Building a Music Video Library (video rights question)
 

Im working on a project, and Im doing some research on music videos. How would one obtain rights to play music videos on an online channel? With commercial music videos I imagine you have to pay a fee to the label every time you play the video, but what about independent music, like on ManiaTV lets say.

Anyone have any information on this matter?

Much appreciated

Seems like that would be covered by BMI/ASCAP. Start with them.

That was helpful, thanks. Anybody know any other sites?

Why, couldn't ASCAP/BMI help you? What did they say when you asked about it?

I wasn’t being sarcastic. They are good sites, and Im looking for more to add some variety.

Is there such a thing as variety with royalty collection ? Isnt that like saying to the tax man "im going to look at other alternatives.." Dont you just find out what the procedure is and follow it ?

Here in Australia you pay a yearly fee to the collection agency APRA. Then depending on what you do will depend on how much you pay.. For example if you are a music venue you will pay a lot more than a hairdressing salon.. Then you fill out play list returns for every song performed and hand em in.. At the end of the year APRA adds up all the cash its accumulated, divides it up and sends it to all the people who have had their music played..

But the thing is, each site represents only certain artists.

I just read BMI/ASCAP represents 95% of all music ever written!! And the procedure in the USA looks to be exact same as Australia. With the obvious exception that here in Australia you cannot stop people playing anything, you can only make sure it is registered with the correct percentages for each writer so the money goes to the right place. It seems in the US if you dont want your old band members playing your song its possible to stop them.

the way to do it is to find bands that will gladly provide music for free, in order to get exposure for their original material... since you mentioned online, the attraction there is that you provide a link back off of the page where your video is hosted.

there is a lot of that in the surfing dvd industry... take a look at volcom entertainment if you need heavy metal music?

it takes a bit of work to find quality original material, but i personally would not mess with those idiots at BMI/ASCAP... this country desperately needs a situation like the aussies have with APRA.

So if I wish to have a bunch of indie bands, I have to contact them directly? I was hoping for a web site similar to BMI or ASCAP, to make things a little easier.

Yegor

Start here.

http://www.unsignedbandweb.com/

The problem is, you either pay someone to do your legal work for you, (like Ascap/Bmi) or you do it yourself.

Thanks for the link.

Ascap/Bmi charges for a lot more than just legal work, hehe. Hence, it costs an arm and a leg.

Pay now, pay later... your choice.

I did some reading, and apparently BMI and ASCAP only operate in the US. We are based in Canada. Are there any international/Canadian alternatives?