6 Minute Read

[August 29, 2024]

113238 AKC Audio Podcasts Music Licensing Full Episode
5:28

Marketers know the key to making a strong connection through content marketing is to create media that resonates personally. A great way to achieve that goal is through music. Music has the power to create emotion, energy and urgency.

When choosing music, however, there are a number of things to consider. Let’s talk about what steps to take to make sure the music being used in your on-demand content is legal and won’t be blocked due to copyright infringement. If you want to use that new hit single that’s been living rent-free on repeat in your mind, keep reading.

Digital content creators have a tendency to enforce the idea that “using 30 seconds or less of a song for on-demand content is fair use.” It’s too bad that’s a statement for fantasy land. If that were true musicians and songwriters would rarely get paid for their work.

Music licensing fees have been one of the many costs of doing business since they were implemented in the 1960s. The same is true for the digital world.

One of the first things to understand about choosing music is that fair use is not a law or an exception to copyright law. It's a defense used if you're named in a copyright infringement claim. If a work is protected by copyright, it’s necessary to obtain a license to use it, no matter how much of the work is used.

While there are several kinds of music licenses, the ones to know about for on-demand video and audio content are public performance licenses and synchronization licenses, which create formal agreements between a music user and the owner of a copyrighted song that allows the user to play a song in public (or make available somewhere on the internet). There are two performing rights organization (PRO) nonprofits in the United States that issue the music licenses needed to use music in videos and podcasts. They are the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) and Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI).

A public performance license is a license issued on behalf of the copyright owner or their agent granting the right to perform the work in, or transmit the work to, the public. A public performance license is needed to use a copyrighted song in a podcast.

A synchronization license grants the right to synchronize the musical composition in timed relation with audio-visual images on film or videotape. In short, a synchronization license is needed to use a copyrighted piece of music in a video.

Both of these licenses can be purchased through ASCAP or BMI as blanket licenses, allowing a content creator to use any of the music from ASCAP or BMI’s libraries. Both ASCAP and BMI pay artists royalties, which are generated from licensing fees.

BMI offers single-use licenses, which are negotiated for each work individually, but ASCAP does not. If you want to use a singular work by an ASCAP artist and negotiate the use of just one song, it’s necessary to get in touch with the song’s publisher to negotiate usage parameters.

When applying for licensing from either organization or from a publisher, it’s important to have a couple pieces of information that affect the rate to be paid, including:

  1. Unique engagement sessions 
  2. Total content streaming time
  3. Total song streams

Now, you might ask, “but does it even matter? Who is going to know?”

Tempting logic, but again, a dangerous path forward. If you’re creating a video or podcast with copyrighted music without a license, you’re uploading, publicly displaying and distributing derivative work without permission. The law provides a range from $200 to $150,000 for each work infringed. If someone claims infringement on their work, it’s the infringer who pays for all attorney fees and court costs. Most music publishers and labels have employees whose entire roles are to scour the internet and send takedown requests or make copyright claims.

There are many other subscription-based or “free” music libraries that are not associated with BMI or ASCAP and work with instrumental musicians and independent artists. But that’s a topic for another blog post. Stay tuned!

Have more questions about music usage? Is there another marketing topic you’d like us to write about and demystify? Email content@akcmarketing.com!