Since we reported that the Olympics organisers LOCOG won’t be paying musicians for their performances at the Games this year, two more shocking pieces of news regarding the damn expensive sports day have come to light. Firstly, a musician friend of The Quietus got in touch with some very interesting information. His group had been approached regarding the use of one of their songs to accompany footage to be shown on screens in the various venues in the Olympic Park. The fee, for 100% of the track’s publishing and distribution online for the rest of the year… a princely £250 to the artist. The Quietus learns that £250 per master usage and publishing is the standard rate being offered music syncs at the Olympic Site, with the you-can’t-bank-it carrot of exposure being used as the reason for the low fees. Our source described the offer as "beyond insulting" and, needless to say, his band’s music will not be featured at the Olympics. UPDATE: Musician Four Tet saw this story and twittered that he’d also been offered £250 for an Olympic sync:
The second is that inexplicably successful indie pomp group Muse have written a song that is going to be the official anthem of the Games. "We are very excited to announce that a Muse song, ‘Survival’, has been selected by the London Olympic committee to be the main official song for the London 2012 Olympic Games," the band said in a statement. "Matt wrote the song with the Olympics in mind. It’s about total conviction and pure determination to win." Given that Muse are a guitar-toting White Elephant, U2-without-the-charm heap of vacuous-yet-ostentatious bullshit, their selection to soundtrack the Games is of course highly appropriate.
