Using Chariots of Fire in promo video?

[Zeakio]

Hey guys,

Not too sure if this is the right spot to post... if it isn't please move it to where it should be

So for my church we are advertising for people to join the media team. And we'd like to use the Chariots of Fire song... my mate can play it on the keyboard, so if we used that recording, does that mean we are legally allowed to play it? Just looking to get some feedback on what is alright and what is a breach of copyright.

Thanks!

 

[Luis Caffesse]

Most music will have various rights attached to it - music rights, as well as recording rights.
If you record your own version you would not need to secure the recording rights - but you still need to secure the music rights from the person who holds them (in this case, presumably, Vangelis or the studio - not sure who owns the copyright on the music).
But - it's most definitely not in the public domain.

You may be better off looking through stock music sites for a 'sound alike' -
given that it's such a popular piece of music, I woudln't be surprised if you could find something very similar that you could buy for a few bucks.

On the other hand, I doubt Vangelis would sue you or the church - but he'd be well within his rights to do so as far as I know - but I'm not a lawyer.

 

[Steve House]

Hey guys,

Not too sure if this is the right spot to post... if it isn't please move it to where it should be

So for my church we are advertising for people to join the media team. And we'd like to use the Chariots of Fire song... my mate can play it on the keyboard, so if we used that recording, does that mean we are legally allowed to play it? Just looking to get some feedback on what is alright and what is a breach of copyright.

Thanks!

There is the copyright on the music itself - the melody and lyrics if there are any, not the case here of course. And then there are separate copyrights on any recording of the music. Since you'll be recording it yourself you don't have to worry about the latter (so called "Master Use" rights) but you still need a license to use the music itself. I presume you want to use it in a promo video - if that's t he case you need a synchonization license that allows you to make your own recording and place it alongside the images of your video. You typically get that from the music's publisher.

 

[Zeakio]

We ended thinking Chariots of Fire didn't suit the promo and we have just gone with some stock music from Soundtrack... the church has a CVLI license which means we can play certain movies in public, and we thought we could maybe just rip the music from one of the movies... but then we realised that the CVLI license doesn't carry across to youtube.. and we want to be able to add the promo to our youtube channel.

Thanks for the responses! It has been very helpful.

 

[Steve House]

We ended thinking Chariots of Fire didn't suit the promo and we have just gone with some stock music from Soundtrack... the church has a CVLI license which means we can play certain movies in public, and we thought we could maybe just rip the music from one of the movies... but then we realised that the CVLI license doesn't carry across to youtube.. and we want to be able to add the promo to our youtube channel.

Thanks for the responses! It has been very helpful.

Actually it doesn't mean you can play movies in public. That license allows you to play a film for viewing on your church property without charging an admission fee. What you have is a form of royalty-free performance license that would, for example, allow you to play a movie to entertain the rug-rats in a church-operated daycare centre, something that would be illegal if you just popped into the corner Blockbuster and rented a DVD. But copying music from the film is another issue all together and synching it into another video is even yet another issue. YouTtube or not, the only thing your CVLI license allows you to do is screen the movies intact on your church's property, it doesn't allow you to copy any portion of them, including ripping the music, for any other purpose.