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Articles
A GUIDE TO MUSIC CLEARANCES AND PERMISSIONS
By Monica Corton
How do you acquire permission to use music?
Many people do not realize that there are two rights owners involved in obtaining permission to use a song in a movie, album, video, commercial or any other kind of production or use. The first rights owner is the music publisher and the second rights owner is the master owner.
The music publisher's rights include the rights to the actual song that was written by the song writer(s). As an example, let's say you wanted to obtain permission to use the "Addams Family Theme" in your Halloween video. Vic Mizzy wrote the "Addams Family Theme". His publishing company is called Unison Music Company. In order to use the "Addams Family Theme" in your video you would need to write to Unison Music Company and explain how you wanted to use this song in your production, what kind of distribution rights you wanted, where you want to distribute your video and other specific information. After the publishing company received your request, with all of the details of your production, they would contact you to explain what the fee would be, if there would be a fee at all or if they would decline granting you permission because of an objection to the project. There is a sample permission letter at the end of this explanation that you can use for music publishing permissions.
Your next question might be, how do I locate Unison Music Company and any other music publisher that I may need to contact to seek permission to clear the rights for a song? The answer is that all United States songwriters and music publishers need to be members of either one of the following United States performing rights organizations (also know as "performing rights societies"): ASCAP, BMI or SESAC. The reason that songwriters and music publishers need to be a member of one of these organizations is that the performing rights societies control all the royalty money that is generated from the performance of a song on the radio, on television or on the Internet. For example, if you hear the "Addams Family Theme" on television during a baseball game, that use on television is called a performance use and royalties are generated from the broadcasters of the baseball game to pay for the use of the music in the broadcast of the game. Those royalties are sent to the songwriter(s) and to the music publisher(s).
A songwriter must be an exclusive member of ASCAP, BMI or SESAC. If, for example, you try to search for a song title at ASCAP and you don't find the one you are looking for, you will have to search BMI and/or SESAC to see which one is the correct society for the song you wish to locate.
The two biggest performing rights societies in the United States are ASCAP and BMI. Chances are very likely that a majority of the songs you wish to license will be at one of these two places. The reason I am highlighting these organizations is that they list contact information for all of their publisher members on their websites and therefore, this is the best way to find contact information for music publishing clearance requests.
The ASCAP website contains a search engine called "ACE". If you visit www.ascap.com, you will find a button on the top of the home page that says "Ace Title Search". Next, click "Search the Database" and then there will be a prompt for you to choose how you want to search. The choices include "Title", "Writers", "Performers" and "Publisher". You need to pick one of these categories and type in the appropriate information. Once the title is correctly located, you will see the contact information for the music publisher(s). If there are multiple music publishers, you must ask permission of each publisher.
The BMI website, located at www.bmi.com has a button on the top of the home page that says "Search". When you click this button, you will be prompted to choose what category you want to use to search for information. The categories include "Artist", "Publisher", "Writer" and "Title". Once you have chosen the category for your search, type in the appropriate information. Once the title is correctly located, you will see the contact information for the music publisher or music publishers.
It is very important that you obtain the exact title and songwriters you with to use. The reason this is critical is that there are cases where there might be two or more identical titles. The thing that identifies your specific title is the songwriter information. You can find songwriter information on the J-card or insert in a CD or cassette. You can also find songwriter information through searching websites like www.billboard.com, www.allmusic.com or any other reference site for songs.
Remember, you will ALWAYS need the permission from a music publisher to use ANY song for any use. Nothing can happen with a song without this permission. This is not always true with master rights.
What are the master rights?
The master rights include the specific recording of a song by a recording artist. For example, the artist known as Rihanna recorded the hit song "Pon de Replay". This is different from the people who wrote the song "Pon de Replay". (FYI, the songwriters for "Pon de Replay" are Alisha Brooks, Vada Nobles, Evan Rogers and Carl Sturken and the music publishers are Bay Jun Beat Music, Below Da Belt Music, Songs of Universal and Warner Tamerlane Publishing Co.)
Rihanna's record label is Def Jam Recordings. Therefore, if you wanted to use Rihanna's MASTER recording of "Pon de Replay" in your production, you would need to write to the people that control Def Jam Records' master rights. Def Jam's master rights are licensed by Universal Music Enterprises.
If you wanted to make your own recording of "Pon de Replay" for your production, you would NOT need to write to Def Jam Records/Universal Music Enterprises because you would be making your own MASTER recording and you would control that master. You would, however, still need to get the permission to use the song "Pon de Replay" from the music publishers of "Pon de Replay" which are listed in the above referenced paragraph. I REPEAT, YOU ALWAYS NEED THE PERMISSION OF THE MUSIC PUBLISHER FOR ANY MUSIC LICENSE USE.
There is a sample permission letter at the end of this explanation that you can use for master use permissions from record companies.
