Who can give consent to have music be in a film?

Byron Pascoe: There’s a pretty broad range of types of people and companies who can give consent to have music in film. Approximately 100,000 songs are uploaded to Spotify every day; there’s a lot of music that’s out there. Most music that is created and put out there in the world is created by independent artists who wrote and recorded their own music, and for them, they can give all the consents. They can grant the rights to use the recording and the composition.

If there’s a record label involved, the label may have the right to give permission. If there’s a publisher involved, they may have the right; it really depends on who the creative collaborators are, who the other parties are (if there’s a record label, publisher, one person vs. many people). There’s a lot of music where there’s a lot of people involved. It’s not just co-writers; it’s also producers. Music producers oftentimes own and control a share of a composition. I work for producers, beatmakers, artists, all the different players, and I know from just their way of working together that they’re each composers/writers.

You need to make sure that if there’s a lot of people credited on a song, that you’re getting permission from the right people. Don’t assume that the main artist is the only decision maker. You need to make sure that everybody who is listed on a song is dealt with in some way: either get permission from them personally or from the entity giving permission on behalf of everybody else. It’s important to get permission from everybody who was involved in the production or someone on their behalf.

If there was a producer involved and s/he never gave consent to the artist to use the composition, or if they hadn’t clarified their splits of the composition, you want to make sure that they have done that. It’s important to do a “deep dive” on all music that you’re using to make sure that you’re being very detailed and specific about who may have been involved. What you want to avoid is for someone you’ve never heard of to come after you later to say, “I was a producer on that track… I used to be in the band at that time and they never got consent from me to use the music.” So, ask a lot of questions to the musicians you’re working with. If you want to have music in your production, make sure that you’re getting consent from everybody who has the right to give consent for that music to be in your production.

Byron Pascoe is an entertainment lawyer and partner at Edwards Creative Law

Are you a producer in Canada or the US? Get a quote for producer’s E&O insurance here.

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