How to license a song to be used in film projects?
Licensing a song to be used for film projects isn’t that all difficult. For example; you are working on a documentary film of an important Olympic swimming champion which you are planning to sell to swimming class students. You go out, roll in the budgets and starts filming. When everything is near done, you intuition suggest that a song should be added in some parts of the film to make the scene more captivating to your audience.
Film making scene by Dan Prates
You do not have a big budget for licensing fees. Instead, you open your laptop and search the internet for free music to be license. You stumble in a music publisher website, with the entire song catalog. You then listen to the songs, and find out what seems to be the perfect song for your film. You decide the song will become a theme or featured song in the documentary film. You are afraid you have to spend a lot of that song.
You click the “Download song” button to fill up some required information pertaining to your licensing application as well as to agree on the terms and conditions.
Once you have successfully filed a license, you will be able to download a song. Then you are then required to submit a cue sheet to ASCAP. You can use this cue sheet form.
a. Film synchronization license – it will state the terms and limitations on how you are going to use their song. This will depend on your request also on how you are going to their song and this is a confirmation that they are ok with it. This license gives you right to insert the song in synchronization with your film. This is often bundled with the right to use the sound recording, if the music publisher also owns the recording.
b. Since it is free, they will not be asking for a licensing fee.
The tricky thing is that if you plan to reproduce it in physical forms (CD for example), you then need to acquire a mechanical licensing agreement which is entirely different than film sync agreement.
After receiving the licensing agreement (sent by email during licensing application), you need to keep this in the safe place. Finally, you have just completed licensing the song and it can now be used legally in your projects with limitations stated on the agreement.
