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Perth Now
29-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Perth Now
Marc Maron paid $50,000 to use Taylor Swift's Bigger Than The Whole Sky in his comedy special
Marc Maron paid $50,000 to secure the rights to Taylor Swift's song Bigger Than The Whole Sky for use in his upcoming HBO comedy special, Marc Maron: Panicked. The 61-year-old stand-up uses the tear-jerking ballad from the pop superstar's Midnights (3am Edition) album at the end of his routine and they just about managed to pay the fee to use a snippet of the track after the money started running out. After getting in touch with the track's co-writer, Jack Antonoff, who happened to be a friend of Marc, they managed to get in touch with the right people to agree a figure for the usage. The GLOW star said on the Vulture's Good One podcast: 'I think it came out to $50K, around that. 'I did everything I could to get the joke in front of her.' He continued: "I know Jack Antonoff enough to text him, and he's the co-writer on that song. 'I said, 'I don't know what's proper or how to do this, but we're running out of money on this thing. It's probably going to come out of my pocket. Is there anything you can do about this song or talk to Taylor?'' Fortunately, the ticket sales for the show meant it didn't have to come out of Marc's own pocket. He added: 'It was doable. We made enough money. It was tight, but because of the ticket sales for the special, we were able to get that song.' Being able to use Bigger Than The Whole Sky - which tackles grief - was a big deal to Marc. He explained: 'My relationship with that song, and just the fact that I'm playing it on my phone. 'It had to happen.' Taylor's music has also appeared in the likes of The Summer I Turned Pretty and The Handmaid's Tale. Elisabeth Moss wrote a heartfelt letter to Taylor, 35, in a bid to get permission to use one of her songs in an episode of The Handmaid's Tale. The 43-year-old actress explained how much the Grammy winner's "her music means" to her and how the inclusion of the track Look What You Made Me Do would help the show - and she was delighted when Taylor agreed for the song to be used. Elisabeth told Entertainment Tonight: "We've been so excited ... Honestly the feedback was her saying yes. For me, that was really, truly such an honour that she took the time to read, you know I wrote her a letter about what I felt the song meant for the episode and her music means to me and our cast. "So the fact that she said yes to me was all the feedback that I needed. " The song was featured in episode nine of the sixth season of The Handmaid's Tale, which aired in May, and Elisabeth previously revealed she'd wanted to include a Swift song in the series for years and she'd finally found the "perfect moment". Elisabeth told Billboard: "I've been wanting to use a Taylor song for many years on the show and we finally found the perfect spot for a track from her, and I'm so glad we waited because there could not be a more perfect song for a more perfect moment. "Taylor has been such an inspiration to me personally. As a Swiftie myself, and I think I can speak for [co-star] Yvonne [Strahovski] and our entire cast as well, who are all Swifties, it's such an honour to be able to use her music in the final episodes of our show."
Yahoo
28-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Marc Maron Reveals the Cost to Use a Taylor Swift Song — and the Mutual Celebrity Friend Who Helped Him Get Access
The comedian and podcaster used Swift's 'Bigger Than the Whole Sky' for his soon-to-be-released stand-up special Marc Maron said getting the rights to Taylor Swift's music doesn't come without a hefty price tag. The comedian and podcaster, 61, spent major dollars in order to use a specific song from the pop star's catalog for his upcoming stand-up special, he revealed on the July 25 episode of Vulture's Good One podcast. Licensing Swift's song 'Bigger Than the Whole Sky' — a bonus track on the 3am Edition of her 2022 album Midnights — cost about "$50,000," Maron said. He added that he felt he needed the specific track for a pivotal moment in his HBO special, Marc Maron: Panicked, so he reached out to a mutual friend, Jack Antonoff, for help. 'I know Jack Antonoff enough to text him — and he's the co-writer on that song,' Maron explained. 'I said, 'I don't know what's proper or how to do this, but we're running out of money on this thing. It's probably going to come out of my pocket. Is there anything you can do about this song or talk to Taylor?' ' Maron said Antonoff, 41, advised him to go through official music licensing channels, and he was ultimately able to get approval to use the track. The PEOPLE Puzzler crossword is here! How quickly can you solve it? Play now! 'It was doable,' Maron said, adding, however, that the tens of thousands of dollars only covered the use of one minute of the song. 'I would have gone over the minute, [but] it would have been more money,' he explained. Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Maron said he doesn't know if Swift, 35, has heard the specific joke in the special that her team signed off on, but he was 'manifesting' that she would indeed like it if she did — for the sake of his project. 'It had to happen,' Maron said. 'The real fear [was], like, [if] she doesn't let you use it, and then what do you do? You can't do the bit on the special.' While Maron didn't reveal the content of the bit in question, he has spoken about Swift's music — and his journey to becoming a Swiftie — in the past. 'I'm an open-minded guy, and I like music. I [wanted] to try to figure out what it is about Taylor Swift that everyone never shuts up about," he said on a May 2023 episode of his long-running podcast, WTF with Marc Maron. Maron said he ended up listening to Swift's Midnights album on a hike, and he was impressed with what her heard. 'I'm like, 'Alright. I get it.' It's pop music, but it's not dance music [and] it's, sort of, emotional. There's a lot of longing and sadness and isolation and processing these overwhelming feelings of melancholy," he recalled. When previously discussing the new special, the comedian said, per Deadline, that he felt like 'this is the best work' he's ever done, adding, 'Everything came together." Maron's latest creative endeavor comes two years after his last HBO special, the critically acclaimed From Bleak to Dark, which explored grief and the experience of losing his partner, filmmaker Lynn Shelton, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Marc Maron: Panicked premieres on HBO on Friday, Aug. 1, at 8:00 p.m. EST. It will also be available to stream on HBO Max. Read the original article on People Solve the daily Crossword
