How to Get Permission to Use Copyrighted Music?

Music and songs are legally available in two major aspects:

a. Copyrighted
b. Public domain

(For readers looking for details on the following topics below, you can go directly to the related section):

License a song for film or video
Permission to record song
Licensing Music for your website
Music Licensing Matrix
License music – a demo page for asking permission to use music by applying for a music license online.

Naturally, if you use music or songs that belong to the public domain, then you will not need to get permission(read: When does music fall into the public domain?). However, things are very different if the music is copyrighted. Always remember that to ask permission to use copyrighted music is the same as asking for a music license to use them.

This is where a lot of confusion can take place. Bear in mind that the process would depend on the music copyright owner. Some copyright owners are not strict with their requirements in terms of asking permission. Typically, in most processes, you will be required to apply for a music license and pay some fee. While in some situations, it does not require you to apply for license or pay at all. This post would cover all these aspects in detail, so that you will know what to do regardless of any differences between the processes.

Step1.) Find the music publisher of the copyrighted music

You need to know the music publisher of the song. Music publisher administers copyrighted music. This is where you need to obtain permission to use music. In most cases, this is not available so you need to do some research. You can start with the artist or the songwriter of the song. You will know the artist or songwriter by examining the ID3 tags’ information of the MP3 file (or CD in-lay for CD album).

The ID3 tags information can be found by right-clicking the mp3 file then go to “Properties” – “Summary”. Other mp3 players such as an iPod provide this information much easily.

Once you know the artist, album and other information pertaining to the song; you can then perform a song copyright search to find out the music publisher of the song.

Another clue to find out where you have downloaded or obtained the song; if it is coming from a website, try to check what are the terms and conditions attached. Does it include information about the publisher? A good way is to contact the website owner representing the songs. Most of the time, website owner is not the music publisher but they know whom to contact if you are interested in using the songs.

Step2.)Describe how you will use the music to the publisher

To speed up the process ; you should be providing detailed information to the music publisher.

Once you have the contact information of the music publisher, provide them with the following information (they will be using the obtained information in issuing a license):

1.) Title and details of the project –if it’s a movie project, describe how the music would be used in your movie. Even though a lot of licensees often miss the details; some music publishers need to know what your project is all about. There are some sensitive topics that music publishers do not want their work to be included.

2.) Enumerate what music rights are you planning to use and why? – This is slightly complicated. A lot of licensee does not know these rights; below are some of the most common:

a.) Synchronization rights – if you want to use the song in your film, video or TV project. This would synchronize the song with the picture of the video/film/TV project. Even a slideshow with pictures exploit sync rights if you are planning to add copyrighted music to it.

Take note that there are different music rights for film that you need to know and needs to be cleared.

b.) Mechanical rights – if you want to use the song and have it included, sold/distributed in mechanical units such as CD, DVD, Blue ray, etc. If the music publisher is represented by the mechanical licensing agent such as Harry Fox agency.

Then you need to ask permission from them and not to the music publisher. Read this post to know more about what is a mechanical license agreement.

c.) Performance rights – some music publishers are also represented by performing right societies. These are ASCAP/BMI in the US or Filscap in the Philippines. You know this in your copyright search in the previous steps. For example, the song “Summer of 69” by Bryan Adams is published by Almo Music Corporation

And this is an ASCAP publisher as shown below:

If they are represented, you need to ask permission to the society and not to the music publisher.

Performance right is a right to publicly perform the copyrighted music. This includes having them publicly shown on-air on TV (such as included in featured shows); or played on radio. This also includes performing the song on the public such as in the live venue/concert.

You can read this post to get more information about public performance music license.

d.) Master recording rights – the music publisher does not always own these rights. Some independent music publishers do. The owner of this is mostly the recording label of the artist. If the artist is self-produced or even self-published; then the artist itself is both the publisher and also own the sound recording/master recording.

As a background, this is the right to use the sound recording in your projects. One of the most commonly exploited music rights.

Case Example (more examples in the succeeding section): For a video producer wanting to use copyrighted music in his commercial video projects, the following rights are needed to be cleared:

a.) Sync rights- using the music along with the video content.
b.) Mechanical rights – putting the music in a video content and distributed as DVD, etc for sale.
c.) Master recording rights – using the master sound recording of the music.

Take note that the producer does not need to be cleared with performing rights because the producer won’t be showing the content publicly.

3.) Include the other important details such as:

a.) Scope territory- where you would like the work to be published (state the country, territories, etc.).

b.) Period – indicate the date/inclusive months.
c.) Exclusive or non-exclusive?
d.) Licensing budget- if you want to know how you can save some licensing fees or know the typical music licensing fees; you can read the following post:

Typical Music Licensing Fees and Cost for Different Projects

4.) Send all the information in an email or music publisher supplied form. Then the publisher would take a look at your licensing request and process it. It can take some time, so make sure you do this in the starting phase of your project to avoid delays.

