Cobra Kai season four dropped just before the New Year, and for those that binged the season already, it was likely noticed that its soundtrack features some of the biggest bands of the ’80s with one notable exception.
Series co-creator Jon Hurwitz told Entertainment Weekly, “We had [AC/DC’s] ‘Thunderstruck’ written into the script. We’ve written ‘Thunderstruck’ into the script several times over the years.”
So, why has the popular AC/DC tune never appeared in the hit Netflix series? Hurwitz said, “…We’ve never been able to afford it in that moment or to make that choice [to spend the money on it] right now.”
While Hurwitz didn’t divulge how much it would cost to license “Thunderstruck” for use in Cobra Kai, there’s a good chance it could be the high six-figures and potentially even seven-figures. In 2014, a number of music supervisors took part in a feature for Variety talking about the costs to secure the rights to use a hit song in a film or television series. When asked the most any music supervisor has paid to use one song, Thomas Golubic (who’s done work for Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead) said he paid $500,000 for the use of a live recording of “Thunderstruck” in the 1999 film Varsity Blues.
Considering this was well over two decades ago and not the iconic studio recording, the asking price has likely gone up significantly.
