Licensing Music

The licensing of music for TV, film, and web can be one of the few avenues for a band to get exposure and earn money. Everyone knows radio plays so little new music of which a shockingly even smaller number that can be considered good. Everyone knows that a good placement in an advertisment or the right show or movie can raise your awareness and immediately impact your ticket and album/single sales. And everyone knows that some of these licenses can actually earn the band a decent amount of money, whether they see the money depends on who controls the publishing and master.

Here is the bad part. There are far too many people looking for a gratis (free) license. Their logic in asking usually comes back to 2 reason.

1. We have no money, this is a tiny production that we don't even to expect to make any money, let alone recoup our costs.
2. This will be good exposure for the band. We will give them a chyron or a credit.

It is not absolute, but I feel this is inherently wrong.

1. NO MONEY EXCUSE. Let's think about this for a moment. You spent money on cameras, lenses, film, tape, drives, transfers. You spent money on production, sets, make-up, lighting, space rental, permits, food, water, coffee, gas. Should I continue? Maybe everyone who worked on the production all worked for free, maybe not. The point is your asking for the music, which arguably will be one of the most important elements to quality of your film (yes, ask all the great directors how important the music is to how a piece plays) for free. You are placing a zero value on that music and worse you are telling that artist that their art has no value to you.
2. It is not you to decide what good exposure is. The truth is your piece will be like most others and it will only have a handful of people see it. We hope that your project gets a lot of exposure but that is not a risk that the band should be taking. The artist is not in the business of your film. Their job is to make music and play shows. They should not be asked to take any of the risk or any of the burden in your production.

Don't get me wrong I am not angry at those who ask. I am happy you like the music enough to use it in the piece and I want you to continue to use the music for many years to come. I do however think it is slightly rude or naive, or presumptuous, or some other word that I do not know, for you to ask to use the music for free.

Would you walk into the camera shop and say "Can you give us that lens for free? We will put it in the credits. It will be great exposure for you"

Show the music the respect it deserves. Set aside a budget so you can pay for the music. Even if it is a small amount. It is a lot nicer to say "I really want to use your music but I only have $300 can we please figure out a way to make this work?" then "We want to use your music but we have no money because we spent it on everything else, besides, it will be to your benefit to give it to me for free".

One caveat is Student films. I have found that while most of them are focused on learning which is a noble cause we all support they do often spend money on gear, computers, drives, software, etc. We do not expect students to have a lot of money to spend on music but why are the schools willing to spend all this money on gear and not on music. Aren't they only teaching part of the story of making a film?

One last note. "I am just a broke college student" does usually not fly as a good argument to a band as your life as a broke college student is probably much more opulent then most of the artists working today.