copyright music in a short ??

[John Paton]

Hi there

I have written about a hundred stories all with a comedic bent and I have filmed some of them with pro actors and crew. The intention for the ones that have been filmed is to present them to some local networks as a pilot for a series.

I have used some songs that are protected by copyright but as they are not intended for general release but for viewing within the TV Industry I don't see any issues at this stage.

However one or two stand out as excellent short films - 5 mins or so in length. I am thinking of sending these off to some short film festivals.

One of the shorts has the last few bars of "That's the way uh uh I like it" by KC and the Sunshine band. There is a reference to the song by two of the characters as part of this short is set in a radio station.

How easy/difficult/impossible will it be to get the rights cheaply if I do go ahead ??

[zeprosnepsid]

Music rights is just very dependent on who owns it. There is a large range in what different companies charge. So it's kind of impossible to say how much it'll cost till you call them and ask. It's not difficult to call them and ask, they have a whole department who deals with this. And their job is to sell these rights, so they're usually very easy to talk to.

They do not charge flat fees for songs, it's dependent on it's use. If you tell them it's a 5 minute short film, the song is used for a short period of time, and you are just submitting it to festivals, they will give you a lower quote than if you were a Hollywood movie.

There are different kinds of music rights depending on the distribution and it sounds like you just want theatrical so ask for that (for instance 'internet' would be a different cost).

There is also a problem sometimes where the song rights (the actual written song) and the publishing rights (this specific recording) are not owned by the same people. You need to pay for both. But if you call the record company, they can tell you if they own all the rights and probably who to contact if they don't own them all.

So look at the CD or whatever and see who the publisher is. Then google that company and you can just call the main operator and ask for the 'licensing department'. Or if you google 'BMG licensing', a page will come up that gives you a number to call.

I have a feeling this song you want to use may probably still be out of your price range and you'll have to replace it. But it can't hurt to ask.

[John Paton]

thank you for your informative reply zero.

I'll get onto it :)

[WriteKnight]

Synchronization rights is what you want.

[benbradley]

There's a company that handles a lot of music rights management, the Harry Fox Agency. I don't know if they do synchronization rights, but it's surely worth looking at. If you're going to make the next Superman or Spiderman movie and want to include a specific pop song, it would be cheaper to negotiate directly with the rights holder, but for most "small potatoes" things like this (such as a church choir recording containing a few copyrighted songs that they expect to sell at most a few hundred copies to church members), if you can do it through Harry Fox, it's usually much easier to go through them and pay their rate than to track down the rights holder.

OKay, it looks like they don't handle synchronization rights anymore, but maybe this will help:
http://www.harryfox.com/public/licenseeServicesSynchronization.jsp

[Mac H.]

If you want an idea of how regions (etc) affect the price, check out an example rate book here: http://www.apra.com.au/music%2Dusers/downloads/PM_AustralianRateBook.pdf

I know that the music you want isn't covered, but it shows how regions, use, etc are divided for various markets.

BTW, does anyone know why it is called 'synchronization' ? It always seemed like an odd phrase.

Mac

[John Paton]

Thanx Ben, Write and Mac ;)

[WriteKnight]

It's called 'synchronization' because that's what you do when you match sound to picture while editing a movie.

Any sound, not just music. When the sound and picture don't match, they are 'out of synch'.

They right to synch the music to the picture is called 'synch rights'.