Anyone who’s bought a few TV series on DVD has probably experienced this at some point. You’re watching a montage, or a scene with a radio playing, and something seems a little off. It might take you a minute - less, if you liked the song.

It’s different.

There are many reasons why DVD releases often don’t feature the same music that was in the broadcast version, but it all comes down to one word: licensing.

The licenses purchased to use a song in a T.V. episode are specific, giving the network who airs the show the right to use the song on its broadcast. But when it comes to DVD releases, new licenses must be procured. In cases where a show is owned by a different company than the network that airs it, things get even more complicated. Licenses purchased in the past few decades didn’t cover future releases on new media.

This didn’t used to matter, back when the only hard copies of TV shows were kept in shoeboxes full of VHS tapes. But now, with the advent of TV on DVD, licensing rears its ugly head.

Variety recently covered a story that demonstrated some of the inherent problems with TV on DVD.

This month’s DVD release of the second season of David Janssen’s 1960s skein “The Fugitive” caused a firestorm when fans of the show and many in the music industry discovered that the entire underscore had been replaced — not just a song here or there (not uncommon in shows where music licensing is a factor) but all of the dramatic music. Only composer Pete Rugolo’s title theme remained, and only under the main and end credits.

….

Relicensing songs can cost $10,000-$40,000 each and sometimes much more. The numbers vary depending on prominence, use in the show and the language of the original contract. The Motown songs in season one of “Murphy Brown” reportedly cost nearly $1 million, while “The Wonder Years” has long been rumored as a DVD nonstarter because of the high-profile 1960s rock that was a staple of the series.

Apparently, the first season of “The Fugitive” was released with almost no changes to the music. As in most cases with specifically composed scores, the ownership of all music belonged to the production and there was no question of licensing.

But in the second season, things were different. The show’s music editor, Ken Wilhoit, began pulling musical cues from the CBS Music Library, which shouldn’t be too much of an issue - the problem is that CBS’s music can’t be distinguished from music that Wilhoit used from the Capitol Music Library, which no longer exists. The current owners for this music can’t be found.

Not surprisingly, the topic swings back around to piracy in the end:

Gord Lacey, editor of TVShowsonDVD.com, said he thinks CBS Par erred by failing to warn consumers, adding only a tiny disclaimer on the package (”some music may have been changed”). “If you’re trying to sneak these releases out hoping nobody’s going to notice you replaced all the music, it’s not going to work,” he said.

Lacey thinks such studio tinkering and failure to be upfront about altering classic product “is training the consumer not to buy.” Worse, he worries that the result will be a boon to the ever-present market for bootleg DVDs. “A lot of these studio releases are pushing more people into buying pirated material,” he said.

He has a point, of course. While consumers put out the money up front, which they might not have done if they knew about the music discrepancy, now they’ll be more cautious.

Me, I’m sticking with Hulu.

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