by Kevin Cook Issue 89 - May 2014
Music copyright is a nightmare. Its an incredibly confusing subject and failing to understand it can be potentially ruinous. As a corporate video producer you simply cant skip around the subject as its something that youll have to deal with on a daily basis.
Quite often clients will also ask for their favourite commercial track dubbed on their corporate video. What they have no appreciation of is the complexity and work involved in obtaining all the necessary permissions to do this and absolutely no clue whatsoever about the fees that they might be facing. With no standard licences available everything has to be by negotiation often between many individuals and organisations involved in the creation of the music works (music score and lyrics) and the recording itself (the record company and the performing artists).
Even if you do manage to set up communications with the rights owners or their agents most clients simply dont understand that the rights owners will charge whatever they feel your client can afford.
So this is where quality Royalty Free Music comes in.
Like Production Music, Copyright-Free Music (AKA Royalty-Free) has been produced specifically to be incorporated into audio visual productions. The main difference is that once you buy the track or album there is nothing more to pay. You can use the tracks as much as you like on as many productions as you like - and you do not have to cough up a penny more or fill in forms and keep tabs on licence periods or where your films are being distributed. Simples!
There are quite a few copyright-free libraries in the UK but none as widely used and well respected as AKM Music. The quality of some libraries has caused some users to scoff at the idea of using copyright-free but all I can imagine is that these people have never seriously listened to AKMs offerings. With thousands of individual downloads and nearly 160 albums covering every genre of music Ive rarely looked to them for an off-the-shelf music score and not found what Im after. Their production standards and music variety is really second to none.
www.akmmusic.co.uk
