How you can use copyrighted music

byschmidtharve

22 followers

Updated 2 years ago

Not only professional videomakers, bloggers, and speakers who regularly create videos, but also ordinary users of social networks who want to share their edited video by inserting an excerpt from a favorite song into it are faced with issues of compliance and violation of copyright when using someone else's musical work. It is not always clear why a video is blocked, especially if the author has previously purchased the song, for example, in iTunes, or used a song from the offered Instagram library. To no longer worry about the possible blocking of the published content or the entire account for violating the rights of authors and copyright holders, let's tell you how to use music with regard to copyright compliance.

Features of copyright in music design: video blogs, commercial and personal use

According to the Civil Code, a musical composition is a composition consisting of combinations of sounds with or without text and intended to be performed on musical instruments and/or by voice. Regardless of whether the composition lasts a few seconds or minutes, or whether the performer's voice is present, any musical work will be protected by copyright.

According to the legislation the author has the personal non-property rights, which are inalienable - it is the right to be recognized as the author of the work, the right to the name, the right to inviolability of the work, and the right to disclosure. He also has an exclusive right - he can transfer it in part or in full, for example, to a record label or a production center, which can dispose of the work for any purpose, including commercial purposes - it is prohibited to do so without the consent of the author.

Without the author's consent, it is allowed to reproduce the composition for personal purposes, for example, to download it for listening in the car on the way to work - personal use will not violate the author's rights. If you include the song, for example, as a background in a bar, cafe or restaurant, this will require a separate license and agreement with the copyright holder, since it is no longer a personal use, but a public (commercial) one.

It's the same with buying tracks at a music bank or on a specialized site: you are not buying the song itself, but only the right to use it for personal purposes. For example, in iTunes, you can buy a track you like just for listening at home, but if you use the purchased song for public broadcasting or for commercial projects, such as advertising your business, it may be grounds for filing a lawsuit because of copyright infringement. In this case, despite the fact that the user has paid to listen to a favorite song, it does not mean that he gets access to the track forever - if Apple terminates cooperation with the copyright holder, the song will be removed from the site, and users will not be able to listen to it, even despite the previous payment.

Usually, social networks and video hosting sites, where you can publish videos using music, interact with users under the license, which exempts from the need to obtain direct permission for the use of some compositions of authors and copyright holders. Such licenses grant permission only for certain uses of the music composition, such as for non-commercial purposes and in certain locations.

YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook offer the use of their free music libraries - the posted video will not be blocked if songs from them are used. But that doesn't mean the music isn't protected by copyright. On the contrary, the authors or rights holders have licensed these platforms to use their music as part of a licensing agreement. Under such agreements, the rights to the work are transferred to the platform in a limited way, for example, the song can be used in a certain region or country and for a period of five years. So sometimes when you browse social media posts from your foreign friends, you may find that the music is not available in your region, which means that the rights to use that piece of music are limited by the licensing agreement.

If you decide to create a video and use a free music library like YouTube or Instagram, you should keep in mind that the song you choose can only be used within that platform. Simply put, if you take a song from YouTube's free music library and upload the video to Instagram, it can be blocked for copyright infringement unless Instagram has entered into a license agreement with that copyright holder to use the song.

Making any changes to a used song, even from a free library, is considered copyright infringement. For example, before creating a remix or cover of a well-known song, a musician must ask the copyright holder for permission in order not to infringe on the copyright of the music track. And the consent of the author must be executed in written form.

What compositions are protected by copyright

Every piece of intellectual property has an author, so it's protected by copyright. The use of their own compositions is not limited in any way for the authors. The question is how to use someone else's song without violating anyone else's copyright. At the same time, the copyright on a musical work may belong to the author or several authors or right holders (for example, a recording studio or the author's heirs) and are protected by law, regulating not only its use.

Article 1281 of the Civil Code of the Federation states that the exclusive right to work shall last throughout the life of the author and for another 70 years after his death, counting from January 1 of the year following the author's death. After the author's death the exclusive rights are passed on to his heirs and upon expiration of the term the work comes into the public domain - such a work can be freely used by any person without anyone's consent or permission and without payment of remuneration according to Articles 1259 and 1282 of the Civil Code.

In addition to copyright, we should not forget about related rights - these are the rights arising at the moment when the composition becomes available for perception. For example, the lyrics and melody to a song were written by one author, and its performance was realized by another author - he will own allied rights. The company that realized the recording of the song will also own the related rights. Neighboring rights on phonograms, performances, and performances are valid for 50 years from the date of the recording.

What works are not covered by copyright and how to check it

Some musical works can be freely used without the permission of the author or the right holder. Such works include national anthems, as well as works that have fallen into the public domain - but the latter often involve neighboring rights, so anyone involved in the distribution of the created work, such as performers and directors, various broadcasting and broadcasting organizations, and phonogram producers, may receive remuneration for its use. Musical compositions for which the authorship is not established are called orphan compositions. Legislators are still in the process of establishing rules for the use of such works, it is expected that the bill will contain rules for remuneration for the use of orphan works.

