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Yesterday while I was replying to Osi's Tom and Jerry in scope topic, I decided to run a couple of my Tom & Jerry Prints. in doing so and listening to the soundtracks, I had that penny drop moment. As this was something I had never thought about before.
Each studios cartoon productions used tunes that had been associated prior to that studio. For example MGM in their cartoons used music that was written by the likes of composer Harold Arlen who had previously written several film scores for MGM. Warner Bros used music by Harry Warren, who wrote most of their early musicals. All of the studios already had the rights to this music.
So I started to look into this further. It seems that the same rules apply back then as they do today. On Youtube if someone puts up a video containing copyrighted music, they are only allowed around 5 seconds before it would be taken down, due to a content match. The same thing happen with these cartoons.
The studios were allowed to use any tune as long as it was no longer than two bars of music. That why you get a snippet of a tune every now and again, such as "We're In The Money" or "You Must Have Been A Beautful Baby" ect. It didn't cost them any money for the rights.
Looking back, it was the only way it was possible for them to knock out all of these cartoons in the numbers that they did. Apart from the main cost for the animation the next cost would have been the music score. But they already own it.
Each studios cartoon productions used tunes that had been associated prior to that studio. For example MGM in their cartoons used music that was written by the likes of composer Harold Arlen who had previously written several film scores for MGM. Warner Bros used music by Harry Warren, who wrote most of their early musicals. All of the studios already had the rights to this music.
So I started to look into this further. It seems that the same rules apply back then as they do today. On Youtube if someone puts up a video containing copyrighted music, they are only allowed around 5 seconds before it would be taken down, due to a content match. The same thing happen with these cartoons.
The studios were allowed to use any tune as long as it was no longer than two bars of music. That why you get a snippet of a tune every now and again, such as "We're In The Money" or "You Must Have Been A Beautful Baby" ect. It didn't cost them any money for the rights.
Looking back, it was the only way it was possible for them to knock out all of these cartoons in the numbers that they did. Apart from the main cost for the animation the next cost would have been the music score. But they already own it.
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