Austin360 blogs > Digital Savant > Archives > 2010 > March > 16 > Entry
SXSW panel: Music Liscensing For Emerging Media: Apps, Widgets, Viral Video
Panelists: Joel Johnson (Gawker)-moderator, Annie Lin (The Rights Workshop), Randy Shefer (Sony ATV Publishing), Adam Blumenthal (Curious Sense), Colin Mutchler
The gist: Music licensing in the United States is complicated. There are no set standards for copyright fees. All uses of licensed music need to be negotiated on a case by case basis. Also there’s no easy way to locate who owns rights to much content. Copyrights aren’t static, catalogs change hands, rights holders die, etc.
With new media there’s the additional challenge of asking labels and rights holders to use music in ways that have never been envisioned, karaoke iPhone or Facebook apps, artist t-shirts in virtual worlds, etc.
Quotes: “If I had created something that was really precious to me I wouldn’t want it in a fart app.” Joel Johnson
“It’s striking to me the way big media companies are still bewildered about these new technologies.” Adam Blumenthal
Takeaways: The best time to figure out the licensing for music in you project is at the beginning. When your Web site, game or film gets big that’s when the lawyers come knocking. While there are younger people within the rights holding organizations, who understand technology and are willing to negotiate reasonable fees for new media uses, sometimes you have to jump through hoops to get to them. —-Deborah Sengupta Stith
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