When planning your video or production, music is going to play a huge role in the piece of content. And of course there are so many considerations to make in duration, tempo, genre, instrumentation, emotion and lyrics of that music track but do you have the rights to use the music?
For any commercial usage production it is so important to understand the rights and permissions that you’ll need in order to use the music and in turn make your video or ad publicly visible. You will read this same line in various other posts by Ottico Lab but here it goes again; there’s no such thing as free when it comes to commercial usage. What does that mean? Yes, when you’re making your travel video or funny reels for personal usage – do as you please. There so many apps and plugins with free content designed exactly for that; personal usage and entertainment. When it comes to commercial usage, that’s anything to do with a business or promotional material – there’s no such thing as free. Any website or platform that says it is, there is a catch and you have got to read the terms and conditions carefully. Doing the wrong thing is going to result in an infringement notice or far worse.
Different types of music are going to require different licensing. Custom Composed Music, Commercial Music and Production Music are the types of music that you’re going to use in your production. We’ll run through them all and talk about the
Custom Composed Music. This is where you get a fully bespoke music track or jungle for your brand or project. This is by far the ultimate level of branding and invites the highest form of creativity. It can however get be expensive for production and also for obtaining the rights. In this situation you’ll work with a composer and session musicians. There’s no set fee for this and it’s a case of ‘how long is a piece of string’. Before engaging and again after your music track is produced you’ll need to come to an agreement with the composer around the usage rights and/or ownership. From that point you’ll then need to work with your lawyer to establish a contract. This is ideal for jingles or brand music – as it usually includes a buy out or ownership agreement for all mediums of usage. Which as a brand means that you can use the music where you want and for however long you want without further fees.
Commercial Music. So you love a particular AC/DC or Katy Perry track and it’s gonna be so fitting for your new TV ad? Hold your horses, you’ll need to clear this with the band. Or more appropriately, the publisher. The more well known the track or performer, the more it will most likely cost. There’s no rate card set for this type of music and come down to negotiating with the publisher and agent. Some variables are where you are intending to use and for how long for.
Production Music. For many this sounds like a pile of crusty old CD’s containing b-grade royalty free tracks. This is absolutely not the case. Production Music (aka Library Music) has come a long way and is of a very high quality now. Produced by real composers, real artists and recorded in some of the world’s best studios.
We’ve been partnered with Audio Network for over a decade and have a licensor specifically for the purpose of licensing music for your videos that you produce with us. We’ll talk more about the music that we use with Audio Network in a moment but first let’s look at licensing this type of music. Unlike Custom Composed and Commercial Music, Production Music can be licensed in lots that cover a few deliverables. You can get a license that covers all usage for a value based price. And if that doesn’t suit, you can get licenses that can cover an entire campaign. Music licensors in this space do this all the time, so it’s a prompt efficient process. And most importantly , you can rest assured that your music track will be licensed for your production’s usage – no chance of a receiving infringements.
Back to Audio Network specifically. Like previously mentioned; we’ve been partnered with Audio Network for over a decade. In this time we’ve used and licensed loads of music tracks for online videos, social media content, corporate videos, explainers and TV Commercials. We have a specific licenser based here in Australia to manage the licence and via Ottico Lab you get a special rate versus going direct. Audio Network an incredible selection of music and the library is around the 50,000 track mahttps://www.otticolab.com.au/corporate-video/rk. All available in various durations, mixes and with/without lyrics. Not to mention every genre and music style imaginable.