Spec Ad Music - What's Legal?

Vern

Vern

Active member
I'm planning on doing a spec commercial, and I'm having a tough time finding info on what sort of music, and to what extent, I can legally use.

I want to use a copyrighted song, but I'm afraid of copyright consequences. Is there some sort of exception/loop-hole for a spec ad?

Maybe someone has a link to spec commercial requirements or something...

(Sorry if this is the wrong place to post)

Thanks.
 
I'd say that it'd be near impossible to get away with using copyrighted music in an ad of any kind without purchasing the rights. There's a vast market out there of copyright free music you can purchase a membership to, and probably find something very similar to what you had in mind. Otherwise, you run the risk of lawsuit which would be far more expensive in the long run. Just my 2 cents
 
chapelgrovefilms said:
I totally agree with RandomHero. (And this would have been better in the "Business/Post Production" section, I think.)

Good luck!
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Thats true.

But....

With a spec ad, if you dont publish it and want to use a piece of music, I would keep it in and only let the "Intended Viewer" see it.

Im going to reiterate my point - DO NOT PUBLISH IT. But, you should be able to tell the intended company the cost of obtaining licence to use the copyright material, or at least have it included in your costing if they are to purchase your spec.
 
Noel Evans said:
Thats true.

But....

With a spec ad, if you dont publish it and want to use a piece of music, I would keep it in and only let the "Intended Viewer" see it.

Im going to reiterate my point - DO NOT PUBLISH IT. But, you should be able to tell the intended company the cost of obtaining licence to use the copyright material, or at least have it included in your costing if they are to purchase your spec.
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A cautionary thought to add - sometimes a client might fall in love with your piece as submitted and insist on keeping the placeholder music in it. But it might turn out the rights to the music you used are too expensive or perhaps even not obtainable at all (after all, a copyright holder isn't required to license it to you) you could find yourself in a real bind.
 
Steve House said:
A cautionary thought to add - sometimes a client might fall in love with your piece as submitted and insist on keeping the placeholder music in it. But it might turn out the rights to the music you used are too expensive or perhaps even not obtainable at all (after all, a copyright holder isn't required to license it to you) you could find yourself in a real bind.
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If it came down to that, where the spec ad was done with copyrighted music, even if you don't publish it but want to show it to the client, do the research up front for just how much it would take to obtain that song. That way, they know what it would cost to get the ad just like that, or have the option to try and find a copyright-free song of a similar type. Either way, I'd still say it's risky business.
 
The bottom line is be safe. Go to one of the hundreds of royalty-free music sites and pick one of the songs from there. Pay the $30 or so and then you have nothing to worry about.

You can do a search in this forum for royalty-free music to find a list of the sites - everyone here seems to have their own favorite.

Phil
 
what if I am making a spec ad for, let's say, Febreze. And they have a very specific little tune that they use in all their commercials.

If I can get my hands on that same tune, would it be okay to use it?

I want to send it to them, and see if they like it enough to buy it. But if they don't, I still want to be able to put it on my demo reel and upload to youtube etc.
 
Your not going to get into legal troubles using copyrighted music in a spec ad. It's the same as temp music used in films. As long as it's never played in public you should be fine. BUT you could get into real trouble with the client if they want your ad and you can't get the rights to the music. I have been on two films with budgets that ran into that problem (one at around $30 mill, and one well over $200 mil), neither could get the rights, it wasn't a question of $$$ they just couldn't get the rights from the copyright holder. So you should at least make sure that for some amount of money you could get the rights. Otherwise your just shooting yourself in the foot.

BTW (Jungle Media) you are in Canada, so you should be extra careful about rights. It's a criminal offense up there and not just the civil one it is in the states. If I use some song with out rights I can have the film shut down, you can go to jail.
 
Thing is, a spec ad is an item for your portfolio/reel. It's not something you make to send to the specific featured product's agency in the hopes that they will buy it and use it as is in that product's campaign. Rather, it is something you make to circulate through the industry to showcase what you can do with the hope that someone will hire you to make other similarly wonderful ads for their own product. Indeed, a spec ad isn't necessarily for a real product at all. And as soon as you start circulating the ad to potential clients, you are publishing it and you run the risk of copyright issues arising from any materials such as music you include should the copyright owners wish to make an issue of it. Indeed, publsihing your work publically to a public made up of the advertising industry is the whole reason for specs ads to exist. Placeholder music used internally while posting a production is one thing and since it stays "in-house" its use shouldn't be a problem but the music in a spec ad is not placeholder music by a long shot.
 
Yep I've seen a demo by a small goup of studio musos who performed the specially written tune .. totally rejected by the client when they heard the finished 30pce orchestral version .. in favour of the demo which they (and their families I suspect) fell in love with. So watch out in that dept.

A good example is the opening credits for the TV show Law & Order. I'll bet pounds to peanuts they use Mike Posts demo in favour of the finished version which the producers may not have even got to record.

I seem to remember you can change 2 beats in every bar of a published tune, before you infringe copyright. A clever arranger can thus write a version of a pop song and get away with it. I could be wrong tho.

Cheers.
 
What you can get away with I think varies country to country. The Beatles lost on 9 notes. In the US it's been basically if you can recognize it it's a steal. There are however folks who do nothing but sound-alike music and some times they seem awfully close so?

Part of the problem here is going to be "legal" VS standard practice. Peoples reels are filled with infringement, it would be near impossible to put together a reel that had any major works with out infringing. But even rights holders have told me not to worry about it. And one was a lawyer for one of the more litigious film producers. I don't know but I suspect that a "spec ad" as Steve describes it would also fall into the don't look don't tell category, but I would ask some agencies that have done one and see what the standard practice is. The only "spec ads" I have done (not many) were aimed at getting one companies business and were not sent out to a bunch of places. So that is what I was assuming in my prior posts.
 
Ok so for this Febreze spec ad that I plan to make, what if I have my music composer create a song that just sounds very similar to their tune? Is that okay?


I just want to be able to upload it publicly, since Febreze is a big company I doubt they'll buy my ad. But I do want to send it to them, and I think they would prefer hearing their standard music since they always use the some tune.
 
I agree with the others. This differs country to country and case by case, and it's a minefield. The best intentioned stuff you do, could blow up in your face.

Alison, how long do you think they've been using *their* standard tune, months, years .. maybe it's time for a change. I'd spend some time choosing or recording new music. Use theirs as a kinda template, same tempo different tune, but just make it better :) It's easy :)

But if you use theirs you have to let them know and they may not give you permission to publish it on the web. That would be based on the fact, then they'd have to let anyone do it.

Be careful and good luck.

Cheers.
 
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