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NIRVANA Songs Fail To Find Placement In Ads, TV Shows

March 19, 2009

The Pulse of Radio reports that an ambitious plan to license the music of NIRVANA and its late singer/songwriter, Kurt Cobain, appears to have backfired, according to Portfolio.com. A company called Primary Wave Music Publishing bought a 50 percent stake in Cobain's catalog for a reported $50 million from his widow, Courtney Love, who was nearly out of money at the time. However, Primary Wave has had little success with placing NIRVANA songs in TV commercials, video games and ad campaigns, with the company earning just slightly more than $2.3 million on its investment so far.

Love claimed to have had just $4,000 in her bank account three years ago when she made the deal with Primary Wave.

Fans criticized Love for allowing Cobain's music to be used in the kind of commercial enterprises that he blasted up until his 1994 suicide.

NIRVANA's rebellious stance and image could be one reason why the music has not been licensed more. Sony/ATV Music Publishing chairman and CEO Martin Bandier explained, "NIRVANA was so revolutionary that it's very difficult to match different projects, and there are tons of iconic groups that allow their music to be utilized."

One of Bandier's clients, the JONAS BROTHERS, made around $1 million through licensing music to film and television projects 105 times in 2008 alone. By comparison, only 13 NIRVANA tracks have been licensed for a total of $480,000 over the past three years.

A source told Portfolio that one deal to license a number of NIRVANA songs for a special episode of "CSI: Miami", that would be written around the music, collapsed when Love, the publisher and former members of NIRVANA asked for "twice the industry standard" in licensing fees, leading CBS-TV to back off.

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