Re-Selling Music on DVDs

T

Taylor R

Member
Hey everyone,

I apologize if this is in the wrong section.

I'm in a bit of a dilemma at the moment. I want to make a DVD of skateboarding tricks which I will be editing to music. I plan on selling this DVD to the public.

My problem is, is there any music out there that I can actually use in these DVDs that I will be selling? I know there is royalty-free music which you can use in your videos freely...but is it okay to actually sell the videos using that music?

Also, if anyone has any experience with getting permission from artists to use their music, please let me know how you went about doing that. Did you go straight to the artists, or to the company that holds their copyrights?

Thanks for any help!
 
Royalty free should be fine. If you want artists, you'd have to contact the companies/agents/etc unless that artists hold the copyright themselves.
 
All royalty-free libraries (aka buyout libraries) include with the purchase price the license to use and distribute the music as part of a larger production. This means that you can use it as score/bed for your skate videos and then sell them. What the library will not allow you to do is to sell the music itself as the front piece. In other words, you can't make a "mix tape" of library music and then sell it. And you would be in violation if you wrote lyrics to the music and sold that.

The only "royalty-free" library I know of that does not allow you to use it in anything commercial/professional/for-profit would be Smart Sound's "Movie Maestro," which was created for home-movie hobbyists who simply want to show their works to friends and family.

As for artist permission, you have a couple of options. You can go through ASCAP or BMI and pay out the wazoo for the copyright clearances, which is incredibly expensive and really the only option for securing rights to mainstream pieces. If you know an indie group, however, you might be able to negotiate an inexpensive, or even free, clearance since they might be looking to get exposure. For that, you'll go straight to the artist.
 
dewolfemusic.com is your friend. It aint free but it's quite affordable and you simpley cannot find a better bang for the buck.
Outside of that, especially for sk8ter vids, local bands are the natural solution. Thats free and far more edgy.
 
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