[WillPS]

Possibly, though it's not a show I've ever really watched. I've only ever had a quick look through the old episodes that are on All4.

According to the online episode guide, November 1999 was when Brookside started using it. Seems strange it took 17 years, I can understand in the early days, being a new channel, new show, new production company and not wanting to spend the money on licencing when you don't know if the show will even take off. But by the late 80s and 90s when it was Channel 4's most popular show I'm sure they could have afforded it, and it would have added to the realism.

Not that the lack of it hurt the show admittedly, but only ever hearing the same few songs (the "running from the law" song and that one we've seen Annabelle and Michelle doing exercises to seem to be the most common ones) and library music does stand out compared to watching the repeats of the other soaps and continuing dramas which all use commercial music heavily.

According to Wikipedia, they weren't even able to use the Free George Jackson song on the show due to it being released as a single, even though it was actually made by the production team!

I'd imagine it was just decided that it wasn't needed. Phil Redmond was/is a savvy operator and didn't spend money willy nilly. Indeed one of the reasons he bought actual houses instead of building sets and hiring/buying a studio was so that they could be sold off when and if the plug was pulled...

In fairness, of all the criticisms that I've seen of late 90s Brookside, I'm not sure lack of licensed music was among them.