This reminds me of something that was touched on in last week's playlist. Artists almost have to proactively LOOK for music that sounds like what they have just written so they can avoid an accidental copyright suit.

Somewhat related to this is the show Will and Grace. Leading up tot the reboot and new season of the show, fans (myself included!) were dying for the old episodes of the show to be released for streaming. It took a long time to release it to Hulu due in part to the fact that the show and Hulu had to secure rights for all of the music and brand references in every episode, and since it was a long-running show, it was a tedious process.