Quick question on music licensing for a low budget video

syn_zen

syn_zen

New member
Is there ever a time where you can use a song or music without licensing?

I've been hired to do a highlight video for a youth sports league and was wondering what my options were. The video will play on the organization's website. The client wants music in the video and I assume I would have to license something... Or would royalty free music work? Like I said the video won't be sold or broadcast but will play on the organization's website.

I really wish I knew more about this sort of thing... but I guess that's why I'm here...
 
Royalty free music would be the thing.... You can NEVER use someone elses music without permission or licensing... unless it is in the public domain or has a creative common license that allows you to use the music.... Royalty free music can be very inexpensive and had for as low as $8 a song on some sites like stock20... Just do a search for Royalty Free Music and take your pick...
 
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There are good, inexpensive collections at sites like freshmusic.com, sounddogs.com & music2hues.com. Available by the song or by disk. When you buy complete disks, they typically have several versions of each song at different lenghts, say 4:30, 2:30, 1:00, :30, :15, etc.
 
Just an FYI ... "Royalty Free" does not mean the music is free. You still need to license it and you normally have to pay for the license. "Royaly Free" means there are no additional on-going payments - royalties - due based on the number of times the film or video is played publically after the initial license fee has been paid. There are generally two types of royalty free music: buy-out libraries where you buy the cut for a one-time license fee and can use it as many times and in as many different productions as you wish in return; and needle-drop libraries where you pay a fee based on the number of times the cut is heard in a production as well as the duration of each occurance - a fee for each time the "needle drops" on the record and for each 30 seconds or portion of it plays during each drop, sort of thing.
 
Ok I've got a little update.

I ended up making the video for a small non-profit flag football organization. I found a song on freemusicarchive that has a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license attached to it. It allows for derivative works which as I understand is what you need to adapt a song to video. But what does the non-commercial part of the license encompass? Does that prevent me from be able to use the song, even though it's for nonprofit purposes? (it's a highlight video)
 
syn_zen said:
Ok I've got a little update.

I ended up making the video for a small non-profit flag football organization. I found a song on freemusicarchive that has a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license attached to it. It allows for derivative works which as I understand is what you need to adapt a song to video. But what does the non-commercial part of the license encompass? Does that prevent me from be able to use the song, even though it's for nonprofit purposes? (it's a highlight video)
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Commerical use isn't restricted to for profit. You've been hired to make the video. You're incorporating the music into the video you're making and delivering it to the client, upon which he pays you. That means you have used the music commercially. What your client does with it is immaterial ... YOU have used it in a commercial product which you have effectively sold to your client for in return for your fee. You're making some money from the video ... doesn't the music composer who made the song that makes a signifigant contribution to the success of your video deserve a piece of that action? Non-commercial use essentially means you are making the video for your own personal enjoyment and showing it to your friends and doing nothing more with it. Why not write to the copyright owner and see if he'll license it for no charge, since it's for a non-profit cause?
 
Thanks for the reply Steve. I'm starting to get a better understanding of CC... After doing some research it seems like a lot of the founding rules for CC are still in rough draft form but the non-commercial clause is clear to me now. My gut was telling me to go back and check the license on the song I used. Glad I did it. I'm not interested in screwing someone out of money or having something bad happen to the non-profit organization.

I did notice that several of the libraries I've been browsing offer CC music that allows for commercial use as long as you attribute the author (CC-BY license). I suppose that's what I'm looking for. Here are some of my findings on the subject:

http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Commercial_music

http://www.osnews.com/story/20575/Guide_to_Creative_Commons_Media_for_Videographers

It seems that even if a song is CC-BY you should still purchase a license according to Jamendo (http://pro.jamendo.com/en/faq/49/my-project-non-commercial-do-i-have-to-purchase-license):
Creative Commons BY and BY-SA licenses signify that the artists are not opposed to the commercial use of their music. This doesn't mean they don't wish to be paid for it.

A Jamendo PRO license legally guarantees that the commercial use you will make of the music (background music for a public place or multimedia project) will not entail any fees to be paid to performance rights organizations such as ASCAP, BMI, PRS, BUMA or SOCAN.

Simply downloading a track from Jamendo.com doesn't provide a sufficient guarantee that the artist is not a member of one of these organizations.
By purchasing a Jamendo PRO license, you will receive a certificate to present to representatives of these organizations in the event of an inspection.
Click to expand...

Looks like the Jamendo option of licensing is just an extra guarantee. Also, sorry for the mass edits, I'm just trying to get my facts straight.
 
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In addition to Creative Commons, license fees for regular royalty free commecial music libraries aren't always that onerous. Smartsound, for examples, has thousands of songs in their library, many of which sound very good, and only costs about $10 or $20 per track. Magnatunes has a very wide repertoire and their license fees are quite reasonable.
 
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