Music Rights Without Fights

Advertisers and Agencies have for a long time been aware of the importance of music as a backdrop in audio visual advertising.  We can all attribute certain songs to advertising and of course most of us will remember that Moby licensed every song on his album ‘Play’ in the early 2000s. Given this importance of music to advertising, why is it that so many advertisers and agencies treat the buying of music for their campaigns as an after-thought?

The author goes to great detail in explaining the complexities of buying music and the sheer amount of stakeholders involved.  The artists record label, music publisher, booking agent and manager are all responsible for different aspects of the artists career.  What this ultimately means is that you would need to have negotiations with different people depending on what you want to achieve - rights to use music, secure the artist as a brand ambassador or book the artist to perform live at an event that you are organising for your brand. Quite often the different stakeholders have their own separate agendas which makes the negotiations a more drawn out process.

As a consequence, it is important that there is an understanding that the negotiations can ultimately result in the campaign launch date having to be delayed.  When you also take into consideration that the artist may be travelling around the world on tour and has a limited amount of time to discuss proposals from brands with their manager or booking agent, you can appreciate why there can be delays in securing the usage of music. It is also highly advisable to not hedge all your bets on securing rights for a specific track and have some solid back up options in case there are any difficulties during the negotiation process. Some examples are highlighted in the book whereby advertisers and agencies have been guilty of using music on their advertising without having gained the rights and knowing fully well that they are taking a risk. This is referred to in the music industry as copyright infringement and is an illegal activity.

Although some may claim to not be aware that they are committing an illegal activity, it is an indefensible practice and any party only has themselves to blame when subject to legal claims from the rights owners.

The music industry has increasingly become aware of this practice taking place and have legal teams who are only too happy to be litigious as this is also perceived as a money-making opportunity.  It is quite common for the rights owner’s legal and business affairs team to write a formal letter to the advertiser or agency to stop the campaign immediately, penalty fees being handed out, injunctions or in some cases the content on You Tube or the brands You Tube channel being taken down without any prior notification. All of this is completely avoidable if the right process is adhered to.

Breach of Licence is another aspect of unauthorised use that unfortunately occurs.  This usually happens because the music has been used beyond the expiry of the licensed term or it is being used in geographic territories of which they were never included within the license.  Although this is not considered as serious an offence as copyright infringement, it is still nonetheless not looked upon favourably by the music industry.  For advertisers that are launching brand campaigns in multi markets across a specific region or around the world, it is vital that they check to make sure that the music can actually be used in all of the markets where the campaign is launching. It is sometimes overlooked that securing rights to music for a TV advert does not necessarily mean that you also have the rights to use the same music on an online video.  Sometimes you will have to go through the same negotiation process again.  It is thus essential to not make any assumptions and diligently enquire as to whether you have the rights or not.

What became quite clear whilst reading the book is that if you don’t have a clear strategy and plan significantly in advance when buying music, there is a high possibility that you will run into a number of problems.  The complexity of the music industry and vast range of stakeholders involved should not be under-estimated.

Even if you are not responsible for buying the rights to use music for a campaign, i would highly recommend this book as it provides a fascinating insight into the music industry and how it operates.