Licensing Music for Documentaries

When making a a film (or more specifically a documentary), many steps have to be taken in order to ensure that you're not doing anything illegal. One important aspect of documentaries is music, and as we may know, music is an important element when creating a film. However, one can't just take pre recorded music and put it in their film, as simple as that. There are a few things you must do first in order to obtain the rights to that music. You need to obtain two different licenses before you use someone else's music in your film. The first license you need to get is a "Synchronization License" (ascap.com). This license allows you to synchronize the music you wish to obtain with the visual images that you're creating in your film. You can usually obtain this license from the copyright owner of the music, who is usually the publisher. The other license that's important to get is the "Master Use License, which is the right to reproduce a specific recording of a song in your film" (ascap.com). The way you get this license is strictly through the record label that owns that specific recording that you would like to use in your film.

Usually, when making these calls to obtain licensing for music, there are a few things you want to include when requesting specific music. It's important to include the plot of the film and the budget for it as well. You'll always want to discuss when you'll be using the music, (what times in the film), how much of the song you'll play and how many times you'll use that piece of music in the whole film. Also include the intended audience for your film. For example, is it going to be a student film viewing with limited people seeing it, or is it getting entered into a film festival? Obviously, the more people that see it, the higher the fee will be to use the music. It's important to negotiate how much the fee will rise if the film becomes shown at bigger venues. It's very important to obtain these rights from the publishers and record labels, because otherwise, you could be sued by these people without using their consent.