Copyrighted Music usage

[Tower of Lunatic Meat]

I know it's been done; copyrighted music being used without consent in a video. Guilty party here (thought I was covered under 'Fair Use' because I wasn't making a profit from anything I made)

I know we all have songs that we want to use for a video and looking for the royalty free stuff just isn't cutting it.

But has anyone here actually tried to get the legal 'okay' to use music for a video? If so, what advice is there to go about doing so?

All I know so far is that the music will more than likely NOT be covered under fair use (because the music itself does not educate the audience about the composers or the content that it was a part of. And even though I'd only be using half the songs length I believe that this falls under using the 'core' of the song) and that acquiring consent requires 2 licenses (in the US, it's synchronization license and master use license).

Has anyone tried going through ASCAP or anything like this?

 

[WitchDocIsIn]

I would say it's a good idea to start with the artist - contact them and make the request. There's a lot of musicians out there that just want the credit or a small fee. My favorite band has stated before that as long as they are allowed to approve the video first, they won't charge for the music use in many cases.

I will note - I've never tried to get proper permission for a song. I have decided to use either royalty free music, or my own instead.

 

[Tower of Lunatic Meat]

I would say it's a good idea to start with the artist - contact them and make the request. There's a lot of musicians out there that just want the credit or a small fee. My favorite band has stated before that as long as they are allowed to approve the video first, they won't charge for the music use in many cases.

I will note - I've never tried to get proper permission for a song. I have decided to use either royalty free music, or my own instead.

That is a good idea going straight to the artist. I will say I had a devil of the time trying to find the specific composer I was trying to find. Ended up finding an actual webpage, but no email address; weird.

It gets a little more confusing as I'm trying to track down a Japanese composer and their label. As well as research how/if both the Japanese and US copyright laws interact/conflict with each other. I figure since the label of the piece and the composer are both based in Japan, that the copyright laws I would need to go by would be only the Japanese laws--especially since I can't find the composer listed in ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC.

I'm not going to lie, I'm having a bit of fun with this

 

[RealityOne]

As well as research how/if both the Japanese and US copyright laws interact/conflict with each other. I figure since the label of the piece and the composer are both based in Japan, that the copyright laws I would need to go by would be only the Japanese laws--especially since I can't find the composer listed in ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC.

Japanese laws would not control usage of a copyright in the United States. As an absurd example, if Japan passed a law making it illegal to do a double lift, they could not prosecute someone in Nevada for doing a double lift. However, if you post something on the internet and it can be viewed in Japan that MAY be covered under Japanese law. We won't get into whether a U.S. resident could be sued in Japan for the violation of a copyright resulting from uploading a video from Nevada but the answer is probably not. Nonetheless, if someone has a copyright in Japan they most likely have a copyright in the United States because any publication results in a common law copyright. For example, if you typed up a set of lecture notes and at the bottom of the first page indicated "(c) Hurly Magic 2015" you would have a copyright on those lecture notes. I'll admit that I"m a lot more familiar with copyright law as it relates to writing and computer code (and patent and trademark law) than copyright law as it relates to music, so take this as steering you in the right direction and not as the infallible truth. There was a series of articles in Genii a year or so ago on intellectual property law and magic. If you subscribe to Genii you can find them in its archives.

 

[meggisonj]

According to my buddy that went to school for filmmaking you need two written "okays" one from the artist and one from the production company.

Also "fair use" is only available if in 1 of 2 ways.. (I've heard them both but don't know which is accurate. I've heard them both from books.) 1 way is 30 years after it's produced and no one relicenses it (newer reference). The other says the artist has to be dead for 50 years. I know this doesn't help with you mission.. but I feel some people will understand that "because it's not a commercial video they can't use any music they wish.

 

[Tower of Lunatic Meat]

All right. Got an unexpectedly fast email from JASRAC. I was expecting this to go the length of a couple months.

The short answer is 'no'.

The long answer was that because of the content I wanted to convey in the video, and because it didn't fit the animation that the video would be going to; I wouldn't be able to use the particular song.

Now, this isn't to say that all cardists shouldn't pursue copyright acquisition; it's just that Im shooting more for a PSA that uses cardistry as opposed to just a regular skill-display video.
They shot me down because of the content and message I wanted to convey.
I'm thumbing through songs in my library and I think I'll try going through American channels and see what I can get from that. But I'll need to pick a new song that matches or comes close to the 'impact' I want it to have.
So I'll be exploring the royalty free route because that's going to be he least invasive way to go (especially since my library is about 80% stuff that will more than likely get rejected by legal channels)

Thanks to everyone for the posts and advice! This has been quite a fast learning experience.

If anyone is curious, this was the song in question:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xdmUAPWIiek