Copywriting visuals with DJ soundtrack

[vjvishnu]

Hey Peeps,

Sorry if this ones been chewed over endlessly here but i recon i might be coming from a slightly different angle.

I recently VJ'd in a club in Plymouth, and recorded the whole night (audio and visuals). I'm really happy with my mixing and general performance and the images look great - so i'm thinking of producing a DVD of highlights from the show, and approching the local record shops with it, then later maybe selling it through my site. But theres only two problems:

1) Do the promoters i was working for (who also DJ'd during the night) own the copywrite? + If they do is there anyway around it?

2) The tunes the DJ's played are on the tape, and form an essential part of the experience - so how do i clear the copywrite on the tunes?

Any advise welcome...

-Vish.

[visualove]

I think you are in the UK. I'm in the USA, so I'll answer from that standpoint, although I am not a lawyer/solicitor...

1 No, the prompters do not own the music. In the US the copyright owner for the music/samples grants the right to play the music to the club owner through ASCAP or BMI. The club pays ASCAP or BMI a fee to perform an unlimited amount of music [licensed through ASCAP or BMI] for a year or month. Copyright owners/artists not registered to BMI/ASCAP are on their own licensing public performance.

Whether the promoters own your performance is a matter for your contract with them.

2 Essentially impossible. You want a license to sell the music on a DVD. To get it you would have to negotiate a license with every music copyright owner. Not only are they greedy, but tracing the music samples would take a lot of time if it was even possible.

A good solution would be an ASCAP/BMI club license for video samples (at a reasonable price!) for performance and a reasonable rate equivalent for resale of DVD's, sound and video samples. :grouphug:

[vjvishnu]

Thank you Visualove, i'm sure quite a few of us can benifit from this info.

1.Whether the promoters own your performance is a matter for your contract with them.

Hmmn. Didn't have a contract as such, paid cash in hand.

2.Essentially impossible.

Doh!

Does anyone know if this is the same in the uk?

Where can i apply for "ASCAP/BMI club license for video samples (at a reasonable price!) for performance and a reasonable rate equivalent for resale of DVD's, sound and video samples" ? Is it even worth it? Oh, or are you saying they should introduce this as it doesn't exist yet?

Is this the same over here?

Does anyone have any experience with this? Some of u must have encountered this obsticle before...

Surely this is a crutially important sticking point for the future of VJing.

If we want to distribute our work to a wider audience then we need to work out how to clear the copywrite on the tunes.

[Rovastar]

There is no easy way to get clearance esp if it is for resale.

The license to play music that club have is only for live performances they are not allowed to release a CD of the tunes played on a night for resale (or promotion purposes even).

With it music mix I would say that each tune is copyrighted and also the mix by the DJ. Getting clearance official will be very difficult if not impossible. The club/promoter/dj cannot give you the right to this as you will need ever record company on the mix for full signoff.

The easiest legal way is to hook up with a small label who will own the copyright on there work and work with them when releasing a promo DVD. Often they will be pleased with the promotion that the DVD will give them.

Casting aside the legalities for one second. If you give out the promo DVD to a few record shops/friends/promoters in your local area there is unlikely to be much fallout over it.
Giving it away is probably the next level of ‘riskiness’ but DJ do this often with there home grown mp3 mixes and place on there website with not much repercussions.

Selling online can be a different matter that and I would not recommend that at all. To many risks involved there and is firmly in the ‘commercial’ camp.

Place all over the DVD (disk and the content) – “for promotion use only”, etc it will be in your favour if on the highly remote chance that any legal action could come of this. Also it means that the club night will not a) use the DVD you made for there own night and making your services redundant. b) stop them using the DVD themselves for sale.

On a local ethical level. Speak to your club night if you are going to give away DVD say what you are planning to do. Most small clubs will be happy with what you are doing for a simple namedropping of there club in there too. Drop them a copy speak to them give them a few spare so they can give to there promoters mates, etc.

[littlecatalyst]

i'm not tot ally cloear from the responses. are the visuals your own? if so let's ignore that part completely (if they aren't then forget about the dvd) but if they are....

a good idea as far as finding the owner of the music rigts-- gfet in touch with the DJ (you may wanna offer him credit in the dvd and offer that to himto get him into this next idea) have him review the video copy with a pen panper in hand and jot down each track he played-- he'll remember who they are and probably have the name of the label and then it's not so hard to contact them.

if he's playing electronic music (and it isn't some top40 mix where you have to deal with BMGSony UNiversal....) youwill have some interest from the owners of that material. you will have to work out royalties with them, but again if you explain that your riginalpressing is goingto be >100 copies, they won't ask you for an arm and a leg... may even find it god promotion for their labels you can even further sweeten the deal offering them thr right to use the video for crosspromotional purposes..). it is arduous, but not imopssible, quite doable-- that's what film makers have to do all the time....

curios and looking forward to hearing that your dvd is out!

[vjvishnu]

Thank you Rova and Lil' Cat!

The visuals are all home grown. Unfortunately the tunes played by the 6 DJs that played are not, and i fear that tracking down each tune and lable and seeking publishing rights from them all strikes me as quite a daunting task.

Oh well. Maybe i can get my musician buddies to make a new sound track for the visuals...

Thanks again for your help guys - much apprieciated :yep:

[littlecatalyst]

it's way easier to work with musician buddies thats fo sho---

but its also not as daunting as it sounds... the 6 djs KNOW what tunes they played and can probably ((especially if you offer them a) billing on thr DVD and b) a few copies to use for their own promotional uses)) get you the name/contacty info very easily... then you ar eloloking at a day or two on the pohone, faxes and the rest... but most likeley if its electronic music it wont be impossible at all (and the benefots are then you can SELL it like MAD)

look at that Danny Gomez guy who did the flash(back) for a shpongle song-- not only did he get their permission after the fact, but the shpongle guys are helping spread his work!

[vjvishnu]

Hmmmmn.....