Talk:Just Dance 2017/@comment-5454568-20161125054237/@comment-1465604-20161126231127

It's both complex and expensive. First, you need to convince the rights owners to license the songs in the first place. Then it's time do the actual licensing... on a per country basis. No "We're licensing this for all of Europe", no, you have to license them for each and every country in which you plan to distribute the song in some way. For a game such as "Just Dance", which is sold basically globally, that's a huge and expensive endeavour and why game series such as Rock Band and Guitar Hero most often go with covers instead of the original versions of songs.

Then comes the final hurdle: Not all songs' distribution rights are controlled by a single companny globally. Say you're an artist called FallenAngelII. You're signed with a minor Swedish label called UbiDance and get a huge hit with a song called "Keep Calm and Just Dance". All of a sudden, record companies all over the world are in talks with you to distribute your music internationally. UbiDance operates in Sweden alone. They literally cannot release "Keep Calm and Just Dance" in the U.S. So FallenAngelII signs a deal with semi-large U.S.-based record label DanceSoft to distribute and control distribution rights to his music in the U.S and most of the Western world. But then Japan wants in and neither DanceSoft nor UbiDance operate in Japan. So FallenAngelII signs a deal with Japanese record label ただ踊れ.

6 months later, "Keep Calm and Just Dance" is huge. So huge that Ubisoft comes a'knocking to license it for their upcoming game Just Dance 2018. In order to secure the rights for Sweden, they have to negotiate with UbiDance. In order to secure the rights for the U.S., they have to negotiate with DanceSoft and in order to secure the rights for Japan, they'll have to negotiate with ただ踊れ.

The world of music licensing is oftentimes complicated and expensive. Like that time Michael Jackson bought the rights to all of the Beatles' music and for years Paul McCartney had to pay royalties just to play songs he'd himself written at live shows.