Copyright
Okay, let me start by making my position clear. Creating music is an art form that requires talent and expertise. Much the same as making home or professional videos, there’s time and a good deal of money involved in just about any form of music composition. So consequently, I believe this hard work should be rewarded in every case, similar to you collecting your wages or pension every fortnight.
Myths
Among a certain minority of people lives a belief that they can acquire music and do as they please with it, including re-sampling the whole CD or part of it for their own benefit. One of these benefits is making home movies.
A number of individuals believe that when they buy a CD they have unrestricted rights to the content.
Others believe that when they record video at a public function and it contains commercial music that they again have the right to do whatever they like with their recording.
Some people often refer to royalty free music as copyright free – of course, there is no such thing as copyright free – someone owns the composition.
A few video club members feel they have a privileged position with the use of music. This is simply not true. Until April last year the Federation of Australian Movie Makers (FAMM) provided amateur clubs with a restricted licence through APRA/AMCOS but this no longer exists.
These statements are just that, a myth. The simple rule of thumb is if you want to use someone else’s music for your own purpose you need written permission from the creator in all cases and in most you will need to pay a fee. There are no exceptions.
Where I stand
In everyday life we hear music in the car, the elevator, at work and there’s probably not a single public function where hard rock or a sweet melody is not evident. My comments are focussed on the people that read Australasian Camcorder, the video consumer who makes movies for family and friends, the videophile who enjoys editing and sharing his or her hobby with other friends and club members or the professional engaged in wedding videography or the occasional commercial or corporate video production.
First up – Club members
I travel the country and whenever possible I get to visit the local video club or if I’m really lucky a group of clubs. The level of copyright knowledge in most clubs extends from a non-existent base through to the local bush lawyer. There’s a real danger in taking non-professional advice on serious issues like copyright. The person that gives you that advice won’t be quite so happy to share your fine or prison sentence if things go wrong. It’s like asking a butcher for an appendectomy.
So where do you go for good advice? There’s a couple of good websites and probably the first port you should visit is APRA/AMCOS, the people who handle the licence and its fee. Try here first www.amcos.com.au/ and follow the music users’ link.
In general terms you have no special privilege as a club member to use commercial music and it’s highly unlikely that legislation will be changed to accommodate such a small group of people who after all are only trying to get something for nothing and ultimately diminishing the value of creative work in the community. There are solutions however, to get music for your videos that are both good quality and inexpensive and sometimes free. I’ll talk about that later.
The professional
I’ll preface my remarks here by saying if you’re not paying for your commercial music then you’re not professional. Wedding videographers are often between a rock and a hard place. Many of their clients demand a high profile video using all the latest technology together with the very latest popular releases from international artists in return for such a small pittance that if you needed to pay a full licence fee the cost of the music alone would be ten times the wedding cost.
Fortunately, wedding videographers can purchase a limited licence from APRA/AMCOS on a job by job or annual basis which allows them to use commercial music. The fee is reasonably low starting at $47.30 per event or about $401.30 per annum and this allows the producer to provide up to five DVD copies to their client. The level of fee and conditions attached to the licence need to be monitored constantly and can be done so by reference to the APRA/AMCOS website www.amcos.com.au/ again using the music users’ link. The current rates appear in a table below.
The biggest trap for the professional user is identifying the market in which his or her production may end up. There are a number of criteria on which the licence and the fee are based with different requirements for broadcast, the Internet and DVD distribution. On top of that you have regional distribution for commercial music whereby if say your DVD is for local (State) use it will be cheaper than buying a licence for national purposes.
Other consumer users
The whole principal of commercial music licensing is based on distribution. There are specific rules for copying music from one format to another and that’s an issue outside the relevance of this publication. In general consumers can use music for their own pleasure in their own home or on an iPod. It is when they take their music outside that environment into a public place or into a situation where they may profit (either physically or socially) from someone else’s work that they need to consider their position in regard to breach of copyright.
Alternative sources of music
I strongly feel that music is a legitimate part of video production for both the amateur and the professional and as such is an integral part of the cost of making that video. It amuses me to hear arguments at club level from people who have spent nearly $15000 on a world tour for several months and begrudge paying a simple licence fee of maybe $50 to use the very best music available, more on that later.
