To All Producers, Wise Words From Kevin Bacon...

...Or at least from his character in Amazon's adaptation of Chris Krauss' "I Love Dick". Based on the author's real life experiences, Dick (played by Kevin Bacon) delivers a brilliant reposte to Krauss' character who's frustrated that her film was pulled from the Venice Film Festival because she thought she could get away with not paying for a piece of music in her film.  

“What’s unfair? You dont get to use someone else work for free? I mean, an astonishingly beautiful piece of music can make an astonishingly beautiful scene and an astonishingly beautiful scene can separate a mediocre film from a masterpiece and I’m assuming that’s what you’re going for? A masterpiece?”

Every filmmaker, TV producer and Creative Director knows that the perfect piece of music can transform a scene from being mediocre, to something truly beautiful. What Dick is saying, is that music is art, and that artists should be paid for their work. Music plays a role as much as actors and the visuals do. Instead of cutting corners, using some forgettable background music or worse still, some potentially libellous sound-a-like, not only is it worth paying for that beautiful piece of music you originally intended to use, but it's completely right to do so.