MTV used this Megadeth’s track for free thanks to a legal ambiguity

MTV viewers heard one of the most recognisable thrash metal riffs almost every hour for a large portion of the 1990s: the opening bassline to Megadeth‘s “Peace Sells.” The excerpt became a generational soundtrack for both metalheads and general audiences, playing at the end of every MTV News broadcast. According to MetalInjection, frontman Dave Mustaine, however, claims that MTV never gave him any money for using it.

They didn’t give me a penny. They cut it off right before they’d have to pay me, which was very clever. I don’t think anybody with a conscience at MTV did that — it was probably somebody in their legal department. Dave Mustaine to Rolling Stone – interview revisited in the book “The World’s State-Of-The-Art Speed Metal Band: The Megadeth Story 1983–2002” by Greg Prato.

And he was somewhat right.

If you play something for four seconds, you don’t have to pay for it. That’s exactly what they did with ‘Peace Sells.’ Not too many people know this, but to confirm it: Dave Mustaine wrote that little bass part. Although, of course, David Ellefson played it. Ellefson talks about how they were at rehearsal one day, and Mustaine picked up his bass and was noodling around, like, ‘Hey, what do you think of this?’ Greg Prato