Download Music for use in Final Cut Pro

[Josh Woll]

As most of you know, any music you download from ITUNES, you have to struggle to import the file into Final Cut.

Is there a site to download/purchase music (preferably movie soundtracks) to use them in Final Cut?

I do wedding videography and I'm always wanting to use different and new music in my movies.

Thank you.

Josh Woll

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

The reason you "struggle" is because the tunes are protected by copyright laws, and it is illegal to use them in your wedding videos.
This forum does not permit informing readers as to the process of breaking those laws for the purpose of breaking other laws.

If you're not aware that using music from iTunes is a violation of copyright law and your agreement with Apple, you might want to read up on the subject, and read your agreement with Apple.

There are *many* royalty free music sites, but none of them will have movie soundtracks, as soundtracks are protected by copyright laws and may not be used in wedding videos without license. Licenses for a movie soundtrack produced in the last 10 years would start in the $5k range, depending on the film. Most would be in the 50k and up bracket.

[Vincent Rozenberg]

Wow! If it's in the USA like Douglas is describing than I've got to do with you guys! I almost can not imagine that it's like that.

Here in The Netherlands we have a of music right organization called the BUMA for collection of royalties. If I use a song for a tv show or corporate movie, I've to pay a certain amount of money to the organization. This is per 30 seconds and not that much of money (couple of tenners per 30 sec.). Basically this system works for any kind of production, like wedding vids. except commercials and big cinema movies, there are other rules for those. I have to provide my information to the organization and the organization is doing check-ups as well. So everybody happy in the end...

So since that, here you are allowed to use any kind of source file for your production, as long as you pay for it. Since there is DRM on iTunes files you can not import them directly into FCP. A workaround: burn the song on a CD and import from that.

And to say again, I can not imagine that it is that much different in the USA.

[Nate Weaver]

Originally Posted by Vincent Rozenberg

And to say again, I can not imagine that it is that much different in the USA.

It's very different in the USA, then.

People cheat and use music without official license all the time, but they put themselves at risk doing so. So it becomes an issue of what kind of risk each person is comfortable with. Some examples:

1-Wedding video. Wedding video guy puts in the latest Celine Dion song in the video he's doing. Bummer is, the bride's sister in L.A. (who receives a copy of the video in the mail) works for the publishing company that administers rights for the song. She feels she has no option but to report the video guy. Video guy gets nasty C&D in the mail from the publishing company's in house counsel. "Take it out, send us a new copy as proof, and MAYBE we won't sue you for licensing fees". Guy takes it out, sends it in, it's over. Can't get blood from a stone, and can't prove damages.

2-Little League baseball highlight video. Your son is on the team, you shoot all the games. Other parents want copies, you decide you'll make a highlight video at the end of the season. You want to recoup your DVD-R costs and maybe pocket a little for yourself. Incidentally, you put in "Eye of the Tiger" in the ending montage.

So you sell these for $15.00 a piece (cost plus a little), and through some equally bizarre and convoluted chain of events as above, somebody from the label or publishing company finds out.

This time, they send you a C&D, and DO sue you because you sold 50 of these DVDs, and have a paper trail to prove it.

--------------------------------------

These stories are kinda baloney because there's a lot of issues at hand, but it's not too far off the mark. I had the good fortune of having a job at a record label for 3 years that was run by an entertainment lawyer, and loved to tell stories and educate his office. His previous position was in-house counsel at CBS, so he definitely knew his business.

FYI, he also runs a call-in radio show in Los Angeles about entertainment law, where every week people call in all day about these issues! http://www.barelylegalradio.com/

[Steve House]

Originally Posted by Vincent Rozenberg

Wow! If it's in the USA like Douglas is describing than I've got to do with you guys! I almost can not imagine that it's like that.

Here in The Netherlands we have a of music right organization called the BUMA for collection of royalties. If I use a song for a tv show or corporate movie, I've to pay a certain amount of money to the organization. This is per 30 seconds and not that much of money (couple of tenners per 30 sec.). Basically this system works for any kind of production, like wedding vids. except commercials and big cinema movies, there are other rules for those. I have to provide my information to the organization and the organization is doing check-ups as well. So everybody happy in the end...

