summarize, Kevin Smith asked Prince to use “The Most Beautiful Girl In The World” in Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back. Prince didn’t get back to him. He did, however, hear from Prince a while later, who wanted to have a discussion about the spiritual elements of Smith’s film Dogma. He even asked Smith to come to his home to film for a week to build a documentary about the launch of his album, Celebration.

Eventually, Smith reiterated his question about “The Most Beautiful Girl In The World”, to which he received a very firm “no” from the singer.

4. Pete Townshend/The Who

The movers and shakers behind the beloved TV comedy That 70s Show were pitching alternative names for the program. One name that came to mind was “Teenage Wasteland”, which referenced the famed The Who song “Baba O’Riley”. They asked Pete Townshend if they could use it.

“Pete Townshend said, ‘That’s the one song I’m fastened to,’” said Terry Turner on their meet-up with Townshend. “‘Anything else I have, you can use it.’ So we said, can we use ‘The Kids Are All Right?’ And he said, ‘Oooh. I can’t let you use that one either.’”

Photo by Michael Ochs Archives

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