Yes, both three are not really professional when answering the questions.
Like Compass, when I asked, can you verify if the song is under your protection? The person actually, literally said: Do you know there are millions of songs out there? We can't really tell you which song that is protected by us.
Actually, if they're really protecting the copyrighter, shouldn't us has the right to know if, if the royalty fee we paid will go to the right pocket? If they do not know which songs are under their protection, how are they giving the royalty fee back to the copyrighter???
And if the royalty fee I paid to COMPASS later found out it's actually does not cover the song I used. Will I get sued by the copyrighter????
And, if I didn't know about royalty-free songs, meaning COMPASS staff was trying to smoke me by saying "there's no free lunch under the sun + there's no such thing called royalty-free', didn't he? Obviously he thought I know nothing about intellectual property rights and licensing. I've been contacting Creative Commons SG Representative , and alot of stuff, like google program, wiki article, alot, are under CC license.
So sad about how they 'presumed' people want to 'steal' the intellectual property.
BTW, this is the mail correspondence btwn me and the swell season band's manager:
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Hi,
I love The Swell Season's songs very much.
I would like to inquire how should I proceed if I would like to use their songs in my client's wedding videos (Singapore)?
(I'm a Freelance Videographer (Malaysian) based in Singapore.)
I'm hired to record and produce my clients' wedding video. Eventually, the video is for the wedding couple's private usage, and it will only be given back to the wedding couple, not for reselling at the public. May I know how should I proceed?
Thanks in advance!
Cheers,
Mei
hi mei.
im sure if its for effectively personal use, then this is not a problem and you should just go ahead and use them.
best
claire
Hi Claire,
Many thanks for your promptly reply and the permission for using the music.
Recently 3 Singapore representatives raised the song copyright infringement issue and started to implement expensive license charges on wedding photographer/videographer.
Due to this, the wedding reception venue (for e.g. ball room) needs us to show the song license before the wedding couple can play the video with copyrighted song in the wedding reception.
- Do you have any official letter for granting me the permission?
- Other than Framesoffice, do I need to obtain permission from other parties?
Lastly... I would really like to know if any of them represent The Swell Season or the publisher, or labels, and has the right to collect royalty fee on behalf ?
The 3 Singapore representatives are:
- COMPASS ( Composers and Authors Society of Singapore) ,
- RIPS (Recording Industry Performance Singapore Pte Ltd), and
- MPS ( Music Publishers (Singapore)
Thank you so much for the information!
Regards,
Mei
from Claire Leadbitter <
[email protected]>
sender-time Sent at 5:57 PM (GMT+01:00). Current time there: 4:11 PM. ✆
to Mei <
[email protected]>
date Thu, Jun 3, 2010 at 5:57 PM
subject Re: Requesting song license to use The Swell Season's song in wedding videos
mailed-by me.com
well, that is a bit extreme in my opinion mei!
if they are really looking for a licence to play music for a wedding and in private wedding videos, then you would have to go to warner chapel music who own the rights to the song and get a licence from them. that might take a while and they might say no.
im really sorry, but, it sounds like its a bit of a nightmare for the usage in your video.
i am only a humble manager of the band, who knows that the artists themselves would have no problem with the song being used in a wedding video context. however, as they are legally published by a bigger company - which of course your mps, rips and compass would deal with, then maybe for singapore this proves problematic.
sorry. unless you want to go through the rigmarole of getting an official licence, i cant just send you one from here.
best
claire
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