Songfreedom.com and copyright music on vimeo/youtube

J

jordy2324

Well-known member
I've noticed there's a large number of videos on vimeo and youtube that use copyrighted music. Youtube used to deny the video from being uploaded, but now I think they sometimes just slip an ad in there with an iTune/Amazon link to buy the song. It seems Vimeo doesn't care as much....er... at all and tons of copyrighted music gets through.

I'm looking to edit a wedding trailer with highlights from a few different weddings. In those videos, I used mainly creative commons music from Jamendo. But I'd like to use a more popular, mainstream song for this cut.

Now, I know that I could use whatever song I wanted and upload it to Vimeo. I've never heard of anyone getting in trouble for their music content on Vimeo. But something just bugs me about the fact that it is illegal, even if it's as commonplace rule-breaking as jaywalking. So obviously I don't want to do that.

Which brings me to... alternatives. One site I found is songfreedom.com, where you pay a yearly fee to use a select set of copyrighted music for streaming/dvd purposes. But the selection is pretty sparse. Really sparse. Songfreedom seems like a good cost-alternative to individually licensing songs.... but, like I said, the selection is just blah.

So... what do site/method do you use to stay legal, yet provide the new and trendy pop songs that a client wants without having to charge them two arms and leg for?

Also, please feel free to share your favorite creative commons music sites. Incomptech and Jamendo have been helpful, but I'm looking for a new place with new songs.
 
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Youtube is now controlled by these major record companies, it used to be a fun place to enjoy homemade films etc etc! But with that being said I heard of a place awhile back to get copyright free songs, here is a little vid about it.
 
weplaywithtraffic said:
Youtube is now controlled by these major record companies, it used to be a fun place to enjoy homemade films etc etc! But with that being said I heard of a place awhile back to get copyright free songs, here is a little vid about it....
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Not to be picky, but there's almost no such thing as "Copyright Free" music that's not older that 1922. True, a few songs have been placed in the public domain by their copyright owners but they're rare. Copyright is automatic and exists from the moment the music is written down and someone always owns that copyright. It may not be registered with the government copyright office but lack of registration doesn't mean it doesn't exist. And if you want to use that music you must have permission of the copyright owner. He may choose to charge you a fee or he may choose not to but you need his permission in every case.

The link you posted sounds like just another production music library to me, not much different than, say Smartsounds, but probably without the selection and diversity of the established libraries. And despite their claim that there's some secret way of getting access to the most recent songs that's closely held by the big-time Hoillywood studios, that's not really true. The reason Speilberg and Cameron get access to the big-time pop songs is they PAY composers to write them, artists to record them, and marketing firms to get them into radio stations all over the country. They don't buy pop music, they commission the creation of music and make it popular.
 
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Steve House said:
Not to be picky, but there's almost no such thing as "Copyright Free" music that's not older that 1922.
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And it's worth pointing out that a recent recording of, say, a Mozart opera is protected by copyright on the recording itself. There are separate rights for the composition, the lyrics and the recording, rarely are all those rights held by one party.
 
Thanks for the advice on Friendly Music and Smart Sound.

Does anyone know of a place like songfreedom.com that licenses "popular" music for a not-so-outrageous price. Songfreedom is affordable, but the selection is meh.
 
jordy2324 said:
Thanks for the advice on Friendly Music and Smart Sound.

Does anyone know of a place like songfreedom.com that licenses "popular" music for a not-so-outrageous price. Songfreedom is affordable, but the selection is meh.
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The only person that can license the music is the copyright owner, generally the music's publisher. The simple fact that a song is popular means usage of that song is intrinsically valuable and the copyright owner will naturally charge a higher fee than for an obscure song no one is buying. It's all about supply and demand and popular is high demand by definition.


Outrageous pricce is a matter of perspective. $100 might be considered too high by a small town wedding shooter. $50000 is pocket change for NBC.
 
Steve House said:
The only person that can license the music is the copyright owner, generally the music's publisher. The simple fact that a song is popular means usage of that song is intrinsically valuable and the copyright owner will naturally charge a higher fee than for an obscure song no one is buying. It's all about supply and demand and popular is high demand by definition.


Outrageous pricce is a matter of perspective. $100 might be considered too high by a small town wedding shooter. $50000 is pocket change for NBC.
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I think (again, not sure) that the premise of songfreedom.com is that it pays the major labels the big money to license their songs. Then, they spread their overhead cost to many users who pay like $300 a year for a limited number of legal, licensed uses. That way, average Joes like myself can legally use these songs with proper licensing. However -- like I stated -- the selection is sparse. So I'm wondering if there's a similar service like songfreedom but one that has a larger selection.
 
The best one IMO, was created by stillmotion which ran into the same problems as you did. Gives you licensed movies you can use on your production for five years. After five years you need to renew to continue creating content with that music. You will notice it was created by a videographer because the music is sorted by speed, slow, fast or medium, so you can match it up to parts of your video. The only problem is that all your stuff is going to sound like a stillmotion or nooma videos.
https://withetiquette.com/info/
Haven't explored these, but my eyes will probably bleed from trying to find something usable:
http://triplescoopmusic.com/
http://stock20.com/commerce/index.php
http://www.revostock.com/
http://musicbakery.com/
 
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