Music Rights - A SOLUTION!!

[Rick Putnam]

Hi all,

Just thought I would give everyone a heads up to a new music site. They have licensing especially for wedding videos!

www.magnatune.com

They are not A list groups, but it isn't 'royalty free' quality either.

--rp

[Imran Zaidi]

There's some really good stuff here. Not just synth crud, but actual original instrumentation.

Plus they make it really easy to license for your projects, per the Creative Commons method. I think this type of thinking is the future of music. If you just make it this easy to purchase licensing of music for your short film where you can just choose a distribution type, dump in your credit card, and voila - instant licensing agreement, perhaps less artists would be getting ripped off.

Thanks for the great link!

[Jon Kamps]

defenatly the way it should be

[John Britt]

<<<-- Originally posted by Jon Kamps : defenatly the way it should be -->>>


Not necessarily. I like magnatune and Creative Commons, but I like them for what they are: *options*

Not every artists wants this option. Not every musician wants their music in your wedding video. And they should have the right to control their work they way they see fit (yes, I know that CC does offer a "no derivative works" option but I'm just responding to the general tenor of Jon's response -- which may be an assumption on my part anyway...)

Not "the way it should be" but rather "one of many options that should be available to artists"

[Aaron Rosen]

Great site.

Does anyone know of other websites like this one that sell music by the song, not the cd?

[Mike Rehmus]

Smartsound does this.

[John Locke]

Rick,

I sent an e-mail message to John Buckman of Magnatunes to get the lowdown on licensing. Even though there is "licensing calculator" on the site, I wanted to ask directly since determining what is and isn't considered profit can be a bit tricky (for instance, if your film shows at a film festival and they charge admission...even if you don't get a dime, is that still "generated profit"?)

Anyway... here's an excerpt from his response to me that, in a nutshell, says what we need to hear:

what it really comes down to is:

• if you're not making any significant money from it, and it's a project of love, then I want you to use the music for free so that my music gets exposure
• if you're making money from the film, I want a cut, in the form of licensing.
• if they're unclear on the dividing line for their project, they can just drop me an email. I am 100% committed to indie film makers using this music gratis in order for my music to get heard and to build Magnatune's name as a good source for film music.

Doesn't get better than that. Bottom line is... if you hear something on Magnatunes that you like, send John a message and see what you can work out.