Are these songs made for the movies or are they bought by the producers?

Question

I have heard several songs by different artists or bands which are used in their albums as well as in the movies. So sometimes I don't understand whether these songs are made for the films or they are bought by the producers legally after the artists made it for their albums? Do the producers sometimes sponsor the song on the album?

Example 1: "Love Story" by Taylor Swift used in Letters to Juliet movie.

Example 2: "New Divide" by Linkin Park in the end of one of the Transformers movies. (I cant remember exactly which part the song is used in).

So how does the whole procedure work?

Answer 1

There is no hard and fast rule. Sometimes the production will request a song from an artists specifically for the movie. Examples include Celine Dion's My Heart Will Go On for Titanic, and almost every James Bond theme song. Most of the times the production will just license existing songs.

Creating a song specifically for a movie can get pretty expensive, especially when it's by a big name artist. So you almost only see it being done in big budget movies.