To help you locate master owners, please see the list below. There are also a lot of independent record labels. If one of the masters you are trying to locate is on an independent label that is not part of the list below, you can usually find the address of the record company on the J-card or insert of a CD or cassette. The following four companies control a majority of the masters you will want to use:
The Record Labels controlled by EMI MUSIC NORTH AMERICA
Angel Records, Astralwerks, Back Porch Records, Blue Note Records, Capitol Records, Capitol Records Nashville, Caroline Records, Caroline Distribution, Chordant Distribution Group, CyberOcative Music, EMI Christian Music Group, EMI Latin, EMI Records, Forefront Records, Higher Octave Music, Manhattan Records, Narada, OmTown Music, Priority Records, Real World US, Shakti Records, Sparrow Records, and Virgin Records America
Write to: EMI-Capitol Music Special Markets, 5750 Wilshire Blvd, Suite 300, Los Angeles, CA 90036
Website: www.emigroup.com
The Records Labels controlled by SONY/BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT
Arista Records, BMG Classics, BMG Heritage, BMG International Companies, Columbia Records, Epic Records, J Records, Jive Records, LaFace Records, Legacy Recordings, Provident Music Group, RCA Records, RCA Victor Group, RLG-Nashville, Sony Classical, Sony Music International, Sony Wonder, Sony Urban Music, So So Def Records, Verity Records
Write to: Sony/BMG Music Licensing: 2100 Colorado Ave. 2nd Floor,Los Angeles, CA 90404
Email requests to: licensingLA@sonybmg.com
Website: www.sonybmg.com/licensing/contact/
The Record Labels controlled by UNIVERSAL MUSIC ENTERPRISES
American Recordings, AM Records, Decca Classics, Def Jam Recordings, Island/Def Jam Recordings, Def Soul, Dreamworks, Hip-O-Records, MCA Nashville, MCA Records, Mercury Nashville, Motown, Universal Classics, Universal Latino, Universal Music Group, Universal Records, and Verve Records
Write to: Universal Music Enterprises, 2220 Colorado Avenue, 3rd FL,
Santa Monica, CA 90404
website: www.universalmusicenterprises.com
The Record Labels controlled by WARNER MUSIC GROUP
Asylum Records, Atlantic Records, Bad Boy Entertainment, East West Records, Elektra Records, Lava Records, Maverick Records, Nonesuch Records, Reprise Records, Rhino Records, Sire Records, Squint Entertainment, Warner Bros. Records, Warner Bros. Nashville, Word Entertainment, Word Music
Write to: Warner Strategic Marketing, 3400 West Olive Avenue, Burbank, CA 91505-4614
SAMPLE LETTER OF REQUEST FOR LICENSING A SONG FROM A MUSIC PUBLISHER
Date:
Music Licensing Permissions Department
(Address of Music Publisher)
re: "ADDAMS FAMILY THEME" by Vic Mizzy
use: Video: 2005 Spring Concert of X High School Student Bands and Choirs
Dear Sir/Madam:
I am making a video entitled "2005 Spring Concert of X High School Student Bands and Choirs". The video includes the live concert of the music students in X High School and we intend to sell to the video to parents and students. We would like to include your song the "Addams Family Theme" by Vic Mizzy in this video. The following is the licensing information:
1. We want to make 2,500 videos and sell them for $15.00 per video. (This identifies the quantity that you want to make and the Retail Selling Price or RSP of the product.).
2. We want to sell them in our town only, Peoria, Illinois (This is the Territory you want permission to sell your product)
3. We need permission for one year. Our start date is May 5, 2005. (This is the Term or length of time you need permission to sell your product.)
4. We are including 20 copyrighted songs in this video. (This is an important fact to include because fees are always pro-rated.)
Please let us know how much you will charge us for this permission and also the credit you would like us to include in the video to identify your song title, songwriter(s) and music publishing company.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Best wishes,
Mrs. Ann Smith
Director, Music Programs, X High School
SAMPLE LETTER OF REQUEST FOR LICENSING A MASTER FROM A RECORD COMPANY
Date:
Music Licensing Permissions Department
UNIVERSAL MUSIC ENTERPRISES o/b/o DEF JAM RECORDS
2220 Colorado Avenue, 3rd FL,
Santa Monica, CA 90404
re: "PON DE REPLAY" Performed by Rihanna
use: Video: X HIGH SCHOOL CHEERLEADING HIGHLIGHTS FOR 2005
Dear Sir/Madam:
I am making a video of my daughter's high school cheerleading squad. The video is entitled "X HIGH SCHOOL CHEERLEADING HIGHLIGHTS FOR 2005". The video includes the live performances of the cheerleading squad from X High School during the 2005 football season. The squad has created a full length routine using the master recording of "Pon de Replay" performed by Rihanna. We understand that we also need to get permission from the publishers of the song "Pon de Replay" and we have written to them to request this permission.
We intend to sell to the video to parents and students. The following is the licensing information:
1. We want to make 5,000 videos and sell them for $25.00 per video. (This identifies the quantity that you want to make and the Retail Selling Price or RSP.)
2. We want to sell them in our town only, Peoria, Illinois (This is the Territory you want permission to sell your product)
2. We need permission for one year. Our start date is December 5, 2005. (This is the Term or length of time you need permission to sell your product.)
3. We are including 10 master recordings in this video. (This is an important fact to include because fees are always pro-rated.)
Please let us know how much you will charge us for this permission and also the credit you would like us to include in the video to identify your master title, performer and record company.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Best wishes,
Joanne Smith
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