It still seems to be a bit odd that I can use all the of the USA repertoire in my productions over here in the Netherlands and you guys can not.

For example; here in the Netherlands we have MTV as well, with the infamous MTV Cribs on it's playlists. If you listen closely you can find out that it's fitting the whole billboard top 100 in 30 minutes or less. I really can not imagine that it's profitable for Viacom/MTV to pay thousands of dollars for that, and I can not imagine that there trying to cross the border according the law.

I was just wondering if broadcast applications like MTV fall under the rules for performance licensing such as when a radio station plays the song or the rules for synchronization and mechanical licensing such as when the music is used in a film or video soundtrack. I suspect it's the former

Well then, I didn't know this posting would have received the response it did. Thank you all for the information you posted, it will definitely be helpfull.

For broadcast, or public performance/playing of music, it works similar to what Vincent described, but for dropping music into a production, you have to license the material directly from the rights holders.

The group here for performance/broadcast is ASCAP:
http://www.ascap.com/index.html

The thing is that licensing music for a "couple of tenners per 30 sec." is entirely different than what Josh mentioned, which sounded like paying 99 cents on iTunes and dropping into a video production that you charge a client $1k-$4k to produce.

Radio stations, TV stations (like MTV), night clubs, etc., all pay a standardized licensing fee to ASCAP which grants them licenses to play music from ASCAP members.
I think ASCAP does have licenses for internet and other "new media".
Not sure what they have for wedding videos.
Bet it costs more than 99 cents a song though. ;)

[EDIT:
OK .... to license music for production use, you have to engage the artists (or "their people") directly. From the ASCAP "About ASCAP Licensing" page:

[/EDIT]

It does.
It's scary how little folks actually know/have looked into what's legal and what's not. Example of Nick's post above, Nick is a professional in the game, but cites ASCAP for licensing commentary.
ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC have no authority to issue, negotiate, or advise regarding sync licenses. They are air to air and mechanical to air (meaning say...CD player in a bar) agents only. They have nothing to do with video/film/visual arts production.

There is a very lengthy and explanatory article on this subject here on DVInfo.net; it's well worth the read. I wrote it nearly 3 years back, but nothing has changed in the licensing aspect of the industry excepting a small, narrow deal with Zoom.

The licensing deals that AFTRA and other organizations offer to small producers of video works is limited to extremely small replication runs such as what weddings are. Corporate may or may not fall into this category depending on where in the world you live. Broadcast works may not ever fall into this category regardless of where you live.
It's actually a very simple subject, if one takes a few hours to read it out and attempt to grasp it. Most folks will spend more time reading industry gossip each day than it would take to have a firm grip on copyright law.

For example, ripping iTunes for use in ANY project is illegal, because the encryption process for iTunes is also copyrighted, and it's a violation of that copyright to bypass it. That may or may not be meaningful to this discussion, but given the direction of this discussion, it's heading over to the Taking Care of Business forum.

I didn't quite read everything, but I use www.freeplaymusic.com and pay the royalty licesnse to use the music. You can also buy them as a CD set. I also know a couple on pianists and violinists that have given me their song for an extremely low fee. Start to get to know some local musicians epecially ones that may play in churches, schools, or professionally (wedding and other events).

As far as licensing goes I think America is completly out of wack with its legalities on these issues (sorry had to say it)