Often people overlook the obvious when it comes to music. There are a number of sources for inexpensive or free music. Two products come to mind and they are royalty free music and the abundant MP3 supply available from budding music artists’ right around the world.
Let me start with the royalty free variety. A very significant producer of royalty free music is Smartsound www.smartsound.com/ which is available through a local Australian distributor Smart Digital Australia Pty Ltd in Melbourne www.smartdigital.com.au/ The principal involved with this type of commercial music involves buying various CD’s that contain the style of music you like with an appropriate plug-in for your favourite non-lineal editor (NLE). This is a resource you build up over time and is relatively cheap when compared to licence fees. Other royalty free suppliers are available worldwide and include a very good Australian company Wavetracks www.wavetracks.com/ Once you buy your royalty free music there is no licence fee but you need to read the conditions of use before making that epic television production. A number of providers will limit distribution to some extent and it is a wise move to read the conditions of use carefully.
I use royalty free products frequently but for documentary work I often resource music from budding local and overseas artists. This can really pay dividends as I found out when I won the renowned Chicago documentary film festival several years ago. A simple Google on the Internet provided me with a plethora of MP3 artists and after I sorted the style I came up with a young fellow in the USA who had composed exactly what I needed. When I emailed him looking to do a deal he embraced the opportunity charging no fee and on top of that rewrote his lyrics to fit the documentary. Well, that video was seen by 18 million people and both he and I have been amply rewarded by that experience.
Where to from here?
Here’s an extract from the APRA/AMCOS website that you need to read and understand. If you have access to the Internet you should visit the site and read some of the other informative pages about music copyright www.amcos.com.au/
Copyright and Music
Under the Australian Copyright Act, songwriters, composers and music publishers have a number of rights that allow them to control how and when their music is used and to negotiate payment for this use.
These include:
- the right to perform music in public, (e.g. by playing a CD, radio, TV or by a live performance);
- the right to communicate music to the public, (e.g. a radio or television broadcast, via a music on hold system or to make available for download); and
- the right to reproduce music, (e.g. on a CD or in a television programme)
Weddings and other domestic videos
Setting a sound recording of music to a visual image usually requires permission from the copyright owners. The rights in the music and lyrics are usually controlled by a music publisher. There is also a separate copyright in the sound recording. These rights are usually controlled by the record company.
Obtaining copyright clearances to synchronise and dub (reproduce) recorded music onto a film or video would usually involve contacting each of the rights owners in each of the works and recordings that you want to use. However, the AMCOS/ARIA Domestic Use Video Licence gives you a simple and cheap way of complying with your copyright obligations.
There are two licences available: a single event licence and an annual licence. The fees for each of these are outlined below. Both cover productions made for the purpose of supply to those who appear in them and their private domestic use only.
The licences permit music that is played at the event to be captured in the production. They also permit synchronising and dubbing from commercial recordings in post production.
The reproductions of sound recordings or music into the following are not covered by the licences:
- Corporate videos, training films, videos that are commercially marketed or made to sell to the public or for public screenings; and
- Videos that contain promotional or advertising material.
Domestic use licence – single event
Standard format (any format) |
|
1 to 5 copies: |
$47.30 |
6 to 20 copies: |
$47.30 for the first five copies, plus $6.00 for each extra copy up to and including 20 copies. |
21 + copies: |
$137.30 for the first 20 copies, plus $5.00 for each extra copy. |
Domestic use licence - annual
If you video a number of different events throughout the year, an annual licence means you do not need to apply for a new licence for each event. You are assigned a licence number that lets you film an unlimited number of events per year, with a limit of 20 copies per event under the Standard Format scheme, and 30 copies per event under the Standard plus CD-ROM scheme. If you need to make additional copies you can do this by applying for the single event licence.Standard format (video and DVD only) annual licence fee: $401.50
So there you are. I’m a professional video producer, an artist if you like; a person who would get very cranky if someone stole my work. On the other hand if someone came to me wanting video product I would probably give it to them as long as they weren’t making a profit.
When you think about it I guess you’re the same type of person. You simply don’t think of music as a commercial product from which many people try to make a living. Now you can but before using that piece of work in your next video production spare a moment for some poor soul out there that is providing you pleasure and excitement. Do a deal, get permission from the creator or simply buy a licence but please don’t steal it.