www.dagobon.com

In this digital age using music in web-based presentations, business applications, products or services has a number of legal implications for you and your business. Minimising copyright issues can be relatively simple and a little knowledge about music licensing can set you off in the right direction and keep you safe for the future.

This two-part article will provide a basic understanding of music licensing and the royalties included in a license agreement. It will serve you well when licensing music and is a starting point for more in-depth research.

What Is A License And Why Is It Needed?

Put simply, you need a license in order to use music legally. Whether you are using music at home or in a commercial project it will require a license. In the example of home use, the CD you buy from a music store is a license to listen for your own personal pleasure. You are not able to reproduce it or broadcast it in any way.

If you wish to use music as part of your business or in a commercial project you will need to get the relevant licenses depending on your usage. The fee you will have to pay will vary depending on the scope of your project and whether the music is mainstream.

Arranging clearance to use mainstream music can be a complicated process and can require a large budget. In comparison, using original music from an independent composer is less complicated to license and can easily fit into your budget.

Basic Parts Of A Music License The Agreement

When you purchase a license you are paying a fee to have certain rights assigned to you for a defined period. This is subject to the terms and conditions of the agreement. Your agreement will detail where and how you can use the music and will also point out the limits or restrictions of the license. The copyright does not become yours, it remains with the composer - you have only been assigned some of the rights.

Exclusivity

Music can be licensed on an exclusive or non-exclusive arrangement.

An exclusive agreement means that you are the sole user during the life of the agreement and nobody else can use it for the same purpose.

Non-exclusive usage means that anyone can license the music at anytime.

Territory

Music is traditionally licensed within certain territories of the world. This is because the royalty collection societies tend to operate within their own country rather than globally.

Recently, there has been an increase in digital delivery of music with agreements covering worldwide use that bypass the royalty collection societies.

Strange but true, some license agreements even make provision for intergalactic use!

Term

The term is the period of time that you are able to license the music for. This can be from as little as one day or as much as 100 years.

Synchronisation Rights In order to include music in a product or production you have to pay what is known as the synchronisation or sync fee. There are no standard prices set by the industry for a sync fee and the fee can be open to negotiation.

Mechanical Royalty

The mechanical royalty covers the number of duplications you wish to make of your product. The mechanical royalty collecting societies have set rates for these, however, some composers / companies are now starting to use digital delivery and will license music directly without using the collecting societies. This can get you a better deal and give you the rights to produce a specified number of reproductions within the license agreement.

Performance

Performance royalties are due anytime music is broadcast on websites, TV, radio, podcasts, etc, or played at public exhibitions, events, public houses etc.

Quite often a license agreement will exclude coverage of these, making it the responsibility of the person or company broadcasting the music. This involves paying an additional fee to the performance royalty collecting societies. Many Royalty Free licenses operate in this manner.

There are occasions where a company or composer will cover the performance element in the license fee you pay, but you have to be clear about this, either by negotiating with the composer or checking the small print before purchasing.

Conclusion

Music licensing is a lot simpler to understand once you know the basic components of an agreement and what they actually cover.

Part one of this article should have given you a good basic knowledge of licensing agreements. Part two explores the options available to you as a music licensee.

Lee Pritchard is a composer and sound engineer who has had a life long passion for music; composing it, playing it, producing it and being around others who are involved in it.

He is the founder of http://www.mediamusicnow.co.uk/, a website providing 100% Royalty Free music, custom music services, audio editing, sound design, music consultancy, a telephone voice-over and music service and Podcast Production.

He can also be contacted through his blog https://leepritchard.wordpress.com/

Share This

Let’s face it, the wildfire spread of web-based portals designed to introduce independent music to the world has created a bewildering array of opportunities and costs. So where do they all balance out? When does the cost of signing up to yet another music promotion service yield results? What results are we looking for anyway?

The key is to make your web promotion targeted, systematic and rich.

What is the main drive for independent artists promote their music on the web? The fundamental incentive for web promotion is the opportunity to get your music heard by people who might otherwise never know that you exist! If people know you exist they can become fans and repeat-listeners. Which of those fans buy CD’s and downloads? Targeted listeners.

The most important goal of web promotion is to attract targeted listeners.

