I'm in Music City and was checking out the competition and came across several wedding videographers who used a lot of popular tunes as music for their videos. It looked great together with the music but I kept wondering if they had/needed licenses to be able to use these songs with their video. Perhaps if only for personal use vs video broadcast it would be ok? I've always used either the client's soundtrack that they sing/play or music I've licensed.
Are wedding videos somehow ignored or are all these folks licensing the music?

Well, they're SUPPOSED to have licenses, probably they do not... This has been discussed at length and with some vigor in the wedding forums, dig up those threads, you'll know more (and be less certain of things!) than you could ever imagine... There are differing schools of thought, and until they get battled out in courtrooms, well, it's a bit of a mess!

And once on the Internet, it IS "broadcast"... and I won't even beging to argue that as legally defensable, end of discussion on that level. The Net and the digital revolution has created some serious IP issues that IMO the law has yet to catch up with... I'd rather not be the guy helping make the law while conducting an actual defense of having used someone elses music on my website without permission.

Is it done, yes... is it legal... no, not without proper permission. Is there a simple way to secure said permissions... ugh, don't go there, just review the history here on DVI, you'll know all you care to, and more, and likely STILL not have a definitive answer to all the aspects of the question!

There are very smart and strong arguments on all sides of the issue that would make Clarence Darrow proud...

Most importantly from your description you're "doing it right", and that's what matters in the end.

Thanks Dave,

Yup I was gonna do a pro-bono shoot of a fund raiser and the premission thing basically killed it even though I wasn't going to sell the end product per se.

Suppose the best source would be one of the licensing outlets....are they legit?

I'll go into the Wedding area and search for this.

Thanks
Harry

I can say with 99% certainty that your competitors are simply operating illegally. Yes, they do need licenses to use the music, but unfortunately those licenses are virtually impossible to come by. It's not just that they'd be too expensive, but also that there is no practical method to secure those licenses.