Andy
Honorary Member
I thought this might be of interest.
My band is set to record a cover for release later this year. We're recording it at Middle Farm Studios, Devon, UK.
Even as an insignificant local level act, we decided to go the official route with this. Obtaining license for online audio release / streaming / download can be fairly straight forward, but if you want to add video, you need a video sync license from all interested parties in addition to the audio permissions. This is where it can get a bit complex, & especially in our case, as the rights are owned by 3 organisations - Sony/ATV, Chrysalis, & RZO.
Our song arrangement required approval, as did the video "story board". Sony really liked our unique arrangement, & offered both audio & video sync licenses for a token fee. They encouraged the other two to mirror their offer, although we still had to work through individual submissions. One party held out on the video element for some time, risking the whole deal, but today they came to the party & granted on the same basis. There's a few procedural steps we have to go through yet, but agreements are in place.
I won't reveal the fees here, but they were extremely modest, especially as we're getting world wide audio & video sync rights for 3 years to a very famous song - something that would usually cost significant sums. My message here is, in a landscape where almost everyone at our level is openly flouting the system, if you go the official route, there's still people in the industry that will take your request in context & help you along the way.
Having these licenses means we can now promote openly. All we have to do now is make a good job of the recording & simple video within our meagre budget - almost seems the easy bit considering the process to date!
My band is set to record a cover for release later this year. We're recording it at Middle Farm Studios, Devon, UK.
Even as an insignificant local level act, we decided to go the official route with this. Obtaining license for online audio release / streaming / download can be fairly straight forward, but if you want to add video, you need a video sync license from all interested parties in addition to the audio permissions. This is where it can get a bit complex, & especially in our case, as the rights are owned by 3 organisations - Sony/ATV, Chrysalis, & RZO.
Our song arrangement required approval, as did the video "story board". Sony really liked our unique arrangement, & offered both audio & video sync licenses for a token fee. They encouraged the other two to mirror their offer, although we still had to work through individual submissions. One party held out on the video element for some time, risking the whole deal, but today they came to the party & granted on the same basis. There's a few procedural steps we have to go through yet, but agreements are in place.
I won't reveal the fees here, but they were extremely modest, especially as we're getting world wide audio & video sync rights for 3 years to a very famous song - something that would usually cost significant sums. My message here is, in a landscape where almost everyone at our level is openly flouting the system, if you go the official route, there's still people in the industry that will take your request in context & help you along the way.
Having these licenses means we can now promote openly. All we have to do now is make a good job of the recording & simple video within our meagre budget - almost seems the easy bit considering the process to date!
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