... why don't they just replace the music?
You make that sound so easy...
In actual fact, even if an interested party could get a decent print of the film or video, the music is almost certainly intermixed with dialog and sound effects. That might be just a tiny bit difficult to "just replace the music".
For a TV movie, the unmixed video, audio dialog, sound effects, and music may no longer exist.
As a matter of record, the final (8th) season of CHARMED (with Alyssa Milano) was released on DVD with none of the music score from the TV broadcasts. (If you are not familiar with that series, it has been on for years in reruns at one episode per weekday, and many episodes featured music/bands that was/were currently popular when the series was made.) The music rights owners were 'holding up' the studio for more money (what else?) and they thought they could hold the release 'hostage'. When it got pretty clear that the two sides were not going to reach an agreement, the studio had original music created to replace the original track. The other part of the circumstances was the fact that there was a shortage of DVD manufacturing capacity at that time, and that CHARMED series DVD set had a fixed date and duration to produce the release; miss that date for whatever reason, and the studio got the next available slot at the end of the schedule, (thus my comment about holding the release hostage). The standoff reportedly held off to the day before the finished masters had to be delivered to the DVD factory.
At that point, the rights holders finally realized they might get nothing, and signaled the studio they were willing to be reasonable, and accept the studio's original/latest offer...
Of course you probably guessed by now that the studio had little interest in paying to use the original music AFTER they had already incurred the expense of the new music and had the finished masters remixed and ready with that new music.
No deal. The rights owners had been too greedy,
and got ZERO! That was possible primarily because the studio had the video and the separate music and sound tracks. All they needed to do was remix the original video with the original audio tracks (including sound effects) with the new music to create the new sound track.
They did not need to first remove the original music (somehow), and then mix in the new music. Q.E.D.
Granted, the CSI style TV shows and police procedurals make it seem simple for "the right person and equipment" to isolate and enhance sounds. Remember that is a tiny piece of audio in the first place, and it is a TV show, not reality!
The DVD release of the movie VALLEY GIRL was delayed for many years over music rights. It happens a lot, and probably more than anyone involved would ever admit.
Even just contacting all the rights holders may be far from simple. The original owner may have died and split the rights among the assorted heirs. And some of them may have passed their partial ownership along as well. Some fraction of some of the music rights may have made their way to a large conglomerate or a charity, with regularly scheduled board meetings held once a year... Eventually, even once all the rights owners have been determined, they still need to reach an agreement on the price. And that presumes they are willing to go along.
Not a trivial issue.
Miss even one fractional owner, and that could result in criminal charges, and then civil lawsuits for damages AND punitive damages that may be awarded far in excess of the value of the ownership of the entire season (or movie).
... just replace the music...
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