>so in a nutshell product placement id not driven by the actual
>artist directly

that is correct. i have never heard of an artist dealing directly with film or tv producers unless its a scoring situation, which is totally different. For example, with the premiere of NYC22 tonight, Pete Rock (working with musicians) actually scored the music to the show. (he tweeted about that yesterday). But for licensing...naw, that is the producers of the films making those choices. I can think of some exceptions....i can elaborate on that if u want.


>from your expierence which of the 2 scenarios you mentioned is
>the one that "normally" happens or is it 50/50?

i don't know really. to me, if you hear an indie buzz song (especially one with samples), its probably some music head working on the film involved. But for random keyboard beats in the background of Jersey Shore, thats definitely some catalog shit chosen from a database. don't get it twisted tho, getting some play on jersey shore is a significant check (to me at least).

EDIT: just realized a lot of this discussion is about fully produced soundtrack songs. in that case, yes, the producers sometimes approach a label or artist and ask them to submit a song for the soundtrack that may or may not relate directly to the movie. so i guess that is a third scenario i didn't mention before. in some cases they pick a song already released (like the SV song) and approach the artists about licensing for the movie. In other cases, like the MC Eight song in Menace, he obviously wrote it for the movie. What i was talking about before is for background beats usually found in reality shows or commercials, and some films.