Music Copyright Question
 

Does anyone know what the laws are regarding using a song in a promotional/sample video that is given away and not sold?

How about using a privately-created rendition of that song?

Probably best avoided. Even with the privately-created rendition, it still requires permission of the original artist. I would go with music from an editing music library (your editor friend [or, heh, mine] can point you in the right direction.) You can risk it, but you're living and working very near the entertainment industry, and it might pose problems.

But then, perhaps I play things overly-safely. I'm the kind of person who pays extra for the PPO because who wants an HMO if you ever get cancer? It may never land in the wrong hands, and so it may be entirely fine.

Two different things at issue here: recording rights and publishing rights.

Legally, you can't use an existing recording of a song without permission of the owner of the recording (the record label in most cases) and the publisher. In the case of a privately recorded version, you still have to deal with the publisher. Although many small companies ignore this rule, the fact that you're located where you are increases the possibility that you'll get caught.

An alternative would be to use music that is made available for a small fee (and sometimes free) for projects like yours.

I'm about to leave work right now, so if you need help sourcing any of this stuff, let me know and I'll jump on it when I get home.

Copyright protects an assortment of rights, including the right of distribution. Whether you're selling it or giving it away - distributing is distributing. (And since you're presumably giving these away in the hopes of drumming up future business, there's still a commercial aspect to the distribution.)

As far as privately-created renditions of the song are concerned - music is a special category in that songs have two sets of copyright. A particular performance has one copyright, and the underlying composition has another. You would still need permission to use the underlying composition. You would get that permission from BMI or some such licensing entity. But, it might not be too expensive. I have no idea what they would charge you, but it might be worth asking.

Any resources would be great! I've heard about a service that you can pay a monthly fee for the rights to using popular music, but I can't seem to find out more about it.

Have either of you heard about it?

http://www.loc.gov/index.html

is the place to go. The Library of Congress has all the answers!!

I may have just found my own answer:

http://www.ascap.com/weblicense/feecalculation.html

I need to research this some more.

Er, nevermind:

Back to Square One......

Disneyphile,

start here for creative commons licensed music or go right to creative commons.

For popular music, check ASCAP or BMI, but prepared to be overwhelmed.

http://www.copyright.gov/records/

Another resource...

ASCAP doesn't appear to help you with synch licenses, but according to their website, BMI has some contact info on publishers, which is apparently the entity you need to contact.

The other entity you might have been thinking of is Harry Fox, but they appear to be geared toward selling copies of recordings.