Something happened to Ghost in the Shell soundtrack; 100s of fans want answers | Hacker News Reader

Something happened to Ghost in the Shell soundtrack; 100s of fans want answers

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36 pointsfirasd17 comments

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.

There is some 'speculation' about the issue in this podcast at the 58 minute mark. https://www.acast.com/thesoundcast/soundcast-ep.-87-the-soun...

But nobody really knows. Someone in Youtube comments claims to have heard this from one of the composers, Lorne Balfe: "No news at the moment . I think if there is enough of a request on social media then there will be a release . Thank you for the support though - lorne"

The other composer (Clint Mansell) has said absolutely nothing about GITS. And the record label (Lakeshore Records) has said nothing except that they're not releasing the score: https://twitter.com/tracksounds/status/855500080031444992

Edit, just to add more info:

The petition link is https://www.change.org/p/paramount-release-the-ghost-in-the-...

The fan campaign for #GITSost is on social media at:

Twitter: @gitsost https://twitter.com/gitsost

Instagram: @gitsostcampaign https://www.instagram.com/gitsostcampaign/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1788648314796425/

We did get this response from one of the main actors, Pilou Asbaek (who played Batou), saying he'd talk to the director Rupert Sanders. https://twitter.com/PilouAsbaek/status/856447410188554242

I wrote this email to Lakeshore Records but didn't hear back: https://twitter.com/gitsost/status/854018297980887040

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.

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.

This is why I still buy music that I want to listen to more than once–so that some licensing dispute after release doesn't mean that they can prevent me from listening until they've settled their issues. (Or until I sign up for some competing subscription service as is most recently the case with Jay Z and Spotify/Tidal).

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?

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.

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.

Considering the movie whose soundtrack is at issue, that would seem only apropos.

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...

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

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

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

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

Just for context, this record label recently released the OST for the new CHIPS movie.

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

Demand? Sheesh!

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

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.

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