You can check which music can be used without regard to copyright by searching the registry of copyright holders. To do this, on the registry page, you need to enter the author and the name of the song. The result will help you decide whether the song can be used in your work. If you found the track you want and want to buy a license to use it, you can write directly to the RAO to sign a contract under which you will have to pay royalties depending on the format and place of use of the music.

Special services can be used to identify the author of the music and the terms of use of the track. These include the Free Music Archive, an online music archive without a license. It allows you to search for songs by license type, genre, and mood. You can also use a foreign rights registry search, such as Easy Song Licensing.

A quick way to determine the copyright of music is to use song identification services like Shazam, SoundHound, MusicID, and BeatFind. On Apple devices, the Shazam function has long been built into Siri, so you can simply ask the voice assistant and it will give you a link to the song in Apple Music, where detailed information about the author and rights holders will be provided. On Android devices an audio search widget is available - in a few seconds after the request it will show the name of the track, its artist, album, and the opportunity to buy in Google Play Music.

The social network Vkontakte has dozens of groups and communities in which you can find music under an open license, in layman's terms - music for which there are no copyrights (although they always are). For example:

• youtube_commercial;
• red_musical_youtube;
• pop_rock_music.

Since it's impossible to use music without copyright, users can use a license. For example, the Public Domain license grants tracks that have passed into the public domain, which includes not only music written more than 70 years ago, but also works, the rights for which the authors passed to the public domain while they were still alive. Note that this license only covers sheet music, and you will have to play the music yourself.

Another popular license is Creative Commons, under which the compositions are distributed for free, without any royalties to the author and copyright holder. SoundCloud, ccMixter, Free Music Archive, and Freeplay Music sell music under this license. But this license has subspecies with its own limitations, so it is recommended to read the license agreement carefully.

How to buy music copyrights

It is possible to buy royalty free music by concluding with the licensor an agreement of alienation of exclusive rights, according to which all the rights to use the track are transferred from the author to the purchaser. The new owner will receive the rights in their entirety and will be able to use them independently or lend them to a third party at his or her discretion.

To use the music in your creative work, you can buy your favorite track through special digital platforms that sell musical objects - IPEX is one of them. It is also possible to purchase the rights to use the song by directly contacting the rights holder or the Collective Management Society for Copyright and Related Rights (CMR), which is an intermediary between the rights holder and the purchaser.

The rights to a song you like do not have to buy in full, you can get a license to use it for a limited period of time. The license can be non-exclusive, where the author or right holder grants the right to use the work to one or more persons, or exclusive, where the rights are granted to only one licensee and the right holder cannot use the work (unless the contract stipulates otherwise). By default the license provides for payment of remuneration to the right holder, it can have any forms: fixed one-time payment, regular payments, interest from sales income, and so on.

Pay attention, the author can transfer only proprietary rights, in any case, he keeps the complex of personal rights: the right for authorship and name, as well as the right for immunity and for disclosure of his work.

You can buy the composition you like under Royalty Free license, under which the buyer pays only once and can use the work indefinitely. The disadvantage of this license is that since the track can be used by other people as well, the composition can easily be found in the works of other authors.
When buying, pay attention to whether the song can be used for commercial purposes, which platforms it is allowed to use, in which countries it is available for sale, what the license term is, and whether you need to include any information in the video description, such as the author's name, a link to the song, and so on.

Restrictions on use

Restrictions on the use of copyrighted music can be set by authors or rights holders as part of the license. For example, there are limits between Instagram and copyright holders on how much-recorded music can be included in videos and live streams. When using copyrighted music, Instagram can mute the sound during a live broadcast, shut down the broadcast entirely, and block a publication that has infringed on copyrights. The company doesn't disclose details of licensing agreements with creators, but it does share general guidelines to help plan its videos.

YouTube has a Content ID system that helps track copyright infringement in videos by other creators. Within the system, the copyright holder can choose how to deal with videos containing his music: set restrictions on the use of music in some or all countries, mute it, or set monetization for videos with his music - ads will appear in it, the revenue from which will go entirely to the copyright holder.

All music has an author or copyright holder and therefore is protected by copyright. To use someone else's music for commercial and noncommercial purposes in your video on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and other social networks, you can use special libraries or sites that offer to buy free or for a small fee song based on an open license. However, you should always check under what conditions the song can be used and whether it is acceptable to include it in a commercial video, so as not to inadvertently violate someone else's rights. You can buy the rights to a song by contacting the rights holder directly or by contacting organizations that are intermediaries between the rights holders and the buyers. And remember: there is no music without copyrights, and without the author's permission you can use the composition only for personal purposes!