This is a phrase I hear all too often. For some reason, this has been ingrained into our heads throughout the years... The idea that doing something wrong is fine if you do less of something that is wrong is preposterous to me. That is like thinking that speeding in your car is OK if you only go 10 miles over the limit rather than 15... speeding is speeding and copyright infringement is copyright infringement.
The proper legal term for this is "de minimis" use. Or in the long form latin, "de minimis non curat lex" -meaning the law does not care about trivial things. This is in fact a common defense to a law suit (much like it's more overused big brother Fair Use). This is not a RIGHT... but a DEFENSE. There is a big difference in these two words.
De Minimis VSÂ Infringement
photocopying a cartoon and putting it on the fridge = de minimis
photocopying a cartoon and placing it in an advertisement or displaying it publicly even in a very trivial way= infringement
So how does this apply to musical recordings...? The fact is, the de minimis rule does NOT apply to sound recordings. As decided by the Sixth Circuit court of appeals in Bridgeport Music Inc. VS Dimension Films. The use of any part of a sound recording in sampling or otherwise is infringement. Whether you agree or not, this is in fact the law now.
For more information on this and other topics in copyright infringement check out this page
Bottom line is-Â if you are going to use music in any length, way , or form-Â Pay the owner of the intellectual property.
Very good question. Most of us know Sound Exchange is the digital PRO created to deal with royalties generated over the internet and through digital music devices, however it is still quite vague to a vast majority of the musicians and writers what EXACTLY Sound Exchange does.
Thanks to Youtube, these questions can now be answered in 2:26 .
Well I just returned from the Billboard Hollywood Film and TV conference in LA. Boy let me tell you... this was a conference room full of naysayers. At a time when there are more opportunities for music... how is it that we can't seem to correctly monetize it? This articleI found on twitter points to many of the concerns happening at present in the industry. Shrinking budgets and growing costs are making breaking into the film world even more difficult than it has been in the past. It seems that when we as property owners give one concession price-wise... the studios begin to think this is going to be the modus operandi for remainder of their deals...
As an interesting contrast to this, we at Naxos are actually doing quite well in the licensing game. I attribute most of this to the fact that we are incredibly diversified in the licensing business. I feel we are lucky to have intellectual property that bodes well in so many different areas. Perhaps this is the silver lining to having such a niche product... after all Classical Music is not for everyone... But there IS a market for it. and I am thankful for that.
While there were many panels and events surrounding the conference.. several stick out to me as being the most valuable for my conference experience. Notably, the Music Supervisor Roundtable- the "State of the Union" , the Thursday keynote featuring Sasha Baron Cohen and his brother/composer Erran Baron Cohen, the behind the scenes look at "Glee" and last but not least, the "Music for Commercials and Beyond" panel featuring the creatives behind such popular commercials as the United Airlines, talking babies, and milk rock opera. <vids below>
Suprisingly the Baron Cohen's were quite interesting. Erran actually is a classically trained trumpet player and composer and composes all of the music for his esteemed brother's films. I never began to think that they actually gave a damn about the music in their productions- but it actually has quite a bit of bearing on their productions. This to me is a great thing!
[caption id="attachment_300" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Sasha Baron Cohen and Brother"][/caption]
The" Glee" panel was equally interesting as it addressed the marketing challenges of creating the series. Imagine taking the greatest rock songs ever written and then trying to convince the publisher that it is a good idea that you arrange it for show choir and put it on Fox. This is the challenge they faced at the inception of the series... Once they got the series running- the apparent crossover appeal of this music was realized when they began seeing massive single sales after each night's episode. The theme song this week was RIAA gold certified and this is without any "real" record promotion. Their complete album drops in three weeks and they expect it to be a top 10 seller quickly! This is a great example of cross promotion between TV and the record industry. This to me is a huge success story.
Of course one cannot go to the Billboard Conference without matriculating to the Hunnypot party. This year's party was no disappointment. Once again at the "Heights" club on Hollywood Boulevard, PJ Bloom and his band of wild misfits brought tons of great bands, djs and networking with the creme de la creme of the film music industry. Great times were had by all and the party was rocking properly when "The Crystal Method" took the state at 11:00. From then on- they rocked my face off with some of the rawest beats I have heard in years. They made me miss and appreciate my old friend, Electronic Music... once again.
All in All, this was a great experience once again. Every year, I find that I meet more creatives and find more connections in the vast film industry. This is definately a conference to visit if you are interested at breaking into this industry. Contacts abound.
It has been a busy summer! I have enjoyed my fair share of boating trips, business travel and just plain summer fun. While I have been hard at work and play, I have also been working on a few things in the interwebs.
ClassicalCues.Blogspot.com
So for my 9-5 (more like 6:30am - 11:00pm) I have been tossing around the idea of starting a licensing-centric blog. DUH- I already have one of those- but this would be a more refined, professional concoction of randomness than the fine blog you are currently reading. This would be a kinder, gentler blog. (well, right now- it's more like a blog-ette) This blog would be centered on the licensing of music... specifically Classical music, but not confined to the genre specifically. There will ultimately be a great deal of cross-posting as many of the topics I cover there will be of interest to Is This Binding. Plus I have high hopes that having another presence in the blogosphere will help drive traffic to my other muse, NaxosLicensing.com . that site is still under construction- but will ultimately be a one-stop destination for licensing Classical, World and Jazz music for film, TV, advertising, etc.
I am also quite proud to say that the Naxos Music Library- the product for which I was originally hired at Naxos has now officially come of age. In just 5 years it now features more than 500,000 tracks (that's a HALF MILLION- people!!!) of Classical, Jazz, Folk, World, Jazz, and Rock music... a virtual college music library/public library music collection! In that time- we have also managed to make sure that this service has matriculated to the very top research institutions in the world! Basically every major University you can name is a subscriber and a great deal of public libraries are as well. It is now utilized in more than 28 different countries! <proud papa moment> If you havent ever checked it out- be sure to go take a look... there is free trial access available... take it for a test-drive.