Any independent artist who says they use the web to sell their music has missed the primary target - attracting targeted listeners. Attracting targeted listeners should be every independent artist’s first priority. Remember, you don’t sell your music - listeners BUY your music. It’s a buyers market. The more targeted listeners you have, the more sales you make - provided you are systematic in getting your targeted listeners.

The best way to get targeted listeners is to be systematic.

Many artists tend to approach their web promotion thinking that since they have a website and have signed up to a couple of artist showcase sites, that the listeners will just come pouring in. Yes you have managed to target some potential listeners, but you still have to shout, “Hey, over here…you’ll like the sound of this!” A systematic approach to getting listeners to hear your music will attract and maintain their interest. But remember to make sure you have the content ready for the listener to enjoy.

Sites rich in content will retain your targeted listener.

In the independent artist’s case, the rich content is the music. This may seem like old news, but look at the amount of independent artist websites that give the visitor loads of info about the band but very little (or hidden) ear candy. Music should be the first thing a visitor gets. At the very least they need an obvious link to where they can listen to your music. And not just one or two tracks but a variety of your music. Independent artists have to remember they have not had the radio exposure to model the presentation of their music after more well established acts. Listeners need to be convinced they like your independent music before they will buy it.

So the question is how to make your web promotion targeted, systematic and rich?

Tips for Targeting.

The best targeted listeners on the web will be those that make it to your website. Find a way to know who they are. Setup a newsletter and make it easy to sign up to it. People interested enough to want to receive news about you are your hardcore web fans, keep them happy.

The next best group of targeted listeners are those that hear your music on other sites. Try to pick sites that allow listeners to link to your site. If they like your music they might click on that link to visit your site. You can then find out where these visitors are coming from. Find a good web statistics package that lets you know which sites your visitors are being referred from. Take note of those sites and focus your efforts with them accordingly.

When choosing sites on which to promote your music, check to see if they offer any individual stats relating to your music. Like how many track plays or page views you and your music receive on their site. This way you can check in periodically and monitor your performance with these sites.

Systematic Steps.

The key to being systematic is organization. Keep a note of all the sites you use to promote your music, a brief description of what they do and how much it costs. Try to get into the practice of monitoring all of them regularly. Take note of which sites are getting better results than others and focus your efforts accordingly. You might pay for minimal promotion on one website, while another gets you loads of listeners for free. Naturally you’ll want to put more effort into updating the sites that are getting better results.

Provide a link on your website and newsletters to all of the sites you use to promote your music. Remember your website visitors are your hardcore web fans and are the most likely to check out and spread the word about your spot on other websites. So encourage them to visit your profile on other websites. At the very least it raises your stats on those websites - making your music look more popular!

Try to create a ring of sites that link to each other though the content you supply. For example, you might have your music on your own website and two other showcase sites - Site A and Site B. Your site should without a doubt link with Site A and Site B. Site A should link with your site and Site B, Site B should link with your site and Site A and so on. What if these sites don’t allow you to setup links to other sites? Put a web address in the areas where they do allow you to supply content. Like biogs or descriptions.

The ultimate aim of linking all your sites is to provide your listeners with a variety of access points to your music, as well as access to the different ways various sites may deliver your music. Remember to link to your specific page on the site and not just the site itself. Your site linked with a site that play your tracks on Internet radio, linked with a site that sells your downloads, linked with a site that sells your CD’s provides for a powerful combination of exposure.

Be Rich

Without money! That is the challenge that most independent artists face. The conventional approach to selling music is that it should not be too readily available to listen to, should the incentive for listeners to actually buy albums be undermined. This has persuaded independent artists that they should limit web listeners to low-quality snippets of streaming audio.

Independent artists have to remember they don’t have the resources and finances to support the “shotgun approach” of spraying their music across radio and music television. Big artists have big companies behind them that need to recoup the costs of mass media exposure, and therefore try to limit the extent to which listeners can sample their music on the web. Listeners have already heard the music and are trying to find a copy of their own.

Conversely, listeners haven’t had a chance to listen to independent artist through conventional media. Therefore independent artists can’t assume that people will buy their music off of a website if they don’t get a chance to really listen to it. If people have already heard an artist’s music, and like it, the value they pay for is in owning a copy they can play whenever they like. If people have not already heard an artist’s music, the value is in being able to sample as much of the music as possible.

