Legal Music in my Videos

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LuckyProducer

Well-known member
Hey guys, I became very sad when I found out that it's illegal to use music in videos without a license, that is, copyrighted music. What do wedding videographers do to put all those nice romantic music from famous artists, and especially when the bride requests a song to be put in the video or slideshow? Do they just ignore the law? How about if I want to add music to a video I made for my church and show it to my church? I really need help with this because my videos won't be as good without great music. Please help me out with this and let me in on things. I would highly appreciate it!
 
I honestly don't know the law, but people get away with using copyrighted music all the time. I'm not going to advocate breaking the law, but if your film will be shown to a small audience, or doesn't promote a product or affiliate you with a business or organization, I don't see what the real damage would be. Look at youtube, it's chalk full of other people's music, especially the biggest hits! If you're doing a wedding video where you're selling your services, I'd stay away from copyrighted music because there's money and rights involved. You can buy copyright free cds of all styles of music online, so I'd look into that. Just some thoughts for you
 
I've been down this road before. The General Rule is that you cannot use copyrighted material for your personal use without the permission of the copyright holder. For the most part, it doesn't matter if your end-use is a wedding video or something on Vimeo or You-tube. If the copyright holder discovers your images with his music, he can send a "take down" notice to the website hosting it and then pursue his legal remedies for breach of copyright.

I make trivial little films for my work as an educator. On one occaision I submitted a film to an academic website as a means to promote a method of teaching. It was rejected straightaway because it had commercial music. On another occaision, one of my pieces found its way to a public audience; imagine what could have happened if it had copyrighted music and someone wanted to complain!!?

Yes, there are a few narrow exceptions such as fair use, but even fair use is pretty well defined and what you are asking about doesn't seem to fit.

Now what the law is and what people do on a day to day basis are often separate things! I know what the law is, yet I've asked the very same question you posed for no other reason than to see how ordinary people deal with the limitations. You'll likely hear people tell you there is very little risk, since the Beatles' lawyers are probably not scanning YouTube for violations. Most professionals who make their money doing this sort of thing will say not to do it because it's not worth the risk of being in federal court and potentially losing a heap of money not to mention reputation. And creative people shouldn't be taking product from other creative people without compensation and permission. I don't mean to preach, but as I said: I've asked this before and it gets strong responses.

Shockwave Sound, Digital Juice, Pump Audio to name a few sell stock music for reasonable fees and as the previous poster mentioned you can buy entire discs of royalty free music....and never have to worry about it.
 
I have, ironicly, had clients ask me to pirate the FBI warning off a DVD.
lol
Bottom line is should I pirate something, it's me hitting the red button, not them. By that, no client, especially a one off mother of a bride, is going to get me to break the law for them.
I use paid for elements or they simply do not go in. It's never been something open to discussion with me. I'd not even use a music select on my reel without rights or permission.
 
You can also approach ASCAP or some similar copyright enforcement organisations for a blanket licence. We do this in the live show industry. All the time. There is an organisation which is an enforcer of performing rights. They sometimes sell licences for tv ads that want to use commercial music of some noted performer etc. They call it a sync licence here. I dont know what they call it there in your country. Youll have to check. You can also use software such as sony acid or cinescore to create fresh music using loops, though ive not personally used them. Going thru an agency like that saves you the trouble of having to find out which record company owns the copyright and then negotiating with a gaint like that.
 
plainman007 said:
You can also approach ASCAP or some similar copyright enforcement organisations for a blanket licence. We do this in the live show industry. All the time. There is an organisation which is an enforcer of performing rights. They sometimes sell licences for tv ads that want to use commercial music of some noted performer etc. They call it a sync licence here. I dont know what they call it there in your country. Youll have to check. You can also use software such as sony acid or cinescore to create fresh music using loops, though ive not personally used them. Going thru an agency like that saves you the trouble of having to find out which record company owns the copyright and then negotiating with a gaint like that.
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Unfortunately ASCAP/BMI/SESAC deal strictly with performance licenses, not synch licenses. Another agency is Harry Fox but they deal with mechanicals lcenses where the music is being freshly recorded to be distributed explicitly as an audio recording (CD, tape, internet, etc). A synch licenses allows you to incorporate the words and melody (the musical notes) into a film or video soundtrack and to obtain one, one must deal directly with the copyright owner, usually the music publisher. To use a specific pre-existing recording of a performance of the music by a particular artist one also needs to deal with the record label releasing it as a recording of the music has its own copyright that is completely separate from the copyright on the words and music itself. The best way to go about it is to hire a music rights clearance firm and have them do the legwork for you. Or use library music and be done with it. Companies like DeWolf have a huge offering of first-class music available. Library music doesn't sound like elevator music anymore.
 
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LuckyProducer said:
What do wedding videographers do to put all those nice romantic music from famous artists and especially when the bride requests a song to be put in the video or slideshow? ?
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They include the copyrighted songs for their wedding clients.

