Audio Recording

Music and songs are legally available in two major forms:

a. Copyrighted
b. Public domain

Naturally, if you use music or songs that belong to the public domain then you will not need to get permission. However things are very different if the music is copyrighted. This is where a lot of confusion can take place. This is a complete tutorial for a beginner in knowing how to get permission to use copyrighted music.

Step1.) Find the music publisher of the copyrighted music

You need to know the music publisher of the song. Music publisher administers copyrighted work that includes the songs/music. This is where you need to obtain permission to use music. In most cases, this is not available so you need to do some research. You can start with the artist or the songwriter of the song. You will know the artist or songwriter by examining the ID3 tags information of the MP3 file (or CD in-lay for CD album).

The ID3 tags information can be found by right-clicking the mp3 file then go to “Properties” – “Summary”. Other mp3 players such as an iPod provide this information much easily.

Once you know the artist, album and other information pertaining to the song; you should then know how to perform a song copyright search to find out the music publisher of the song.

Another clue to find out where you have download or obtained the song; if it is coming from a website, try to check what are the terms and conditions attached. Does it include information about the publisher? A good way is to contact the website owner representing the songs. Most of the time, website owner is not the music publisher but they know whom to contact if you are interested in using the songs.

Step2.)Describe how you will use the music to the publisher

Beginner music licensees often provide vague information as to how they are going to use the song in their projects. To speed up the licensing process and to get the reasonable licensing fee; you should be providing detailed information to the music publisher.

Once you have the contact information of the music publisher, provide them with the following information (they will be using the obtained information in issuing a license):

1.) Title and details of the project –if it’s a movie project, describe how the music would be used in your movie. Even though a lot of licensees often miss the details; some music publishers need to know what your project is all about. There are some sensitive topics that music publishers do not want their work to be included.

2.) Enumerate what music rights are you planning to exploit and why? – This is slightly complicated. A lot of licensee does not know these rights; below are some of the most common:

a.) Synchronization rights – if you want to use the song in your film, video or TV project. This would synchronize the song with the picture of the video/film/TV project. Even a slideshow with pictures exploit sync rights if you are planning to add copyrighted music to it.

b.) Mechanical rights – if you want to use the song and have it included, sold/distributed in mechanical units such as CD, DVD, Blue ray, etc. If the music publisher is represented by the mechanical licensing agent such as Harry Fox agency:

http://www.harryfox.com/index.jsp

Then you need to ask permission from them and not to the music publisher.

c.) Performance rights – some music publishers are also represented by performing right societies. These are ASCAP/BMI in the US or Filscap in the Philippines. You know this in your copyright search in the previous steps. For example, the song “Summer of 69” by Bryan Adams is published by Almo Music Corporation

And this is an ASCAP publisher as shown below:

If they are represented, you need to ask permission to the society and not to the music publisher.

Performance right is a right to publicly perform the copyrighted music. This includes having them publicly shown on-air on TV (such as included in featured shows); or played on radio. This also includes performing the song on the public such as in the live venue/concert.

d.) Master recording rights – the music publisher does not always own these rights. Some independent music publishers do. The owner of this is mostly the recording label of the artist. If the artist is self-produced or even self-published; then the artist itself is both the publisher and also own the sound recording/master recording.

As a background, this is the right to use the sound recording in your projects. One of the most commonly exploited music rights.

Case Example: For a video producer wanting to use copyrighted music in his commercial video projects, the following rights are needed to be cleared:

a.) Sync rights- using the music along with the video content.
b.) Mechanical rights – putting the music in a video content and distributed as DVD, etc for sale.
c.) Master recording rights – using the master sound recording of the music.

Take note that the producer does not need to be cleared with performing rights because the producer won’t be showing the content publicly.

3.) Include the other important details such as:

a.) Scope territory- where you would like the work to be published (state the country, territories, etc.).

b.) Period – indicate the date/inclusive months.
c.) Exclusive or non-exclusive?
d.) Licensing budget

4.) Send all the information in an email or music publisher supplied form. Then the publisher would take a look at your licensing request and process it. It can take some time, so make sure you do this in the starting phase of your project to avoid delays.