In Music Licensing Hell

We are handling our deliverables on Not Since You right now and realizing that due to the sad state of the indie landscape right now, our music is too expensive. Last year when we chose the songs, our sales projections were higher and our future seemed brighter. 

But, as we all have noticed, the indie world is sliding down into a neglected, sorry state. And the buyers are taking full advantage. It is definitely a buyers' market right now and we sellers are feeling the pinch. From firsthand experience I am seeing sales diminish and interest in indie films plummet. My foreign sales agent even said that buyers would rather have a bad movie with big actors in it than a great one starring actors with no name value.

Our sales projections in one year have dropped by 75%. That is huge! I'm going to go cry in the corner right now. 

So now that we have to pay for the music licenses, we are determining that it's better for the project and our investors if we trim the fees. And this means replacing some songs. It also means opening up the sound mix (which costs money) and then re-mixing the new songs into the film. This is usually something you want to avoid at all costs but unfortunately, we couldn't. It's cheaper for us to replace the songs than to pay the licenses that were negotiated last year. 

And we have a deadline for the deliverables so we are racing to source and replace the songs and then create our master tapes for delivery on time. Our deliverables also include paperwork from the show. I will be spending tomorrow going through all of the contracts and scanning the necessary ones to a CD. I am trying my best to save trees -- though my agent said they need to print the paperwork anyway. At least I can feel good that I did my part in saving the world, one piece of paper at a time. 

Hopefully I will be out of music licensing hell next week. That's our deadline so we can stay on schedule. It's coming up fast! Wish us luck!

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Music Licensing for Film

Music is a whole other character in a film. It can leave an indelible mark on your audience. For filmmakers, it can help you express the tone of a scene and evoke the emotional response you are seeking. 

Many of us would love to feature the music of the bands we enjoy in our personal lives. Oftentimes, however, this music is too expensive to feature in an independent film. Thus, filmmakers either search for lesser known music that may come cheaper or approach bands willing to write music that the production can own outright. In exchange the band is getting some exposure to their work. 

Songs are copyrighted by law. Therefore, filmmakers must license the use of any songs from the copyright owners in order to feature them in their films. There are two licenses that you will need when featuring music in your film: Master Use and Synch. 

The Master Use license is garnered from the label that recorded the song. They are the owners of the actual recording. If you are going to re-record the song then you won't need the Master Use license. The Synchronization license (which allows filmmakers to "synch" the song to images) comes from the publisher, who owns the publishing rights to the song. Songwriters may be their own publisher or they may work with a music publisher who helps promote their music and collects and disperses the royalties for a typical 50/50 cut of the royalties. 

Publishing rights to songs can be bought and sold. One of the most publicized cases has been the handling of the publishing rights to a portion of the Beatles' songs. In the 1960s, publisher Dick James formed a company with the Beatles that held the majority of the publishing rights to the Beatles' work. When James sold his shares of the company, the Beatles found themselves with new partners who held the majority stake in the company. Eventually these new partners put their catalog up for sale and Michael Jackson outbid everyone, including Paul McCartney who had tried to buy back the publishing rights. Later Sony would pay Jackson millions for rights to the catalog. Needless to say, the Beatles haven't been happy about how their publishing rights have been handled through the years. 

When securing the rights to songs for use in films, most productions hire a music supervisor to handle the process. They have the knowledge and relationships to garner good licensing deals for the usage of the songs. In addition, there are many different licensing deals to consider, i.e. theatrical usage, TV, Internet, festival, etc. And fees can vary depending on how much of the song is used and where in the film. Music is a whole other character in a film and a whole other negotiating process!

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