The Licensing Subject...would this be worth it to you?

tapeless wrote on 8/12/2004, 11:48 PM
I just read through the whole thread on music licensing that vegasnewbie started. There are more and more people getting into the video editing business, especially on a local level (photo montages, weddings, etc.) simply because of the quality of work one can do with powerful programs such as Vegas. Most of the people doing this type of "localized" business does not have the funds to pay a license fee for each song they want to incorporate in their production, not to mention the hassle of having to go through all the so called channels to get it accomplished. Now, I know that if a client wants a particular song incorporated into their project, there there is not much you can do except get the license for that particular song or songs. But for those who just need nice, pretty background music with a "no hassle" one time license agreement, I think it should be fairly easy to do.

So I have a question for all you pros, amateurs and newbies alike. I have a 24 track recording studio along with my video editing. I have been playing music for a living for almost 30 years. I am seriously considering putting together a package of all original instrumental music suitable for use in wedding, funeral, photo montage,school plays,...what ever you would want to use it in. If a person could purchase an unlimited use, one time fee license for such a compilation of copyrighted music....and never have to worry again about getting permission to use it...would this be something people would be interested in? I am in the process of starting a project like this for myself anyway so I don't have to worry with licenses for my background music. I see both sides to the on going saga of music license. As a musician myself, one does want to get something out of their long hours, hard work and creativity that goes into writing and recording a song from start to finish. On the other hand, an individual that just wants to do montages and weddings doesn't want the hassle and worry of being sued by a major corporation because they used one of their pieces of published material in a simple production for a local client.
If some of you could give me some feedback on how you would feel about a proposal such as this, I will consider putting together a package. I know there are outlets for "buy out" music, but I have never checked into it and don't know what their charges are. If everyone could write and record their own music there wouldn't be a problem with license issues.
Just let me know how far "off base" I am with this. If enough people would be interested, it could be a good thing for everyone who is involved.
Ted

Comments

Blues_Jam wrote on 8/13/2004, 12:08 AM
If you have the business savvy and website creation savvy then you may want to consider expanding your thoughts on this subject. I have been thinking of doing much the same thing as you are suggesting and there may be very many of us willing to contribute to such an endeavor multiplying the resources available to videographers and simplifying the distribution by musical artists.

At any rate I, as a potential competitor, contributor, or collaborator, will be very interested in the responses in this thread.

Blues
MisterPat wrote on 8/13/2004, 4:25 AM
FWIW, Sonicfire Pro with Smartsound would be tough to beat. (selection, quality, ease of use and price)
farss wrote on 8/13/2004, 5:02 AM
I'm a Sonicfire Pro user so I'm covered for most of what I need. I think the real problem starts with the client when it comes to things like weddings. They want THEIR song in their wedding video. If Maddona was playing in the background when he proposed that's what they'll want in the video. If all they wanted was just something appropriate that sounded a bit like.... then SFPro or existing buyout libraries would cover it or even what you're proposing would be great.
Ah, if only life was so simple.

Bob.
VOGuy wrote on 8/13/2004, 1:56 PM
I'll tell you one thing...

Since I've worked with a lot of you production folks over the last few decades, I've observed that there are a great many companies and individuals who could benefit from, and pay for, a service which simplified the process for getting rights to popular music in productions and events.

As for original music, there are already a number of "buyout music library" companies offering "pretty" and other types of original music. They seem to be doing well, and there may be room for another if the product was good, or one that specialized in "wedding" or "event' music. -- Or perhaps "soundalike" versions of popular pieces like Muzak used to do.

Travis
Travis Voice Over Services - www.Announcing.biz
dvdude wrote on 8/13/2004, 2:15 PM
>"I think the real problem starts with the client when it comes to things like weddings. They want THEIR song in their wedding video. If Maddona was playing in the background when he proposed that's what they'll want in the video. If all they wanted was just something appropriate that sounded a bit like.... then SFPro or existing buyout libraries would cover it or even what you're proposing would be great.

