Music License trouble... (stupid of me...)
 

So on twitter, I decided to follow one of my favorite composers, XXX XXXX (whom by the way, I used on majority of my wedding trailer) and that was the biggest and dumbest mistake that I have made in my life...
His assistant accepted the following on tweeter and decided to stop by my website where he discovered that 2 of my demo trailers, his music has been used. So he e-mailed me with "illegal music usage, let me know "exactly" how many songs you have used, cue timing, etc, and how much I charge my client for the video, etc, etc...."
I really wanted to shoot myself in the head when I was reading the e-mail...
I guess I am learning my lesson in very.. very.. hard way...

JJ

o my gosh.. I feel you man.. that must've hurt..

I mean.. in my personal personal personal opinion.. if I were the composer, I'd be very happy to know that my music is being used in weddings. Its not like people pay to play it on events and stuff... its a free advertising for them as well.. but yeah.. thats just me i guess.

Santo

Actually, I BELIEVE that "real" DJ's and such pay a BMI/ASCAP licensing fee that allows them to use copywritten music, just like bars do. Of course, are there "fly by night" DJ's with a laptop full of illegal downloaded music that don't pay fees? Hmmm....

Correct and, if they don't, the hall in which the wedding is held does.

From the legal perspective, if Muzzey is inclined to sue and discovers that, rather than taking down the material, it was simply moved somewhere else, the OP has incurred liability for intentional copyright infringement, for which the penalties are severe.

So would you film a wedding for anyone that wants it for free? Paying for it all out of your pocket, using your time, just so you can have free advertising?
The composer didn't create that music for free advertising... that's his product.
Music costs money and time to make.

I am in process of talking with his assistant and attorney for signing the contract of usage of his music with licensing fee. I have sent them my wedding price package and they will determine how much they would charge for my usage of his music.
His music has been used 3 of trailers and nowhere else which is usually 30 sec to one minute. The entire DVD is usually from 1.5 hours to 2. I guess it's important to them what' the portion of his music being used as to a whole project.
I mean, I am a musician myself and I do respect and admire very talented musicians/composers, like XXX XXXXX.
As long as music fee is reasonable, like American Music Co, and stock 20, I am willing to pay the cost. I have read some big thread about music licensing in this forum, but I didn't know it could actually hit me like this.. but then again, it's all my stupidity of deciding to follow Kerry's twitter...

JJ

No, but I wouldn't mind if I see my wedding film shown in someone's party because they think its a very cool stuff to be shown :) I'd be thrilled! of course I'd love to be paid for it, but I'm still happy if they just do whatever they like with it because they like what I do.

This is because I already got paid in the main job. which is the wedding day.

For composers, I think their main income is from album sales, itunes download, concerts, commercials, etc.

But then again, like I said, its a personal personal personal opinion.. :)

Santo

Just out of interest - did you credit him in the clip?

No, I wish I did.
I am thinking about doing that for my trailers from now on.
But then again, how many wedding videographer/video production service put the composer/musician name on their trailer or highlight? I know some do, but most of them don't, correct?

lucky for australians, we got a license that covers commercial music used in weddings...

US should provide this such license..

That's a big problem JJ. If you had credited him I doubt he would be taking this aggressive an attitude.

This is a very unfortunate trend in wedding video. Hunting out more obscure pieces of music which the client is unlikely to have heard. Creating highlights/montages where 90% of the impact is from the music and then by not crediting the artist effectively claiming 100% of the credit for yourself.

Of course you/I don't necessarily want to credit the artist, especially if we promote our work to other videographers, but succumbing to the temptation is flat out wrong and not just in the legal/technical sense.

Kudos for going public.

This is from his twitter update:

I get annoyed at unauthorized uses of my music, esp. becuz my attorney fees get a little outrageous.
about 1 hour ago from web

I just don't want anyone else to make same mistake that I made.
Who knew following someone in the twitter could get this much trouble...
I am very frustrated and a bit scared even... with this mass...
I don't mind credit the artist at all... OH I wish I had...


JJ

Thanks for weighing in Paul. Good to know that I haven't been misled.

I wish or hope Canada comes up with a similar license fee as Australia, I know Djs through AVLA pay a one year license fee. Would love to pay a one year fee. WEVA should start a campaign of some sort, I am sure thousands of videogs from the US and Canada would love to pay that fee.

J.J., I hope they don't charge you an extravagant amount ( I hope they base it on a certain percentage of what you charge).