So since that, here you are allowed to use any kind of source file for your production, as long as you pay for it. Since there is DRM on iTunes files you can not import them directly into FCP. A workaround: burn the song on a CD and import from that.

And to say again, I can not imagine that it is that much different in the USA.

Not just the USA but here in Canada and many other places as well. There are clear distinctions between performance rights, reproduction rights, and what are called synchronization rights. A radio or TV station or a DJ can play a recording or a bar owner can put it on the juke box simply by paying a royalty to a rights clearance house such as ASCAP or BMI without much of a beaurocratic problem at all and for not an astronomical amount of money. But when you want to incorporate that same tune into a film or video production that will in turn be reproduced and sold, broadcast, or exhibited in public (and wedding, event, and corporate videos would be included in that), then a whole new can of worms gets opened and you must negotiate with the recording's copyright owners for permission to use the piece and pay whatever royalties they demand. If you can't negotiate them to an agreement at a price you can afford, well, those rights to the recordings of the music are their personal property (even if the "person" in question is a corporation) and you can't use the piece any more than you can use their car without their permission ... full stop. Continuing that analogy, you might be able to hear the music in public on the radio or as part of a theatre audience but that doesn't mean it's become fair game for anyone to use as they wish, any more than seeing your neighbor's car on public display while it's driving down the street means it's become available for public use without the owner's explicit permission.

Personally I have mixed feelings about mandatory licensing systems such as you describe. On the one hand, it ought to be able for a small producer to make, say, a wedding video for a client containing the couple's favourite songs without having to pay an arm and a leg for the rights to make those 3 or 4 copies of the video. On the other hand, I'm loathe for the government or the courts to have the audacity to tell private individuals what they can or cannot or must do with the fruits of their labor and that they must allow others to use them under X, Y, or Z circumstances. If I create a song recording or a video or a film, I should have the absolute authority to determine who can use it for what purpose and at what price and no government regulatory body has the right to make any ruling to limit that authority. The government's role is to help me enforce my rights. <<rant mode off>>

[Colin Willsher]

I worked for 10 years in music copyright at a major UK broadcaster. I'm not that familiar with how things work on the other side of the pond but similar to the BUMA agreement, through the MCPS in the UK you can buy an LAPL (Limited Availability Product Licence) for very short run projects like weddings and charity films etc. which allows you to acquire sync rights to any commercial tracks.

There are certain provisos including that you can't use more than one track by any particular artist and you have to display clear copyright messages etc. but it can be done for not too hefty a sum. You also need a similar licence from PPL for the use of the recording (MCPS only covers the publishing side) which is a little more expensive but still, it is quite possible to budget for and makes such a huge difference to the final film of course.

It seems silly that we can acquire these rights in the UK to use material from American artists and yet in America it's made so difficult.

Colin

[Dave Perry]

Originally Posted by Josh Woll

Is there a site to download/purchase music (preferably movie soundtracks) to use them in Final Cut?

Anyway, the way you use iTunes purchased music is to burn it to disc as an audio disc. Next, rip you disc to your hard drive and choose the aiff you want to use. It will need rendering in FCP since it's 44.1khz not the required 48khz audio. To convert it before hand just open it in QT PRO (you have it since you have FCP) and export it again as 48khz aiff.

This is how it's done, but, being a professional videographer, you already know about the perils you face using copyrighted music without permission in your own work for hire...so I won't bother you with the details.

[Mike Marriage]

Originally Posted by Colin Willsher

I worked for 10 years in music copyright at a major UK broadcaster. I'm not that familiar with how things work on the other side of the pond but similar to the BUMA agreement, through the MCPS in the UK you can buy an LAPL (Limited Availability Product Licence) for very short run projects like weddings and charity films etc. which allows you to acquire sync rights to any commercial tracks.

I have never managed to get any permissions from the MCPS. They don't even reply to my applications. I had given up on them but maybe I was unlucky. How did you find them?

[Colin Willsher]

Mike,

A lot of people say that! And sometimes it takes a while for them to understand what you're after but I haven't had too many problems with them.

