We encounter music everyday, whether it’s a subtle soundtrack playing on the ad you just scrolled past on your Instagram feed or the film trailer you’ve played a dozen times. The point is music supports the content we consume — sometimes without us even realizing it’s there.
Realizing the significance music plays music in our everyday lives, let’s take a closer look at what this means for content creators like yourself to use music commercial.
Like any form of intellectual property, music needs the right permissions and license agreement in order to be used properly in content. In Part One of our music licensing series (check it out here if you’re new to the music licensing world), we went over some common music licenses and how to better overcome hurdles associated with these licenses.
Buckle up. Our continuation on music licensing includes more of what to watch out for and what to consider before purchasing a license.
Organic Content
In our previous post, we looked at the Small Business License agreements and the common places this music license is put to use. Where a project will live on the web is extremely important in terms of music licensing terms:
Associate Creative Director and Creative Services Team Lead, Nathaniel Schmidt
In the case of music appearing in advertisements, videos being used to generate a source of revenue (think of those 30 second ads you see appear on popular YouTube videos), this will not fall within the “organic content” category.
So what does fall into the “organic content” category? We asked Marmoset Associate Creative Director and Creative Services Team Lead, Nathaniel Schmidt.
“Anything that is not organic web — which is something we define as anything posted to a website or social media page, YouTube or Vimeo, anything that is just going to kind of live there, it’s not going to be promoted, there are no ad dollars behind it, there is no paid downloads for it. That’s all organic web content.”
Don’t worry, if your version of content cannot be defined as “organic,” licensing music is still an option! Instead of purchasing a license on Marmoset’s website, our Creative Services Team can assist in creating a custom license for your project.
Projects that most likely will require a custom music license include:
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broadcast radio
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in-app media
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anything that’s paid web
Think your project falls within this category? Get in touch with us here to start the custom license conversation.
Can We Ask You a Question?
In the case of custom licensing, the project may have several specifications our team will want to ensure are covered within the agreement. In true Marmoset fashion, we leave no stone unturned, which is why we’ll ask several questions regarding the project.
Save time by providing us with project info right off the bat. Here’s what we’ll want to know:
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Client: Who’s this video for? About how many people do they employ?
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Content: What’s the video all about?
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Lifespan: How long will this be live?
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Project Title: Do you have a project title I can file this under?
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Picture: Do you have picture /video to share?
As we continue covering music licensing throughout our series, we’re curious what’s on your mind. Are there licensing questions we can help better clarify or do you have feedback for the list of licenses on our FAQ page? Don’t be shy, let us know how we can help.