Introduction: How to Handle Music Licensing?
About: Imaculate Johnson is a Content Writer by profession. She is a seasonal writer at a copywriting firm since 2004, and has wrote many informative content for hundreds of clients and websites. She also manages var…
The music licensing is an interesting field to analyze. In this field the rights of using music are sold and purchased every day. Any popular song embedded in a famous movie or TV commercial is a good example of it. Music licensing happens frequently all around us. It is interesting to note that the music you listen on radio is licensed. You visit any restaurant and hear music there even this music is also licensed. Music licensing is found to occur in different forms.
The basics of music licensing -
In the United States, music licensing happens because of the U.S. copyright law protection for artists. The copyright code found in the United States gives the copyright protection in sound recordings. The sound recordings are works coming from fixation of a series of spoken, musical and other sounds. These do not include the sounds accompanying any motion picture and other audiovisual work. Few examples are recordings of drama, music or lectures.
Copyright in sound recordings protect the particular sounds series fixed or embodied in any recording. This helps against the unauthorized phonorecords distribution having these sounds, unauthorized reproduction or revision and certain unauthorized performances using digital audio transmission.
There are many things that are copyrighted in a song’s sound recording. These are -
1. The actual sounds which represent the work performance.
2. The musical notes played for creating a song. These might be embodied in the sheet music.
3. The lyrics of any song that are often written on a paper sheet.
Tips to obtain copyrights of a song -
1. Firstly, complete your creation work with full effort. You create a piece of music and give any name to it. After that you record it on a tape by making use of an electronic keyboard. Then you create lyrics of a song that matches the melody of recorded music. After that you play the music and sing the song you have written and record this activity on a tape recorder.
2. You can send this tape to the copyright office in U.S. with the appropriate forms as well as registration fee. After you do this you will own the copyrights of the song, lyrics, as well as actual performance that are recorded on the tape.
3. This registration process to be performed in a copyright office is officially not necessary for owning the copyright. When you create a song and write it you own the copyright that time only.
4. But, registration is needed for enforcing the copyright in a court.
5. When you obtain the copyrights, you can sell the rights of the song at your wish. You can also stop anyone from using your music, lyrics and actual performance of this song.
6. You own the complete songs and rights related to it. You can even license the song if you wish.
The significance of music licensing -
In case of real songs which you hear on a radio top-40 play-list, you will find many different parties associated with these songs. These are -
1. The label owning actual sound recording. The song performance is recorded in label's studio.
2. The publisher working on behalf of song's writer and composer. Probably, the songwriter and composer own actual copyrights of the song. The publisher is representing them in different business dealings.
If any person wants to use a song for some purpose he will have to obtain the rights at least from publisher. It would be better if he obtains from label also particularly for situations where he wants to use any specific performance. Few examples where you need to get rights are -
1. You have a radio station and wish to play any song on it.
2. You have a restaurant and wish to play different songs and music downloads .
3. You are planning to make a commercial and wish to utilize a song in it.
4. You are planning to make a toy and want it to play any song when a kid presses a button.
5. You want to make an interesting video production and wish to use a song for background music.
Perhaps, close to half a billion dollars exchange hands in the form of licensing fees every year.
Steps involved in obtaining music licenses through BMI and ASCAP –
1. The owners of a restaurant or radio station wanting to play or broadcast music require the public performance rights. These are necessary for playing music that general public would hear in different ways. The first step is to know the details of authorities involved in this process.
2. The public performance rights licensing are handled by two companies called ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) and BMI (Broadcast Music Incorporated). These are meant for simplification of the process. Each of them takes care of a catalog of close to 4,000,000 songs. You should familiarize yourself with them.
3. The next step is that the radio station should typically buy from BMI and ASCAP the blanket licenses for broadcasting music. This blanket license would allow the station to play anything it wishes throughout the year.
4. BMI and ASCAP would make a decision of dividing money among different rights owners. You should note that any establishment wanting to play music which general public would hear also requires a license.
Steps involved in obtaining music licenses for films and commercials –
1. Those people willing to use a song in a radio or TV commercial require from label a Master Use license (unless you want to re-record the performance).
2. They also need a Synchronization license (in case of TV) and Transcription license (in case of radio) to be obtained from publisher.
3. They should carefully understand the fee structure involved. The synchronization licenses fees vary with the usage and song’s importance. In low-end TV usage the fees are comparatively less. A more famous song would fetch greater amount that could be $25,000 for film and $3,000 for TV. The song used in the main theme would get much higher amount.