Their website is: http://www.mcps.co.uk/

There really isn't much information on the LAPLs on the site - typing it into the search box will only give you a very brief summary. I think it is a relatively new thing and that there was talk they were planning to merge the whole process with PPL so that it was all on one form with one payment.

Strangely, Production Library Music is not part of the LAPL agreement and must be licensed via the normal rate card but you can get your commercial music (publishing) clearances for non-commercial products this way. But remember you also need to clear for the record label via a similar agreement with PPL. The PPL version is rather more restrictive as I think you can only make 4 copies (as opposed to 500 with MCPS) without it getting more costly. Fine for most weddings though and if they want more you just have to spell out the additional costs to the clients.

So call MCPS and just ask for details of a Limited Availability Product Licence - hopefully you should get through to someone who knows about it.

Good luck out there!

Colin

[Jim Michael]

Originally Posted by Josh Woll

I do wedding videography and I'm always wanting to use different and new music in my movies.

Why not find some independent artists producing their own music and make arrangements to use their work?

[Greg Boston]

Originally Posted by Josh Woll

As most of you know, any music you download from ITUNES, you have to struggle to import the file into Final Cut.

Is there a site to download/purchase music (preferably movie soundtracks) to use them in Final Cut?

I do wedding videography and I'm always wanting to use different and new music in my movies.

Thank you.

Josh Woll

There are plenty of stock music sites that you can buy royalty free music from. This is a great, inexpensive way to get 'variety' that you seek.

Another type of license we have is 'Creative Commons' and there is much music released under that structure.

http://creativecommons.org/about/lic...t-the-licenses

The stuff you want is out there, just takes a little time to look for it.

-gb-

[Steve House]

Originally Posted by Josh Woll

As most of you know, any music you download from ITUNES, you have to struggle to import the file into Final Cut.

Is there a site to download/purchase music (preferably movie soundtracks) to use them in Final Cut?

I do wedding videography and I'm always wanting to use different and new music in my movies.

Thank you.

Josh Woll

A library that has a good selection with very reasonable licensing terms in www.magnatunes.com

[Meryem Ersoz]

this guy has a good site of inexpensive classical music, including all the wedding favorites:

http://royalty-free-classical-music.org/

for the price, you really should buy the cut rather than use the itunes workaround. it's not fair to rip off the artists for commercial use.

however, i use the itunes workaround for my own home movies, and all you have to do is import into iMovie, put the file into the timeline, add a black slug of video which matches the length of the audio you're converting, and output straight to an AIFF file, which you can then drop into the FCP browser for import. once you've figured it out, it's pretty easy really. dave's suggested method works fine, too, but this method is fully digital and waste-free....

[Colin Willsher]

I do my share of wedding videos and run my own royalty free music site (a TV composer by trade) but I wouldn't choose royalty-free music for my wedding videos - not a great salesman am I?

I'm not saying there isn't a great deal of decent royalty-free music out there now, as some seem to think, just that there's a lot of value in having recognisable music in your production, particularly those such as wedding videos, and I don't mind paying a little extra for that as it really enhances the film and is personal to the couple too.

However, if I lived in the US, with the situation as it stands (i.e. expensive and time-consuming clearance issues) I might well think again.

[Steve House]

Originally Posted by Colin Willsher

I do my share of wedding videos and run my own royalty free music site (a TV composer by trade) but I wouldn't choose royalty-free music for my wedding videos - not a great salesman am I?

I'm not saying there isn't a great deal of decent royalty-free music out there now, as some seem to think, just that there's a lot of value in having recognisable music in your production, particularly those such as wedding videos, and I don't mind paying a little extra for that as it really enhances the film and is personal to the couple too.

However, if I lived in the US, with the situation as it stands (i.e. expensive and time-consuming clearance issues) I might well think again.

I do wish the North American recording industry would get their act together and set up some sort of reasonable clearance process such as they have in other countries. For the small producer it really should be no more difficult nor more expensive to clear a song for use in a limited distribution program such as a wedding video or corporate training program than it is for the local small-town radio station to play the latest hit tunes on the air. But I'm really opposed to government stepping in and mandating it - I'm a cantakerous libertarian enough to believe that sort of thing just isn't part of the legitimate role of government or within the scope of authority of the State.