4 ms·

Rights-clearing in electronic music and hip hop is usually quite complicated. Taking a beat or riff from a song is fair game, as it could not in any way be clai

Rights-clearing in electronic music and hip hop is usually quite complicated. Taking a beat or riff from a song is fair game, as it could not in any way be claimed to serve as a replacement for the original work. Often though, big named folks like Kanye West or Daft Punk will clear their samples before releasing, just in case. I believe the payment is a flat rate, through rights clearing houses and the artists' agents.

Keyframe 17y ago
Do you have any more info on this perhaps? I know when I'm working on a TV show or basically anything that will get screen time I have to work out through sheets of paperwork where I list every single sound item in the video, including main background track(s), background noise tracks (imagine a distant bg music from a radio down the street) etc. I have to list Name of the track, artist that played it (since it doesn't have to be an original author - I guess they somehow settle that on tier 2 then), basically any music that is longer than 8 beats - but common dogma is to include those also, just in case. It's very tedious process and I hate it, since when I shoot some scene where I don't have a total control over environment I basically have to know which song is playing by whom from a few seconds byte. Sometimes I just don't use great footage because I couldn't identify the song playing in the bg. As I understand (I have to check it) those sheets are then handled by legal dpt. in production company that sends that sheet to the authors union of sorts in whichever country this show is played in and they send the bill either to the TV house or production house, or sometimes both based on total songs played in that month or something like that. It's hell. It gets even more complicated when the product is to be standalone (as in a movie or show that gets sold around). I also vaguely remember legal dpt. used/uses some sort of online database with all possible songs/authors from various distributors where they can pay and clear rights via them. I'm not sure if this still exists, if not - there's a great startup idea nudgenudge* for someone here.
- messel 17y ago
  That sounds like a system in SERIOUS need of hacking to improve usability.
  - vdm 17y ago
    You are correct. Moreover, from talking to people who work therein, I get the impression that broadcast production is full of such systems, with overengineered unhelpful software if any.
lyime 17y ago
We are also trying to figure out licensing for this genre for Mugasha (http://mugasha.com http://mugasha.com). It has been a big PITA so far.
jtnak 17y ago
The flat rate is pretty high though, and discourages innovation.
ZenzerNet 17y ago
I dunno about fair game, The Verve would probably disagree: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitter_Sweet_Symphony http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitter_Sweet_Symphony Basically, they sampled the "orchestral riff" from Rolling Stones, and in the end got sued and were forced to pay all royalties for this song to the Rolling Stones, even though the lyrics and music was new.

Keyframe 17y ago

Do you have any more info on this perhaps? I know when I'm working on a TV show or basically anything that will get screen time I have to work out through sheets of paperwork where I list every single sound item in the video, including main background track(s), background noise tracks (imagine a distant bg music from a radio down the street) etc. I have to list Name of the track, artist that played it (since it doesn't have to be an original author - I guess they somehow settle that on tier 2 then), basically any music that is longer than 8 beats - but common dogma is to include those also, just in case. It's very tedious process and I hate it, since when I shoot some scene where I don't have a total control over environment I basically have to know which song is playing by whom from a few seconds byte. Sometimes I just don't use great footage because I couldn't identify the song playing in the bg. As I understand (I have to check it) those sheets are then handled by legal dpt. in production company that sends that sheet to the authors union of sorts in whichever country this show is played in and they send the bill either to the TV house or production house, or sometimes both based on total songs played in that month or something like that. It's hell. It gets even more complicated when the product is to be standalone (as in a movie or show that gets sold around). I also vaguely remember legal dpt. used/uses some sort of online database with all possible songs/authors from various distributors where they can pay and clear rights via them. I'm not sure if this still exists, if not - there's a great startup idea nudgenudge* for someone here.

messel 17y ago
That sounds like a system in SERIOUS need of hacking to improve usability.
- vdm 17y ago
  You are correct. Moreover, from talking to people who work therein, I get the impression that broadcast production is full of such systems, with overengineered unhelpful software if any.

lyime 17y ago

We are also trying to figure out licensing for this genre for Mugasha (http://mugasha.com http://mugasha.com). It has been a big PITA so far.

jtnak 17y ago

The flat rate is pretty high though, and discourages innovation.

ZenzerNet 17y ago

I dunno about fair game, The Verve would probably disagree: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitter_Sweet_Symphony http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitter_Sweet_Symphony Basically, they sampled the "orchestral riff" from Rolling Stones, and in the end got sued and were forced to pay all royalties for this song to the Rolling Stones, even though the lyrics and music was new.