4. The commercials can get you even more money as you can not use free music in them also. The typical range for a popular song is from $75,000 to $200,000 for one year national usage on television and radio in the United States.
5. Mostly you would get the licenses required through some clearing organizations that handle the licenses on everyday basis.
The basics of music licensing -
In the United States, music licensing happens because of the U.S. copyright law protection for artists. The copyright code found in the United States gives the copyright protection in sound recordings. The sound recordings are works coming from fixation of a series of spoken, musical and other sounds. These do not include the sounds accompanying any motion picture and other audiovisual work. Few examples are recordings of drama, music or lectures.
Copyright in sound recordings protect the particular sounds series fixed or embodied in any recording. This helps against the unauthorized phonorecords distribution having these sounds, unauthorized reproduction or revision and certain unauthorized performances using digital audio transmission.
There are many things that are copyrighted in a song’s sound recording. These are -
1. The actual sounds which represent the work performance.
2. The musical notes played for creating a song. These might be embodied in the sheet music.
3. The lyrics of any song that are often written on a paper sheet.
Tips to obtain copyrights of a song -
1. Firstly, complete your creation work with full effort. You create a piece of music and give any name to it. After that you record it on a tape by making use of an electronic keyboard. Then you create lyrics of a song that matches the melody of recorded music. After that you play the music and sing the song you have written and record this activity on a tape recorder.
2. You can send this tape to the copyright office in U.S. with the appropriate forms as well as registration fee. After you do this you will own the copyrights of the song, lyrics, as well as actual performance that are recorded on the tape.
3. This registration process to be performed in a copyright office is officially not necessary for owning the copyright. When you create a song and write it you own the copyright that time only.
4. But, registration is needed for enforcing the copyright in a court.
5. When you obtain the copyrights, you can sell the rights of the song at your wish. You can also stop anyone from using your music, lyrics and actual performance of this song.
6. You own the complete songs and rights related to it. You can even license the song if you wish.
The significance of music licensing -
In case of real songs which you hear on a radio top-40 play-list, you will find many different parties associated with these songs. These are -
1. The label owning actual sound recording. The song performance is recorded in label's studio.
2. The publisher working on behalf of song's writer and composer. Probably, the songwriter and composer own actual copyrights of the song. The publisher is representing them in different business dealings.
If any person wants to use a song for some purpose he will have to obtain the rights at least from publisher. It would be better if he obtains from label also particularly for situations where he wants to use any specific performance. Few examples where you need to get rights are -
1. You have a radio station and wish to play any song on it.
2. You have a restaurant and wish to play different songs and music downloads .
3. You are planning to make a commercial and wish to utilize a song in it.
4. You are planning to make a toy and want it to play any song when a kid presses a button.
5. You want to make an interesting video production and wish to use a song for background music.
Perhaps, close to half a billion dollars exchange hands in the form of licensing fees every year.
Steps involved in obtaining music licenses through BMI and ASCAP –
1. The owners of a restaurant or radio station wanting to play or broadcast music require the public performance rights. These are necessary for playing music that general public would hear in different ways. The first step is to know the details of authorities involved in this process.
2. The public performance rights licensing are handled by two companies called ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) and BMI (Broadcast Music Incorporated). These are meant for simplification of the process. Each of them takes care of a catalog of close to 4,000,000 songs. You should familiarize yourself with them.
3. The next step is that the radio station should typically buy from BMI and ASCAP the blanket licenses for broadcasting music. This blanket license would allow the station to play anything it wishes throughout the year.
4. BMI and ASCAP would make a decision of dividing money among different rights owners. You should note that any establishment wanting to play music which general public would hear also requires a license.
Steps involved in obtaining music licenses for films and commercials –
1. Those people willing to use a song in a radio or TV commercial require from label a Master Use license (unless you want to re-record the performance).
2. They also need a Synchronization license (in case of TV) and Transcription license (in case of radio) to be obtained from publisher.
3. They should carefully understand the fee structure involved. The synchronization licenses fees vary with the usage and song’s importance. In low-end TV usage the fees are comparatively less. A more famous song would fetch greater amount that could be $25,000 for film and $3,000 for TV. The song used in the main theme would get much higher amount.
4. The commercials can get you even more money as you can not use free music in them also. The typical range for a popular song is from $75,000 to $200,000 for one year national usage on television and radio in the United States.
5. Mostly you would get the licenses required through some clearing organizations that handle the licenses on everyday basis.
