Everyone loves photos and video. Everyone loves music. Putting the two together make a perfect blend. Problem is, I own all of the photographs and videos that I take. Just like the musician owns his music. If people see my photos online and copy them for their own use without paying me, I make no money and I cannot stay in business. The same goes for music. Being in this business I understand the plight of copyrights, and I truly try to respect them. Remember, you can be heavily fined for copyright infringement.
So I write this post because some of my songs in recent uploads to our YouTube Channel are duplicated. I know you may get tired of hearing the same song, and we do try to change them up, and plan on making that more of a priority in the coming year. But understand that to follow the copyright laws we must purchase what is called ‘Royalty Free’ music. Whereas we must purchase a song(s) that has a release, allowing us to use the song as we wish. We do the same with our photos. When you buy a photo package from us, we also give you a release to print the photos as you like, and to use them on social media as you like. Keep in mind that we have to purchase this “Royalty Free” music, and a single song can cost more than $30, or an album consisting of 9 songs at over $100. And you know how albums are, you usually only like 3 songs on the whole album. In essence, it is not cheap to have multiple soundtracks.
Did you know that even when you walk into your doctors office the music you hear is supposed to be paid for by the doctor for this use. Even for them to have the radio on in the background is against the law. Some have a corporate satellite feed that is paid for, most don’t. Ever been to a website, and there is music playing? It’s nice the first two times, then you start looking for the off button. But that too is against the copyright laws. Even your DJ at your wedding has to, or should have, paid a licensing fee to play his music. Your favorite movie, like the soundtrack? They have to pay a fee as well.
With our products, we do have an extensive library of Royalty Free music for our commercial clients. But if we are to create a photo montage for you to present at your rehearsal dinner, or on your wedding video, we ask you to supply the music if you want music that is more personal to you. This is for your video, for us to create for you. You bought the desired music. This single video will belong to you. If we make a copy for use on the web, or to distribute to more individuals, we must use our ‘Royalty Free’ music to comply with the laws.
Have you ever uploaded a video to YouTube and had it kicked out? Was it because of the music? We did several years ago, when they really started cracking down on this. We started to familiarize ourselves with the laws. So we decided to limit our expense, our liability and our music tracks. Most importantly we wanted to honor the rights of the artists, as we too are artists. So bear with us, but enjoy the photographs and the videos, because that is what it is really all about.
Keep watching our You Tube Channel, you can find a link at the bottom of the page. We are also about to have video adding to this site. So stick around and see what new music we come up with.
