so, i'm making a ski flm. At the begining, it was small prject to fill my gap year. since then, it has snowballed and has been reciving a large amount of press and i am now thinking that i might have to pay for the rights to the music we are using. apparently, and correct me if i'm wrong, under UK law if i produce under 500 copies (499) then i do not have to pay for the rights to any copyright material used. i now have an estimate of the numbber of copies that will be sold, through stores and online and it is above the 500 mark.

how do i go about finding out how much the rights to each song cost? do i have to contact each lable or the artist's who's music we are using? or is there a website where such info can be found?

regards.

Unless the UK has recently passed some laws that I'm unaware of with regard to copyright and licensing, you're *way* off the mark. As a commercial, sellable, renewable enterprise, you cannot manufacture "up to 500 DVDs" without paying license fees.
As far as how to go about finding the copyright holder...it's quite easy.

http://www.dvinfo.net/articles/business/copyrightfaq1.php

So, using your logic... I can make up to 499 copies of your film, sell them for a profit, and not have to pay you, the copyright holder, at all? Then have me mum do the same thing?
Spot is right. You should have been paying all along.