Music Royalties...

In terms of copyright infringement, he is correct. It sounds crazy, but he is going the legal route. I'm sure other videographers don't, but he's being smart - he could get sued.

I found this conversation from 2012 in a recording forum about wedding videos and copywrited music. While no one seems to have a legal background, they do seem fairly knowledgeable.

http://www.videomaker.com/community/forums/topic/please-explain-to-me-music-copyright-in-wedding-videos

I kept reading other blogs on the topic...

Apparently it was always illegal, but videographers never cared becase the videos became personal keepsakes. Due to internet sharing, the opportunity for a video to go viral is huge, recording companies are likely to notice, and videographers can't afford the litigation.

http://daredreamermag.com/2011/12/07/the-music-licensing-chickens-have-come-home-to-roost-in-wedding-and-event-videography/

Yup - think about how many girls share their videos here, on FB or even on YouTube.

That's too bad. Maybe you could also have a family member record the first dance and parent dances? I will be asking my uncle to do a video recording of our ceremony and the 3 dances.

^ that statement is terribly misguided. Any portion of a song no matter the length is protected by copyright.

The fact is, use of anyone else's music is a violation of copyright. This is especially important when you want your wedding video to be posted online. Even if you don't care about copyright, you may care that your video could be taken down because the copyright holder changes their mind and decides the song can't be on YouTube anymore. And even if they leave the video online, ads don't belong on your wedding film.

We can license a few popular songs through sites like SongFreedom, but mostly we work with wonderful soundtrack music from sites that license amazing, but anonymous work. SongFreedom does, TheMusicBed is very popular, too.

Me, as your videographer, paying the $40-$70 per song license goes a long way to ensuring you can see and share your wedding video online.

Also why a cheap videographer is very suspicious - just licensing costs me about $150-$200 per 15 minute wedding highlight I post, never mind the actual work I put in.

Ya gotta do the right thing, not just because you might get caught, but because, um, it's the right thing...if your work was stolen, you'd be pissed.

Fair use is only for nonprofit, news, commentary, and educational purposes etc., not commercial purpose. Look at section 107 of the copyright law.

http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#107

Every year we have to take a copyright violation test. Lol.

I am not having a video, but wow. I never thought of this. I am glad your videographer is doing the *right* thing, but it sucks that it has to happen. I am surprised we even have music to dance. Its such a touchy subject!

Technically that's against copyright violation, too, since it's playing in front of an audience, but people rarely (if ever) get caught because it's so common.

Yeah. Still ridiculous! I know an artist has to protect their work...

Which is why restaurants DO NOT sing "Happy Birthday". Its copyrighted. -_-

@RobertBenda, are there other sites like SongFreedom you know to check if we're interested in a particular song? Thanks so much for your help!

Hmm, can the wedding bands and ceremony musicians get in trouble for this sort of stuff, too, or is it okay for a private event (when wedding video does not broadcast the copyrighted music)?

A performer at a wedding, like a DJ or band, isn't in the same category. There is a performance fee paid for ASCAP or BMI to be able to play music in public, though generally a wedding is considered a private event. I know bands/DJs playing at clubs/bars, it's considered the venue's responsibility to pay for performance rights.

SongFreedom and TheMusicBed.com are two great sites. SongFreedom does have some recognizable songs. When searching, you want 'Royalty Free' music. Note that royalty free doesn't mean free to use. It means you can pay a small license fee (I pay $50 for a one time use from the Music Bed site) instead of having to pay for each time a song is played, like a radio station.

I don't let my clients choose the songs, as a rule, but then, I'm making a 15 minute highlight video, and I put together clips, then find a song that fits.

@RobertBenda I just want to clarify because I am very passionate about the songs FH and I chose and want them in our video…

I can pay somewhere $40-$70 to have the song used? How do I go about doing this?

What we did is get the entire raw footage of our entire wedding so that way we can put the songs on it that we have legally purchased for use for our own video. This releases the videographer from any harm, allows him to do a highlight online video with royalty free music and allows us to end up with exactly what we want at the end :0)

As a videographer it is true that we can get sued if we put videos online with copy written music. The chances of it happening? Slim, but it can happen.

Just think about this. You are an artist and you come across a wedding video that has MILLIONS of views, made it to tv, and many websites as a viral wedding video, and you did not get paid a cent for your hard work? You would be upset.

So for online videos, purchasing royalty free music is the best way to go.

As for filming the wedding, I would not tell a bride that I cannot film anything that has music that has not been cleared.

@Sarah

Yes, but ONLY royalty free music. You're not going to get John Legend's "All of Me," there is some wonderful music out there.

As a videographer, I know I'll use a great song more than once, so I pay $70 and can use a song 5 times. Last time I checked, using a song once cost $40 or $50 for each song.

So, when I put together a 15 minute highlight video, I use 4 or 5 songs. Most or all of them I've licensed for multi-use, so it costs me around $100 total to soundtrack a video all the way through.