Kites, Video, Music and Permissions

March 2002

EuroCup 2001 took place between 12th-14th October 2001 in Gosport, Hampshire.
Aeolian produced and edited the official video for STACK UK, which was released in March 2002.

Most of the ballet routines contained commercial music. Permission has to be obtained for the usage of such music in any kind of production.

So how do you go about obtaining clearance?

The first step is to understand how the music industry works.

In order to use a particular piece of music you first need permission from both the music publisher and the record company.

So for instance if you wanted to use the Paul McCartney song 'We All Stand Together' you would need permission from the record company, e.g. EMI, and also the publisher i.e. MPL.

How do you find out who to contact?

On the recording (i.e. the tape or CD) there should be information about the record company and publishing company.

You then need to contact the record company and explain who you are and what you want to use their recording for.
Once you have done this the record company will either say no, or say yes and then provide you with details of the conditions that they wish to attach to the usage of their recording. They will also inform you of the fee that they will charge.

In the case of EC2001 the majority of record companies said no or else requested large sums of money.

Publishing rights are handled in a different way.
An organisation called the Mechanical Copyright Protection Society (MCPS) - for the UK - acts almost like a 'clearing house' to obtain permission from the music publishers. They collect the royalties on behalf of music publishers and pay them accordingly.

The next step

The next step is to contact the MCPS as they can provide a lot of useful information. After speaking face to face with a person from the MCPS back in August 2001 it was agreed that the EC2001 production would be covered by something called the 'Limited Availability Product' Licence (LAP).
There are many conditions attached to the usage of music and it is up to you to determine which license is most suitable.

The cost of an MCPS license can depend on details such as:

The MCPS also recommend that you submit your license well in advance of any filming, in case the license is refused.

The whole process of obtaining music permissions is a very time consuming affair and can be painfully slow.
Even though we had been trying to find out the details of each competitors music since August 2001, it wasn't until November 2001 that we finally had enough information to go on.
The next three months were spent contacting record companies and a further one month spent sorting out the licenses.

Finally after much work there were only two pieces of music that we were given permission to use and that were affordable.

Alternatives

There is no easy way of obtaining clearance for music, and there are no legal workarounds.
Methods that purport to get around the problem by selling a poster, for example, and giving away a free video with the poster are still breaking the law as the music has still been "mechanically copied".

However there are alternatives.

The 'easiest' option is to write your own piece of music and fly your routine to that.
This is not as difficult as it sounds, and nowadays there are many computer programs available that allow you to do this even if you don't know anything about music!
The added bonus to using some of these programs is that the music you created is actually royalty free, meaning that you don't have to be accountable to anyone!

There are also pre-composed pieces of music that you can use. These take the form of record libraries, etc. They may be royalty free or you may simply have to pay a one off fee.

Suppose that you really wanted to use a specific piece of music?

Then you could record your own version of the music. It may not sound the same, but at least it would remove the problem of obtaining record company permissions. You will need to contact the music publisher in advance, to obtain permission to re-record the piece.

All you then have to do is pay the relevant MCPS fees should your version be used in any kind of production.

Am I OK to use somebody else's music to fly to at kite festivals, etc?

This responsibility lies with the event organiser. They need to obtain permission in the form of a license from the Performing Rights Society (PRS) in advance of the event.
It could be that the person providing the Public Address system has a blanket license which may cover your event, but it is up to the event organiser to check and make sure.

Finally

However you decide to create your music, spare a thought for the sound engineer. Make sure that the audio levels are set correctly (normalised).
If the levels are too low then you may not be able to hear the music properly during your ballet performance. If they are too high then you run the risk of distortion and the possibility of damaging the PA system.

Links:

EuroCup 2001 Event Report

STACK UK

STACK EuroCup 2001 Home Page

MCPS

PRS