LuckyProducer said:
Do they just ignore the law?
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It's said that one can learn more about the person and their question than the answer - certainly yours is loaded... I doubt you believe that wedding videographers are all pirates looking forward to losing their businesses.

LuckyProducer said:
How about if I want to add music to a video I made for my church and show it to my church?
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Ah, now we see you're hoping to extrapolate the standard practice by wedding videographers in an attempt to apply it elsewhere. Sorry we can't help give you a wink, nod, or cheery response. No, you can't extrapolate the standard practice for wedding videographers and their private client and apply it to your church. Incidentally, next time you go to church just take a look at their songbooks and let us know if their songs are copyrighted!

As others cite, you can buy affordable royalty free songs for business usage (including non-profit organizations like churches). BTW, I doubt you were really interested in wedding videographer practices but if you want to look at tons of prior threads here, search for the terms "wedding and copyright".

Happy Trails, Michael
 
Royalty Free Music Source Listing

Royalty Free Music Source Listing

I purchased SonicFire Pro. You can make the soundtracks exactly the length you want, with a proper ending too, BUT, going much longer than the song makes it sound somewhat tediously repetitive.

Here are some suggestions, and please, by all means, add your music sources and what you think of them, costs, etc.

Audio Network

Davenport Music

Digital Juice

GMP Music

Jamendo

MagnaTune

Music Bakery

Royalty Free Music

SonicFire Pro

Sounddogs

Stock 20

As you all chime in any good tips you have I will edit the above list and add the referred source in alphabetical order.
 
by far the most bang for the buck in royalty0free tunage is deWolfemusic.com
I know of no close second. They use real musicians, not a multi-tracked keyboard and best of all... man, they haggle.
They allow me to pay a blanket fee per production so I don't even count needledrops.
call em. they are very cool to work with.
 
I don't condone ripping off anyone's art, BUT...

Is it legal for the customer to buy the music and give it to you to use for the production? Say, if they wanted "Into the Mystic" by Van Morrison-they purchased the recording and you used their copy for their vid exclusively? I should have paid better attention in broadcast law and copyright.
 
I am all for keeping things legal so how do I cover the following?

I use royalty free. I go through my edits and then realize, all the dance scenes have copyrighted music playing in the background. To cover my backside, do I mix in other music,cutting out the video audio on these scenes? How do you handle the issue with the customer where the First Dance music was not the one played at the reception?
 
I'd never do that to a client. lol
Just use the music they horked for the reception. You are not hitting a red button to add it in there.
But don't pirate tunage then cut to it.
 
Brickhouse Media said:
I don't condone ripping off anyone's art, BUT...

Is it legal for the customer to buy the music and give it to you to use for the production? Say, if they wanted "Into the Mystic" by Van Morrison-they purchased the recording and you used their copy for their vid exclusively? I should have paid better attention in broadcast law and copyright.
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Depends on how you define a "production." If it's for a clients personal use or wedding, then yes it's the common practice by event videographers (although still technically a legal no-no). But if you plan to do a commercial video with a client's copyrighted music, even if it's for their business then you could get in serious trouble. For instance, let's say on of your client's employees notified the RIAA that their employer included copyrighted music in their in-house corporate video production (perhaps a disgruntled employee, squealing after being fired). Both you and your client would receive a "cease and desist" order, followed up by legal demand for recourse.

Can you describe what you mean by the client's "exclusive" use?

Regards, Michael
 
Crafters of Light said:
I am all for keeping things legal so how do I cover the following?

I use royalty free. I go through my edits and then realize, all the dance scenes have copyrighted music playing in the background. To cover my backside, do I mix in other music,cutting out the video audio on these scenes? How do you handle the issue with the customer where the First Dance music was not the one played at the reception?
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Yeah, that's what you'd have to do to stay legal. It probably would not go over well with the B&G.

You also have to keep in mind that by recording the soloist singing a copyright song during the ceremony and distributing that on the DVD is illegal.

I'm convinced it is not possible in the USA to legally shoot the type of wedding video people expect. That's one of the main reasons I got out of wedding video.
 
I'm surprised no major record label has taken the Apple/iTunes approach for wedding video music. If they made a CD collection of favorite wedding songs (by popular artists, not cheap knock of versions of Cannon in D) and made it affordable to legally use it, there would probably be a good amount of sales by wedding videographers.

Make a good collection affordable (say $200) that comes with your registration and legal agreement and people would probably pay up to avoid the risk of completely getting screwed with a lawsuit.
 
***Not legal advice.***
With the first dance example, the artist was already paid when the DJ paid the licensing fee. Assuming the videographer has permission to be on private property, he or she owns the rights to the audio and video in as far as it is "news". If you are there to document the event, you should be ok, just like you don't have to get model releases for the attendees.
If you wanted to send the same video to something like Americas Funniest Videos, someone would have to buy the rights or not include elements that belong to anyone else, since it's obviously not news but entertainment.
 
grinner, good call on deWolfemusic.com. I just checked them out and they seem like they will be a great solution for a documentary I am creating for a non-profit.
 
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