Music copyright on TV

[untamed_aggression]

I'm just wondering, what's the deal with copyrighted music on TV? It seems everything from trailers for Emmerdale to episodes of Wish You Were Here? can get hold of the latest chart hits, golden oldies or movie score and just bang it in.

Do TV stations or production companies pay a fee to record labels for their catalogue or what?

No particular relevance to any of my projects, I'm just curious.

[The Cavity]

Probably.

[img]graemlins/rainbow.gif[/img] + [img]graemlins/sheep.gif[/img] + [img]graemlins/beer.gif[/img] = [img]biggrin.gif[/img]

[Tard]

There are a few people on HB who could give a definitive answer about this. I'll ask them to reply here.

[The Cavity]

<font size="20">HULK SMASH!</font>

[Patriarch]

In denmark TV stations pay to an organisation which then distributes money to the artists whos music gets played. That way they can use any music for any commercial or documentary etc...

[belovedmonster]

Yes they have to pay for a licence to use any sort of copyrighted media.

If you are interested in aquiring a licence for your movie so it can be entered into festivals or whatever then see http://www.mcps.co.uk

[windowslaws]

For Christian Marcussen:

Could you send details of your composition demo to [email protected]?
Thanks

[rocketmaster]

Hi! Reved asked me to chime in here, I work for a company called Rocket City Records in Hollywood, CA and this is exactly what we do. We supply music for film and television, video games, internet, commercials, Broadway...anybody that needs music for anything.

Yes, they pay a fee for the music. A licensing fee. This is different than the organization that Christian mentioned, which collects money from the Broadcasters. It's separate from that.

This is how it works: We send music to music supervisors, producers and directors for them to use, OR, they hear something on the radio that they like, and they call us and ask for permission to use it in their production. (They HAVE to ask permission, they can't just use what they want, and the permission can be refused at will.)
Then a licensing fee is negotiated. In US dollars, this fee can be anywhere from around $500 to $100,000 depending upon how famous the song is and how important it is to the production of the show. This fee is split between the performers, whoever owns the recording (record label), the songwriter and the publisher.

When the show airs on TV, the broadcaster (network) pays a broadcast royalty. (This is what Christian is talking about.) The amount of that depends upon the time of day the show is aired, whether it is on network or cable TV, whether it has words or is instrumental, the duration, whether it is in the background or featured in some way as in someone singing along to the lyrics, etc.
Every time the show airs in reruns, that royalty gets smaller and smaller. That royalty is paid by the broadcaster to the performance rights organization that represents the songwriter and publisher. In the US, that would be either ASCAP or BMI, in the UK it is called PRS, in Germany it's GEMA. They take a small percentage and send the rest to the songwriter and publisher, the performer does not get any of that money unless they wrote the song.

In Europe, you have theatrical royalties too. Those are similar to broadcast royalties, but they are paid when movies play in the theatres. We do not have that in the US. For movies, the initial licensing fee is paid the same as TV, but the artist will not get another penny until the movie is played on TV.

Here's an example for you.
We had a song on Dawson's Creek a while ago. They only used 30 seconds of it, it played softly in the background. They paid a licensing fee of $1,000 for it, and so far, the broadcast royalties have been less than $300.

Here's another:
We had a song on a movie of the week on NBC, one of our three major networks. The band performed the song on camera in a bar, so the song was "featured". The show played during "prime time". They paid $5,000 for the song, and so far the broadcast royalties are over $7,000.

Keep in mind, these are for songs that are not famous. A friend of ours licensed a song that was a big hit in the late 70's for a big TV show for $25,000 for one minute usage coming out of a car radio. Another friend licensed a song that was a hit in the 1950's for a major corporate commercial for a million dollars!

Of course, this is a really complex business and I've been extremely simple in my short explanation. Please feel free to contact me personally if you have need of more detailed information or need music for your own projects.

Cheers!
[email protected]

[Tard]

But is the licensing fee different if you're just looking to show-off a project at a small film-fest? Aren't most people here just out of (or still attending) film school themselves? $500 - $100,000 per song clip just killed a lotta hopes!

[rocketmaster]

One more thing...

Many publishers will grant very low cost or <font color="red">FREE</font> licenses for independent or student film makers.

They may give you a free license for the festival circuit and arrange for payment if the film sells. Never be afraid to ask for that. It's far better than being caught stealing music.