Licensing music questions, if anyone has experience...

[seawasp]

I would like to use some music for my currently-planned ad/trailer for Grand Central Arena. The problem is while I know something about copyright, fair use, and even contacting people for permission in the publishing world, I don't know about it for music, and especially not for some of the odder corners of it.

The video itself would not be earning money, so obviously it wouldn't be a percentage deal, and obviously I also can't afford to pay much.

The specific issues that come up...

1) Classical music: how does this work? Holst's _The Planets_ as a piece of music is clearly public domain, but I would presume that any given performance of it (Stokowski's , John Williams, the Polish National Orchestra's, whatever) is not, and thus I can't use it without permission as background for a video that I intend to use as advertisement (whether the video is free or not). Who would I contact? How much would something like this cost?

2) Japanese anime/videogame soundtracks. There's some really good music in these, and in some ways I've noticed the Japanese having more sane policies towards IP -- and more restrictive in others. Here, of course, I have no idea WHO I would contact, or how. (the games I'm particularly interested in at this point are Mana Khemia, Wild Arms 4, and Dirge of Cerberus)

Comments

[elainegrey.livejournal.com]

The performance is copyrighted. ASCAP, BMI, and one other organizations work with the major labels to manage the licensing. Holst, by the way, was a British composer, and the composition was "written between 1914 and 1916." It's very possible it's still in copyright and, because of retroactive changes to copyright law that repair the US's pirate behavior in the early 1900's determining such will be an incredible pain in the neck.

http://www.magnatune.com/ has many works, including classical & electronica, and straightforward licensing:

http://my.magnatune.com/search?w=space&t=m&x=0&y=0

"Magnatune provides you with on-demand music licensing of a selective roster of over 275 recording artists in a wide variety of genres and collections. With a few mouse clicks, you get CD quality audio files and a customized license to use them in your project. ... What's a Typical Price?
It depends on the scope of the project. You can get a price quote in under a minute. Simply click the "license" link on any album page and answer a few questions. Because we've automated the licensing process, Magnatune's prices are about 30 percent lower than industry standard. Generate a sample price quote."

"YouTube and other web video sites
(such as Google Video, Revver, etc)
.... If your video project supports a business, organization, or commercial venture in any way, please return to the previous page and choose the "Video/CD/DVD" music license."

A rough guess from their estimator is that you're looking at around $50 per "song."

[seawasp]

Thanks. $50-100 would be just fine for my purposes. Don't know if that particular site has anything I need, but it's a start.

[elainegrey.livejournal.com]

OK, it does look like at least one Holst score is considered by The Internet Archive to be public domain.

I am reminded about assertions with respect to the images in the Rider Waite tarot deck that probably miss the 1994 Urguay agreement where the US retroactively restored copyright to foreign works that US law had previously considered public domain: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/URAA#Copyright_restorations Enter Headache.

[dsrtao]

I just did this (for music on hold). The term you are looking for is "royalty-free music". That means that after whatever initial payment occurs (including zero), you don't have any more to pay.

Here's a free version of Holst:
http://www.peabody.jhu.edu/pcorecordings

[dsrtao]

Sorry -- free for personal enjoyment. Contact them for licensing arrangements.

Also see http://incompetech.com/m/c/royalty-free/faq.html

[noctyrnus.livejournal.com]

Have you considered looking at music that is in the 'Public Domain' at all???