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The topic on why the localization of Pokemon replaces a majority of the original music score has been a hot topic for a many a fan. While I've witnessed conversations, I don't recall an actual concrete explanation as to why this phenomena occurs. If someone has explained it, I apologize-I probably missed your post or didn't fully understand what you were saying. If you're like me and didn't know, here's a video from Rachael Lillis and Eric Stuart's Fan Expo Q&A Panel in Canada, from last year. In the clip, someone asks the question as to why the music is replaced, to which Eric provided the answer with a simple explanation:
Basically, it's all because 4Kids (at the time) had the brilliant idea to have residuals on their localized work, to make more money. People that license the music for shows earn residuals from when & where they're played. Thus, rather than allowing the original music licensees to have that, 4Kids (and later TCPi) decided to fill localized episodes with their own music-that way, they could still make money even if Pokemon aired in other parts of the world with different voice actors speaking other languages; their dubbed music still plays, and thus they still make money.
From a business standpoint, I have to admit I don't see the flaw in their plan. It's a smart way to make even more money. It also explains why Yu-Gi-Oh (who Stuart also worked on) and Digimon also changed a majority, if not all, of their musical scores too; it's a practice they kept, I guess.
However, you have anime like Bleach, One Piece, Hunter x Hunter, Naruto, etc. whose music wasn't changed for the sake of money. I greatly appreciate this as I've come to love a lot music from these series. It's a shame because there's such amazing music and renditions that dub watchers wouldn't ordinarily get to hear, due to this practice. This also confirms for me that TCPi is fully capable of keeping every track within an episode; they just choose not to. However, there's probably an agreement where a percentage of tracks are kept-which is what we sparsely hear. Anyway, if this information was already common knowledge or such, I apologize. I honestly didn't know and as someone who was recently disappointed with the music absent from Journeys, I thought this was worth sharing with the community as well as a great discussion topic.
Basically, it's all because 4Kids (at the time) had the brilliant idea to have residuals on their localized work, to make more money. People that license the music for shows earn residuals from when & where they're played. Thus, rather than allowing the original music licensees to have that, 4Kids (and later TCPi) decided to fill localized episodes with their own music-that way, they could still make money even if Pokemon aired in other parts of the world with different voice actors speaking other languages; their dubbed music still plays, and thus they still make money.
From a business standpoint, I have to admit I don't see the flaw in their plan. It's a smart way to make even more money. It also explains why Yu-Gi-Oh (who Stuart also worked on) and Digimon also changed a majority, if not all, of their musical scores too; it's a practice they kept, I guess.
However, you have anime like Bleach, One Piece, Hunter x Hunter, Naruto, etc. whose music wasn't changed for the sake of money. I greatly appreciate this as I've come to love a lot music from these series. It's a shame because there's such amazing music and renditions that dub watchers wouldn't ordinarily get to hear, due to this practice. This also confirms for me that TCPi is fully capable of keeping every track within an episode; they just choose not to. However, there's probably an agreement where a percentage of tracks are kept-which is what we sparsely hear. Anyway, if this information was already common knowledge or such, I apologize. I honestly didn't know and as someone who was recently disappointed with the music absent from Journeys, I thought this was worth sharing with the community as well as a great discussion topic.