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Music Legality Question

When music makes the video, discuss and recommend soundtracks for specific themes/subjects.

Music Legality Question

Postby Greg mgm » Tue Jul 14, 2009 4:02 pm

My wife wants to record herself on piano playing an old classical song for a future video.

Does anyone know about copyright/ legality issues of playing and recording an old song (from Mozart for example) for video use? Obviously using material from a composer who is still around is a big no no...not sure about the long gone composers.
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Re: Music Legality Question

Postby Ron » Tue Jul 14, 2009 4:23 pm

It really depends on what you're going to do with the video (selling 50,000 copies?).

This topic seems to come up once or twice a year on many websites and the discussion tends to wonder off to many gray areas and never really gets resolved.

So for a static, straight up answer, Greg?... I wouldn't worry about it at all.
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Re: Music Legality Question

Postby Steve Grisetti » Tue Jul 14, 2009 4:33 pm

I think you're safe in assuming Mozart's music is in the public domain.

Nobody is collecting royalties on "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", after all.
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Re: Music Legality Question

Postby Bob » Tue Jul 14, 2009 4:50 pm

Copyright law varies from country to country. Works published in the United States with a copyright date of 1922 or earlier are in the public domain. However, a more recent arrangement of a public domain song may still have a valid copyright. So, while it's legal to perform the original song, you cannot perform the newer arrangement without permission of the copyright owner. You are safe with Mozart if you are playing the original compositions, he died in 1791. Even the foreign copyrights would have expired by now.

Note: Recordings of performances may be copyrighted too. Just because the recording is of a public domain song doesn't mean the recording is public domain.
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Re: Music Legality Question

Postby Steve Grisetti » Tue Jul 14, 2009 7:39 pm

And, since Greg's wife will be the performer and the piece is in the public domain, all is copacetic.
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Re: Music Legality Question

Postby Greg mgm » Wed Jul 15, 2009 10:41 am

That's what we thought and read on the 'net, but wanted to run it by you guys.

Not sure what project we'll use this music for, but it definitely won't be for video sales.
Making it public by posting on Youtube is what prompted the question. I think we'll be OK...no worries.

Thanks for the quick replies. =D>
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Re: Music Legality Question

Postby Bill Hunt » Tue Aug 11, 2009 7:41 pm

Greg,

Good to check though. I agree with Bob, but it has been many years, since I had any courses in Media Law - before the 1976 Copyright Revisions, and way before the Digital Rights additons.

I had to play around with the potential legalities, when selecting a short score. I thought about using a composition by Grieg, but then there was the arrangement issue, as Bob points out. There was also the performance issue (not a concern for you here). Though not for commercial use, it was going to viewed and heard by the public. After a few moments, I selected a SmartSound piece and gave up wondering.

Good luck,

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Re: Music Legality Question

Postby websurfer » Wed Nov 18, 2009 2:13 pm

Have a slightly different scenario than what Hunt has mentioned.

Went to the following web site:

http://www.musopen.com/

and browsed to the classical section.

They consider the music on their site to be public domain yet remove themselves from verifying that the music uploaded to their site is public domain, refer to their FAQ http://www.musopen.com/faq.php#6.

Am looking to add a classical music track to a flash video in which the video will be used to promote and sell a house.

I have no intentions of selling 50,000 videos of this particular house or other houses that have a classical music track.

If I use the music from this site would I be infringing on the copyright of the music from the classic period?

Please advise.

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Re: Music Legality Question

Postby Chuck Engels » Wed Nov 18, 2009 3:19 pm

Will the ad be posted on a web site, maybe possible to have 50,000 views?
Have you heard any of the music here at Muvipix?
It's all royalty free and can be used in commercial ventures like you are talking about.
We've had members use Ron's music in various for-profit productions and love it :)
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Re: Music Legality Question

Postby websurfer » Wed Nov 18, 2009 4:48 pm

Hi Chuck,

This video may be posted to a web site and as far as 50,000 views that would be awesome.

Yes have listed to Ron's music and like it.

The project I'm working on requires classical music, perhaps with a piano background.

Since I'm just getting started with a Realtor, I am looking for a sample music that I could use.

Any additional suggestions?

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Re: Music Legality Question

Postby Chuck Engels » Wed Nov 18, 2009 5:09 pm

Not sure of anything available to post to a web site, that's where the problem comes in.
If it was just a home project to be put on a single DVD it wouldn't be a problem.
There are a few sites that provide royalty free music for personal use, yours is not personal use it is business.

I'm sure Ron could point you to anything he has that will fit, he is good at coming up with new stuff too.

There are sites that sell individual music clips for reasonable fees.

Here is something that Ed posted awhile back, looks like it is classical and free, a perfect combination :)
viewtopic.php?p=22429#p22429

Search muvipix for "royalty free music" and you get lots of results ;)
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Re: Music Legality Question

Postby Ron » Wed Nov 18, 2009 5:22 pm

If I may chime in, the shockwave-sound music on our site is limited to a sales revenue of 5000. In other words, if you were to make a DVD with the music in the project and plan to make at least 5000 copies to sell a product, then you would need additional licenses.

The good news is, if you read the terms of use, there's a line:

"Using our music on a web site (one web site per standard license). It doesn't matter how many people
visit your web site."


That tells me you're good to go for what you're trying to do. Here's the terms of use for shockwave music:
http://muvipix.com/files/terms.pdf

As far as the music that I composed, you can use it however you like. My only request is that we see a sample of how you used it :)
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Re: Music Legality Question

Postby Chuck Engels » Wed Nov 18, 2009 5:28 pm

Ron, is there anything that you would recommend in particular that has a classical feel?
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Re: Music Legality Question

Postby Ron » Wed Nov 18, 2009 5:38 pm

Hm, how about:

Greenfields
Hot Air Balloon
Russian Dance
Spring In The Air
Take Me back

All of these are in the "General" area of the music section.
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Re: Music Legality Question

Postby Chuck Engels » Wed Nov 18, 2009 9:36 pm

And for the Media Basic subscription you can use one or all of them, along with motion backgrounds and other stuff too.
Not a bad deal for $60
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