Anyone willing to start a US-MCPS company???
tapeless wrote on 8/14/2004, 12:44 AM
Well I spoke with a fellow musician I work with tonight, and we're going to get started on writing a bunch of music and recording it. Once we get it all put together I'll post the info.
Blues_Jam, I will probably want to get in touch with you in the future and maybe see what we can work out as far as the contributor thing you were talking about. The more people we have offering their music, the more variety of styles we could come up with. We could offer people some good music beds for a good affordable price and be able to put a little change in our pockets too.
We'll see how things progress and go from there.
Ted
Lili wrote on 8/14/2004, 3:56 PM
I think this would be a fantastic business for you. Personally, I would be more than happy to pay for music I could use and have no worries about getting sued, etc., as I'm sure many others would.
JaysonHolovacs wrote on 8/14/2004, 6:27 PM
Well, noone's brought up the subject of price yet, so I will. You want to know if people would be interested, and from my point of view, as a non-professional user, price is kind of a critical issue. Right now I use mostly Freeplay.com stuff, and I'm happy with it, but after a while the same tracks get kind of old. I might be willing to pay money for some good background tracks, I mean, yes, I WOULD pay money for some good background tracks, but price would be a major issue for me.

You might consider offering a private license to the compilation that costs less money for non-revenue generating people like myself. Of course, that becomes kind of honor-system, because if you give me the CD, there's no way to prevent me from using it other ways. But, I, at least, would honor a license like that I purchased.

This becomes totally up to you how you want to market it, but I think there's a fast growing crowd of non-professional video editors who just like to create. Some of them will learn tools like ACID and make their own, but composing your own music and making sound good takes time(as I'm sure YOU well know). Also, I downloaded ACID, but before I could get very far, I found I'd need a decent library of loops to compose anything. So where does that come from? Now I have to buy those? I might has well just have bought a music compilation and saved myself the time.

Also, I've tried composing a few times and I just can't GET it. Something in me knows exactly what I want to hear and I can't make it happen. Give me a good piece of music and I'll analyze it, appreciate it, glory in it, and sync video to it. But I just can't seem to create it the way I create video creations(which aren't half bad, I think, for an amateur).

BTW, I'm off on vacation for a week plus(call it a video shoot :) ) so if anyone responds to me on this, I'm not ignoring you, I'm just not here.

-Jayson
Blues_Jam wrote on 8/14/2004, 10:26 PM
Hey Tapeless, have you checked out Sonicfire Pro? Until this thread I had not heard of it but it looks pretty darn good. Not only do they have the music (which we could compete with as far as cost per CD goes) BUT they've got that killer app to go with it that looks great for video synching. That's the part we can't compete with.

It seems a bit expensive for the non income generating (amateur like me) videographers but then they offer a home/non-profit version with music at 22Khz for $149 (I think). I'll have to test rip a CD at both 44.1 and 22 Khz and render from Vegas to hear how much difference there is... I would think it would be quite noticable but not necessarily bad when you consider that FM radio is only a 10Khz bandwidth and that sounds decent to me for non-pro video.

Blues
MHampton wrote on 10/11/2004, 11:08 AM
On my quest for just this thing, I found that Sonicfire has a new program called Movie Maestro which is lit $49. This is the version that uses the 22Khz music. The $149 version is the full SonicfirePro with only 8 tracks and 44Khz music. The main reason I'm am thinking of going with the Pro version is becaue you are able to purchase single tracks on-line through the program for like $29 each, instead of $99+ for a cd of tracks where you may only want or like 1 or 2. The other main difference is the $49 program only provides a license for personal use and educational. If you are going to be selling, you need the Pro version.

Researching all these music programs, this is looking like the best option for me right now. They are at Smartsound.com

Michael
Jessariah67 wrote on 10/11/2004, 2:49 PM
Ted & Blues --

There was a time when I could have emailed you directly, but since that's no longer possible...

We just kicked off a download-on-demand, royalty-free site. It literally went officially live today. Just thinking that since the work's already been done, you might want to consider contributing material. Better to pool resources than compete sometimes...

If you're interested, email me: providers (at) royaltyfreedownloads.com

Kevin