So being rich is providing your listeners with as much of your music as they want to listen to before they buy it. Now you don’t have to make all your tracks available for free download, but you can provide good quality, full-length streams that impress the listener and enhance your sound. Not tight-fisted snippets that lose the listener because they are lo-fi and over before they attract the listener’s interest.

Being rich is also making your music available in a variety of formats for different audiences. Telling fans that your music can be heard via Internet radio, on-demand streams, mp3 downloads and mail order CD means you can appeal to listeners who prefer more than one type of media. You can also use your web promotion to go beyond simply plays and sales - consider licensing.

Licensing your music for use with television, film, advertising, websites, video games and other multimedia will open up your listening audience, provide revenue and introduce a degree of professionalism to your career that attracts the notice of industry reps and A&R. Adding this depth to your web promotion helps to enrich the presentation of your music and retain targeted listeners.

So remember: a) maximise your targeted listeners, b) be systematic in obtaining them, and c) retain them by making sure your own site and other sites are rich in content.

Nick Hooper has helped to create Tunetrader, an online platform for the promotion of independent music at http://www.tunetrader.com

Share This

Now that you have an understanding of the basics, explained in Part 1, you are now ready to look at the options for licensing music.

Mainstream music

It is possible to use mainstream music, but it is costly and often a convoluted process. The reason for this is that there are many people in the royalty chain wanting a slice of the revenue. Quite often you will have to negotiate a license with publishers, record labels, royalty collecting societies and so on. It is not a trivial task and you will need deep pockets!

Royalty free music

This can be the most affordable route by far, however, you will be limited to original music and you will need to find a good source of quality Royalty Free music. This should not be too hard to do on the web but you will find that there is a lot of poor quality music out there.

The biggest issue with Royalty Free music is the license agreement itself. There is no standard agreement and for this reason they vary from company to company.

You need to make sure that the mechanical rights allow you to make the right number of duplications for your project. Many licenses have small print that limit the number of copies you can make before you have to pay additional fees, sometimes known as a ‘mass duplication license’.

Another big issue is the performance royalty. Most Royalty Free music does not cover this and you will be expected to fill in cue sheets for use in broadcast. What many people overlook is the fact that a broadcast is not just TV or Radio. It is many things including podcasts, websites and flash use.

If the small print states that cue sheets need to be filled in for broadcast, this implies that the music is registered with a performance collecting society who collect revenue for broadcast and performances. This can include exhibitions, vending machine music, on hold music and music in power point presentations, websites and flash. Hardly straight forward!

There are some Royalty Free music sellers that claim their music is 100% Royalty Free. This is true when all aspects of royalties are covered in the license agreement. With 100% Royalty Free you should be completely covered by a one-time payment. But do check the small print any mention of filling in cue sheets means that the music is not 100% cleared for a number of uses, as described above.

Commissioning a composer

Commissioning a composer to write a custom piece of music for your project can have two advantages. Firstly, the music will be created with your project in mind and should be a tailored fit. Secondly, much if not all of the licensing can be arranged between you and the composer giving you added flexibility.

For example, if you wish to pay a one-time fee you might require synchronisation with a number of different media types. You may also wish to make a specific number of copies and include certain performance / broadcast options within the agreement. This can all be discussed, drawn up and agreed between you and the composer.

On the other hand, you may be creating a TV programme and decide that performance royalties will be paid by the various broadcasters and collected by the collecting society of that territory.

Conclusion

In a digital age where everything can change quickly and where new copyright and royalty policies are constantly being developed, it can be easy to get confused and unsure what to do for the best. For this reason alone, it is best to have a basic knowledge of royalties and licensing.

Another point we have to remember is that music licensing is there to help composers and artists make a living. For an independent composer this can be the difference between making a living from music or having to get a day job.

I hope theses articles have gone someway to clarifying the issues that surround music licensing and have helped you to consider a licensing route that best suits your needs.

Lee Pritchard is a composer and sound engineer who has had a life long passion for music; composing it, playing it, producing it and being around others who are involved in it.

He is the founder of http://www.mediamusicnow.co.uk/, a website providing 100% Royalty Free music, custom music services, audio editing, sound design, music consultancy, a telephone voice-over and music service and Podcast Production.

He can also be contacted through his blog https://leepritchard.wordpress.com/

Share This