How Music Licensing Works - laatste deel III |
Dinsdag 12 Augustus 2008 |
Het laatste deel over het licenseren van muziek naar Amerikaans model. Zie voor eerdere delen onderaan dit blog. The tale of "Happy Birthday to You"
The song, "Happy Birthday to You" is copyright protected until at least 2030. |
The song "Happy Birthday to You" is an example of just how interesting the world of licensing is. Think about this song -- it is only 6 notes. Yet it is one of the best known songs in the world. It was written in 1893 by Mildred and Patty Hill and first published with the words, "Good morning to you". The words "Happy Birthday to You" were first seen in print in 1924, although the author is unknown. Copyright was registered in 1934 in a court case involving a musical called "As Thousands Cheer" by Irving Berlin. The Clayton F. Summy Company became the song's publisher in 1935. Through a series of purchases and acquisitions, the song now belongs to AOL Time Warner. ASCAP represents the song for public performance licensing. The copyright to "Happy Birthday to You" should have expired in 1991, but the Copyright Act of 1976 extended it, and the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998 extended it again, so the song is protected until 2030 at least. "Happy Birthday to You" brings in about $2 million per year in licensing fees according to this article. If you ever hear the song in a movie, TV show or commercial, a licensing fee has been paid. Any manufacturer making a toy that plays the song pays a licensing fee. The manufacturer of any musical card playing the song pays a licensing fee. And so on... This 6-note song is big business! Other Licensing ScenariosThere are many other situations where you need a license to use music. Here are several examples: · You want to create a new song that uses samples of other songs. Even if you are using just a few notes, you need to obtain licenses through an organization like LicenseMusicNow.com. Otherwise, you will end up paying even more in penalties when the song is played in public. · You want to play music in your lobby, elevator, restrooms, etc. You either need to obtain performance licenses from ASCAP and BMI, or you need to contract with a company like Muzak, which handles all the licensing for you. · You want to play music in your small restaurant. You have three choices. Technically, you can play the radio. But in that case your customers will be listening to all the commercials, which they may not appreciate. You can play tapes or CDs. In that case you need to file with ASCAP and BMI for blanket licenses. Or you can contract with a commercial music services firm like Muzak. · You are making a yearbook DVD for school, a wedding video, etc. and you want background music. You cannot legally use songs off a CD for these purposes. That forces you to look for production music -- music produced by companies specifically for these applications. The simplest example of production music is the kind of music you get when you buy sound effect files and music clips on a CD. A place like Music Box offers complete songs in many different styles. To see how particular things can get, consider this example: Let's say you have a cheerleading squad at your high school and you buy a CD from a place like Power Music for your practice sessions. Now you want to play the CD while your squad performs at a basketball game. The school should have waivers for ASCAP and BMI for that, but you need to make sure. If a local TV station wants to broadcast the game, there is a problem if you perform to the music because that is a retransmission of the music. Then if you want to video tape your squad performing to the music and sell the video tape, you have the same sort of retransmission problem. There are so many problems, in fact, that Power Music offers a FAQ on it. In the FAQ it says, "Over the years our writers and producers have created hundreds of songs that are available for video license. Since we own the recordings and the compositions we can grant you the license to manufacture videos with music from our catalog."
Image courtesy Amazon.com
Think music licensing is limited to t.v. and the film industry? Think again. The video game, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City for Playstation 2 and its soundtrack box set are filled with dozens of famous songs. There's a wide range of artists -- from Tesla to Tears for Fears, the Psychedelic Furs to Squeeze and Frankie Goes to Hollywood to Foreigner. |
Lots More InformationRelated HowStuffWorks Articles· How Cutting Your Own CDs Works · How Playing the Club Circuit Works · How Band Equipment Works · How Record Labels Work · How Recording Contracts Work · How Music Royalties Work More Great Links· ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) · BMI(Broadcast Music Incorporated) · Copyright office: Circular 56 -- Copyright Registration for Sound Recordings · Common Music Licensing Terms · Frequently Asked Questions About Licensing · Commercials · General Licensing FAQ · Licensing forms · ASCAP & BMI -- Protectors of Artists or Shadowy Thieves? An article by Harvey Reid · The Happy Birthday Song · Obtaining permission to use Power Music for your video production · Music Licensing: Getting Your Music into Movies, TV, and Ads · Compendia Music Licensing · License Music Now FAQ · Programmed music a business solution · Jingle Use Of Songs · Rock Covers FAQ |
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