Hello there, as the tittle above I have a question about righs on using music.
I would like to use a portion or a snippet of the music and set it to loop. For instance I found a video on youtube performing the music I like, how do I approach this?
Thanks you.
Simple answer , no you can’t do this .
That music is copyrighted and using it in your game or other project in anyway is illegal and can result in a lawsuit against you .
What you can do is go on sound cloud, find some music you like, and then ask for permission to use it .
Or google Creative Commons music, and find a song that lets you use it .
Only if you have big bucks can you use popular music .
So I have to ask permision from the youtube guy that make the music…ok thanks…will do that.
Get the permission in writing, in an email.
And keep that email.
He can only let you use that music if its his original music, alot of folks on youtube steal songs from other people. But your still the one who would get sued
what about classical song for example “[Skater’s waltz] from Emile Waudteufel”
Nope, not without getting a license.
The composition is probably in public domain (but always verify). But the performance is not, the rights to that perfromance is owned by Naxos and is available for licensing here: http://www.naxos.com/licensing.asp
If the composition is public domain, you could perform and record your own version and use it. But you can’t use someone else’s without their permission.
so I can used the music if I make my own rendition or the youtube guy give us permission to used his, correct?
The copyrights here get really complex really fast .
I’d stay away from music licensing , theirs plenty of creative common music you can use for free( creative commons is basically GNU for works of art ) .
For classical music, check out musopen.org.
These contain classical performances that have been released into the public domain as much as is legally possible.
Try out Incomptech. Kevin Macloud, the guy behind it, releases all of his music creative commons.
First it depends on what you mean by “rendition”. If the original composition is indeed public domain, and you “perform” and record a version you are fine. You can’t record another performance of by putting a mic up the computer or anything. But if you were to play it on a keyboard, or sequence it in composition tool or something along those lines you would be fine.
Second, that youtube guy is either violating copyright himself or may have permission to post it. Either way, only the copyright holder can give you permission to use it. The link in my earlier post is the contact information for that that piece/recording. Contact them, explain what you are doing. It may cost a ton of money, or they may let you use it for free. It can’t hurt to ask. But using it without permission is a risk and if perused, it will cost you.
As Thinksquirrel SevenBits posted there are places to get music that is public domain/cc/etc. But even with those, you need to research the source as much as possible (reasonable). Since the content on those sites is not verified by the site it self, you will need to. Because you will be ultimately responsible for the violation. lf someone straight out lies on one of those sites about some music they posted and then you use it, you could probably avoid having to pay out, but you would still have to remove the music from your game. As much as possible with sources like musopen, try to only use music that was actually posted by the person who created it. Avoid the ones that don’t say where it comes from or are vague.
It may sound like extra or annoying work to have to source this stuff, but it is worth it to not have to pay for expensive music. But most importantly, if you use content that you don’t have permission to, you could get away with it and never have a problem, but if you do, it will cost you way more than it would have to buy it in the first place.