Are there legal actions that must be taken when using music?

zweg25

Hi everyone,
I was wondering if I wanted to use any music from Beethoven to a hit pop song in my game, do I have to take any legal actions? Meaning do I have to sign off, or buy rights to use the song?

Thanks

Zweg25

jamie_c

It would depend. If you were going to record your own version of a Beethoven song then you probably don't have to worry about it because you have recorded it yourself (as in played the piano).

But if you wanted to use some else's recording, say the London Philharmonics, you'd need to get their permission. Since they would hold the copyright to their performance of the song.

zweg25

Thanks for the quick response. What if I want to use a song from iTunes? What would I have to do?

jamie_c

Get permission from the artist.

zweg25

How would I go about doing that?
I don't think it can be just as simple as emailing them asking to use there music?

jamie_c

Not at all, I'm sure it can be a complicate and potentially very expensive process.

There is lots of royalty free music available online and also musicians who would record you something for a fee, why not research that?

zweg25

If I want people to be able to play music in the game, and I want to have popular songs, is it possible by buying songs from iTunes?

What's the best way to go about this?

jamie_c

I don't know. You could probably use the URL Behavior to link to a song just like you can Apps. But still to include the song in your game you're going to have to get permission from the artist (their record company) and likely pay royalty fees, potentially very high ones for popular songs. That's Just how the business works.

KnightStar

@zweg25 - As a former Producer on the Guitar Hero product line, I can tell you with absolute certainty and accuracy that if you want to use someone's copy-written property (song, music, art, images, etc.), you will need to first seek out permission and then likely pay for a licensing fee should they deem you worthy of using their property.

When we wanted to use music, we had an entire team if legal heads and music producers whose sole responsibility was to reach out to groups like Sony Music, Capital Records, etc. (these are the owners and licensors of the music) to for permission and then contract licensing fees. On GH, we regularly paid between $5,000 - $25,000 PER SONG to use an artist's music.

That said, unless you have very deep pockets and some good lawyers, I suggest you look to organizations such as Pond5 (http://www.pond5.com/music/1/*.html) in which you can license 'stock' music for relatively cheaper rates (i.e. ~$5 - $50/ song).

The alternative is to have a lot of fun getting sued by folks in the record industry. (if you wanna know how much 'fun' I'm talking about, look up what happened to folks that got caught file-sharing music when the RIAA caught up to them)

That said, GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR GAME!

-- J

zweg25

Awesome! Thats what I was looking for @KnightStar‌

Thanks so much

Socks

@zweg25 said:
If I want people to be able to play music in the game, and I want to have popular songs, is it possible by buying songs from iTunes?

What's the best way to go about this?

To kick it all off you'd need to contact the artist's publishing company, specifically their sync guy.

You need two things, the right to use the composition (the published music) and the right to use the mechanical (the actual recording), the composition is dealt with through the publishing company, and the mechanical is usually owned by the record label or even the artist themselves.

The sync licence fee could be absolutely anything at all, $1,000 or $1,000,000, but if it's a well known track by a big artist expect it to cost a lot of money - more often than not you will simply be turned down, even if you have the money, as big artists control their brand fairly tightly, so will be very very choosy about who uses their music and in what context, for example if XXXX sync their current hit track to your indie game, they can no longer cut an exclusive deal with Coke / EAGames / McDonald's . . .

zweg25

interesting.. Thanks @Socks‌

Socks

@zweg25 said:
interesting.. Thanks Socks‌

Actually thinking about it, you could skip the mechanical stage by producing (or having someone produce for you) a cover version or sound-a-like, so you'd need to only deal with the composition (publishing) side of things, but the fee will still be expensive if it is a known track.

There's a reason rock stars have gold plated private jets Everyone in music makes their money from either publishing or live performance - selling records (selling copies of the mechanical) doesn't really make money these days.

Armelline

As far as free classical music goes, this site has absolutely tons that is entirely in the public domain, so you can use it as you please:

https://musopen.org/music/composer/ludwig-van-beethoven/

zweg25

So i can make a similar remake of the song @Socks‌?

Thanks @Armelline‌, but I don't actually need classical music, I was just trying to ask if I used any music.

Armelline

@zweg25 said:
Thanks Armelline‌, but I don't actually need classical music, I was just trying to ask if I used any music.

Ah your specifically mentioning Beethoven confused me

zweg25

Yeah my fault, I was trying to just show the variety of possible music

Socks

@zweg25 said:
So i can make a similar remake of the song Socks‌?

I'm not sure what a 'similar remake' is in this context ?

zweg25

@Socks said:
(or having someone produce for you) a cover version or sound-a-like

doesn't this mean someone can remake a similar version of the song I am looking for? Or am I reading it the wrong way?

Socks

@zweg25 said:
doesn't this mean someone can remake a similar version of the song I am looking for? Or am I reading it the wrong way?

Like I say, I'm not 100% what 'similar version' or 'similar remake' means in this context.

You can have someone produce a cover version which will save you having to source and pay for the mechanical.