Commercial music- for charity
 

What is the best way to get a commercial grade track for an animal rights charity piece (for broadcast). Maybe something like Sarah McLaughlin’s ‘in the arms of an angel’.

-John

You might try contacting The Harry Fox Agency.

Good Luck with your project!

Thx David. Just sent them an email. I will let you guys know how it pans out.

-John

John,

The ONLY way to do this legally is as follows.

First, you need to identify who owns the license rights you want to acquire.
There are more than one kind of "rights" involved in music like this. You probably need "syncronization" rights which allow you to use copyright music against visual images in a new artistic work.

Once you find out WHO owns those specific rights, you need to contact that party, or their representatives, and get their specific licensing permission via contract.

It's a complicated and often expensive process. But this is the ONLY way to do what you want without copyright violation.

There are company's that exist specifically to search out rightsholders and negotiate these licenses. The Harry Fox Agency was mentioned, BZ Rights and Permissions in New York, and even ASCAP and BMI directly might be places to start.

But...

Allow a LOT of time. Expect to pay a LOT of money.

I know it's tempting to think that because Sara M. is an acknowledged animal advocate, you could simply contact her somehow and get permission. But without a proper search, there's no way to know if she is the actuall current owner of the rights you seek. It's pretty common for artists to enter into licensing agreements with other entities that may preclude even the original author from maintaining legal control over all the rights to their own work.

Good luck.

Bill must've been posting as I was and gives good advice. Harry Fox no longer deals with sync licensing nor does ASCAP or BMI though they might be able to refer you to the copyright owners. Those organizations deal with performance and broadcast licensing but licensing for inclusion in film/video is something else.

As Bill says, you need to contact the owners of the copyright on the words and music directly for the sync licenses and the owners of the recording you plan to use for the master use license.

Thanks guys. I had a feeling it was going to be a long shot.

Harry Fox responded and informed me they haven’t provided sync license since 02. I have to secure sync rights from the publisher directly with-

www.ascap.com
www.bmi.com
www.sesac.com
www.copyright.gov


Also, I have to negotiate a gratis license with the copyright holder/publisher/administrator before it can be used.

I will probably break down and use something on freeplay.com, but only because we have a timetable. Thanks for everyone’s input and this has definitely been a learning experience.