Finally legal music

[Bill Dooling]

On DWF they are annoucing an agreement for photographers and Videographers to license popular music, 299.00 a year. Hope it comes true
http://www.digitalweddingforum.com/ubbthreads/

Bill

[Michael Liebergot]

Originally Posted by Bill Dooling

On DWF they are annoucing an agreement for photographers and Videographers to license popular music, 299.00 a year. Hope it comes true
http://www.digitalweddingforum.com/ubbthreads/

Bill

Agreed, great news if it comes true.
Kind of strange that a Photography organization would be the one to finally get the job done in regards to legal coywrited music.
Makes you wonder about the actual agenda of the large videography associations.
Although there is one (less than 2 years old) that was working on making this happen as well.

[Don Bloom]

I have my own opinions as to why something like this might happen by the photographer groups instead of video organizations.

First let me say I'm all for it no matter who does it...I've been saying for years that I would gladly pay a REASONABLE fee to use the music.
Now as to why I think the video organizations haven't gotten it done (to at least the point it is now) the new organization is just that, new and doesn't yet have the membership or agenda to be able to go to the music industry and put together a deal. The OLD organization (in my opinion) never had the power to go to the music industry nor did it seem that the top management really cared to go to the music industry and try to put to gether a deal. By power I mean they never had nor do they now have any authoratative power approach the music industry ( a VERY powerful organization) to put together a deal for using the music.
The photgraphy groups (be it PPA or whatever) have been around for a very long time and have some (at least) backing from many of the major manufacturers in their industry and if you look around at many of the photographers that do weddings (as 1 example) they are doing photo montages and of course want to use copyright music. They also do corporate type work (montages for seminars for example) and want to use copyright music. OH yeah, don't forget many photogs are also doing video. I know for myself I too have had many corp type jobs where they wanted to use copyright music and I have to explain the facts of "life" to them so we generally end up using some royalty free stuff which is fine but in some cases just doesn't have the "kick" of certain top 40 songs (old or new)
Anyway in my opinion the photgraphers got together as a strong group and went to the music industry big wigs and at least tried to make a deal that would be beneficial to them and us. Think about, if it were to be $300 per year and 10,000 videographers signed up the music industry just pick up an extra $3 million bucks to spread around to the various people (or put it in their pockets-who knows who cares)
Anyway I hope that something can be done that would be fair to us and them and frankly I don't care who gets it done.
That's just my opinion and you know what they say-opinions are like noses, everybody has 1.
Don

[Michael Liebergot]

Don, very well thought out response.
I never thought about the power of long standing photography groups, compared to videography groups.
Makes sense since video is viewed as a new medium compared to photography, especially in the event industry.

I also don't care who gets this done, as long as it finally gets done.
After all, why should the music industry waste time and money going after illegal use of copywrited music, when they can make as you said 3+ million bucks a year, just by selling licenses to those who would want to use their music legaly.

[Steve House]

I'm taking a wait and see attitude about this one - reading between the lines on the website referenced it sounds like it's going to be mainly indy bands and such licensing sites already exist. I think what people are hoping for is something like the performance licensing for broadcast and radio where you can play ANY song and then pay a fixed fee for its use to the rights clearing house.

[Don Bloom]

Oh I agree. There might be things going on about this issue that we are not aware of and while we can all hope that some sort of agreement can be worked out I too am taking a wait and see on this. IIRC something about using copyright music reared up maybe 10 or 12 years ago and it got nowhere but of course it wasn't as big an issue then as it is today.
I WISH they (whoever they are) could work something out though as it would be very good for us AND good for the music industry as well however as slow as some things move I'll probably be retired before they get around to it and then frankly, I won't care! :-)

Don

[Michael Stewart]

I noticed it says "independant" labels only, not the big boys.


Mike

[Michael Liebergot]

Originally Posted by Michael Stewart

I noticed it says "independant" labels only, not the big boys.


Mike

Even Indy bands are better than no bands.

Generally for event work, I need classic sounding music with appropriate vocals, that are not currrently available with royalty free music.

You can license indy music affordably now online, but it tends to be time consuming going through several catalogs.

Having one spot to preview and download songs from is a time saver in my book.

[Jason Robinson]

Originally Posted by Michael Liebergot

Even Indy bands are better than no bands.

Generally for event work, I need classic sounding music with appropriate vocals, that are not currrently available with royalty free music.

You can license indy music affordably now online, but it tends to be time consuming going through several catalogs.

Having one spot to preview and download songs from is a time saver in my book.

THat has been my problem. I focus my scoring on whatI know best, Classical Music (having been a Piano performance major in college). There are few sites that bother with classical music, let alone classical music worth buying. I did find that Magatune.com has som classical music and their licensing for DVD use is simple to understand, though possibly expensive. The real trick is finding the music I need. I have specific moods in mind and with my experience in classical music, I usually know exactly what piece I want to use, be it Vivaldi's Winter 2nd movement, or Tiger Rag played by the Canadian Brass. The trick is finding that music since few royalty free publishers have a library large enough to offer me all the possible choices I need.

I should point out that I do not have any involvement with Magnatune.com other than as a customer, though I have yet to license any of their music because of the expensive license for wedding videos. To license one of their songs for a 50 unit run of a wedding video (wedding videos being specifically described in their license page) would cost $110. That is a bit hefty considering that a single wedding video could require as many as 5-8 unique songs. For 3 songs used on a production run of less than 20 DVDs is $75.

I have been eyeing shockwave-sound.com because you buy the song and then can use it on as many productions as you want. That allows more economic use and doesn't strip away (as much) from the profitability of a production.

jason