License a song for film or video

(If you are looking for detailed licensing steps, please read the first section read the first section)

Licensing a song to be used for film projects isn’t that all difficult. This short guide also applies to video production such as licensing songs for wedding video montage. For example; you are working on a documentary film of an important Olympic swimming champion which you are planning to sell to swimming class students. You go out, roll in the budgets and starts filming. When everything is near done, you intuition suggest that a song should be added in some parts of the film to make the scene more captivating to your audience.

You do not have a big budget for licensing fees to get major label songs. Instead, you open up your laptop and search the internet for music to be licensed. You stumble in a music publishing website, with the entire song catalog. After that, you then listen to the songs, and find out what seems to be the perfect song for your film. Finally, you decide the song to become a theme or featured song in the documentary film. The most important step is to ask permission which are thoroughly discussed in the previous section. Some additional information:

1.) You are then required to submit a cue sheet to your country public performance organization. For example this is ASCAP in US. The cue sheet list the songs included in your project including author information, etc. This is not required for video production. Only for those film projects that would be publicly performed. Visit their website for cue sheet form.

2.) Film synchronization license – it will state the terms and limitations on how you are going to use their song. This will depend on your request also on how you are going to their song and this is a confirmation that they are OK with it. The license gives you right to insert the song in synchronization with your film. This is often bundled with the right to use the sound recording, if the music publisher also owns the recording.

3.) The tricky thing is that if you plan to reproduce it in physical forms (CD for example), you then need to acquire a mechanical licensing agreement which is entirely different from a film sync agreement.

4.) After receiving the licensing agreement (sent by email during licensing application), you need to keep this in the safe place.

Licensing Music for your website: Short tips and Guide

(If you are looking for detailed licensing steps, please read the first section)

One of the most common applications of music and songs is to use it as background music for a website. Not only background music, but some websites are even using songs as their “main theme”. Below are the procedure and steps in how you can be able to successfully/legally use a song/music for your website:

Step1: Shop for songs, you can search the Internet. You need to assume that all music found on the Internet is copyrighted, this is safest legal approach.

Step2: OK, once you have the song. The next crucial step is to ask permission to use the copyrighted music. You can refer to the steps in the previous section.

Step3: You need to be “exact” and “detailed” on how you are going to use the song because the music publishers or recording right owners might ask you. Tell them that you are interested in using their songs for your website and that (select appropriate application) you are:

a. A commercial website that depends on their music to get profit (in this case you should be prepared to pay for performance royalties). Contact ASCAP, BMI and SESAC for details.

OR:

b. A noncommercial website compilation songs for non profit use.

You can also state if the song is used a “main theme” or just a background in one of your pages. All of these factors are used by the music publisher to decide to grant you license. Do not forget to save a copy of your mail/or any licenses received.

Permission to record song

This guide is useful for anyone who is planning to ask permission to record a song. You might fall into the following situations:

Situation1.) You are planning to cover a song which is written by someone else (could be your artist), but it is not yet released or published.
Situation2.) You are planning to record a song that is written by another songwriter, and it’s already published.

Some common questions:

1.) Who will be asking permission? – The one that will be asking permission will be the future owner of the sound recording copyright. For big projects, this can be the recording label. For small projects, this can be the artist themselves (if they self-produced the cover song) or the recording producer owning the copyright.

2.) Where to ask permission? – OK it depends on the situation above:
a.) For Situation 1, you will directly ask permission from the songwriter of the song. Both of you will enter some agreement highlighting the terms of use and license in using the song. You will be needing a lawyer to draft this agreement.

b.) For Situation 2, you will be contacting the music publisher of the song (it can be the songwriter itself if it’s self-published). If you are not sure about the publisher, you can follow the steps and procedures mentioned previously on searching the publisher. In big music publishers or songs released by major labels or indie labels, these are handled by Harry Fox agency in the US. So you will need to contact them in asking permission.

3.) What rights do I need to clear? – recording a song requires to be cleared of mechanical and printing rights of the song. There can be other rights, make sure you know exactly how you will be using the song in your recording project. This should be communicated clearly with the publisher.

4.) How much licensing cost is required – it depends on the mechanical license fee set by the publisher and the government laws.

Music Licensing Matrix/Table

If you are confused in asking permission what rights are required, possible or not applicable; you can see the table below. Take note that this is just a rough guide and this is by no means exact. For details, what rights are to be used, you need to describe “in detail” how you are going to use the music to the publisher. And then the music publisher knows what rights to be granted with permission.

To use the table, supposing you would like to use the song for personal listening; then you will not need to be granted with public performance rights, mechanical rights, etc. However if you are an owner of TV station airing shows with music, you need to be granted with public performance rights. If you are an owner of a radio station, you only need a public performance license to operate; you do not need to be granted permission to use other rights.

The rest of the application are then easy to understand using the above examples.

Content last updated on June 14, 2012