"Often hailed as one of the music industry’s bright spots, the licensing of songs to film and television isn’t immune to the recession or the general industry downturn, according to top music supervisors who spoke this morning at an industry conference hosted by Billboard and the Hollywood Reporter. Declining budgets for music, changing fee structures and broad single-artist deals, such as NBC’s recent move to draft Bon Jovi as an “artist in residence,” were cited as examples that could limit licensing opportunities in the year ahead. As physical CD sales have tumbled, major label publishing revenues have experienced an upswing. For the nine-year period beginning in 1999, CD sales dipped 45%, according to Nielsen SoundScan figures released at the conference. Meanwhile, Warner Music Group’s publishing arm Warner/Chappell saw a 19% uptake in film , TV and ad licensing revenue for the three-year period beginning in 2006. However, ad spending for the first half of 2009 dipped 15.4%, compared with the same period in 2008, according to conference figures. Music supervisor and KCRW-FM (89.9) deejay Thomas Golubic, speaking on a morning panel about the state of music supervision, noted that music is the first item that will be cut from a production budget."