Zoom License Update

[Chuck Engels]

I received an email from Zoom License updating their fight to change the music licensing for low budget videos. Here is the update;
Hello ZOOMers.
First of all we would like to thank you once again for your interest and commitment to the ZOOM License platform.
Many questions have arisen lately relating to the relatively small amount of music that is fully cleared and ready to be licensed through ZOOM. We certainly understand and share in your frustration. We can assure you it is not a hoax or all hype. It is simply taking longer than we all expected to clear content (we have to clear both the master side and publishing side, often with several publishers needing to clear one song) for several reasons: 1) there is not a lot of money involved on a per transaction or upfront basis for the copyright owners, 2) the labels and publishers often have to get artist or writer approval on synchronization licenses and so have to send out blanket notices and administer the responses, and 3) as you may have read the entire music industry is in a state of flux at the moment and has been in the last 3-6 months just as we were attempting to launch ZOOM.

Even given all that - Warner Chappell, Warner Music, Sony ATV, and Sony BMG have all agreed to the terms of ZOOM and are clearing content as we write this. We should be ingesting their initial meta data on cleared music in the next 3 weeks. At least that is the timeframe THEY gave us. But as you know, they have a tendency to get distracted. Additionally, Universal Music and several others have verbally agreed to the program and are enthusiastic about the potential it provides to finally bring together the music industry and the videographer industry.

We know it is a little bit of the cart before the horse - we want all of you in the videographer community to sign up to ZOOM, request songs, etc. so we can show the labels that there is money just sitting there waiting for them. Perhaps we should not allow this type of interaction because it gives all of you false hope. But we think, based on the feedback from the labels and publishers we have spoken with, that they are impressed with the progress we (the collective we) have made. The old adage applies - if you build it they will come. They are indeed coming.

Jeff Straw
ZOOM License Administrator