Licensing Rules

Question

Hi, I'm not 100% sure about the licensing rules. I am making a song cover art for spotify and I'm not sure about the 500,000 copies rule. The cover art I am making is only for the song on spotify and a visualiser for YouTube. It will not be sold as merchandise or anything and will only be used as a cover image for a song. I'd also like to add that I'll be making changes to it, like adding other images, a title, changing the colours and lowering the brightness. Will I be okay to proceed with a standard license? It is likely that it may get over 500k views on spotify and youtube but I'm not sure if views count as copies. From my understanding, copies refers to, for example, selling a tangible product like an album. This wouldn't include streams on a song. I am pretty confident that I am okay to proceed but I want to be 100% sure.

Abambo · Answer

First, a disk cover would hardly count as merchandising, as the main value is the music and not the cover artwork.

Second, you may modify the licensed asset as of your liking.

Third, copies also refers to e-books or PDF distributions. Using this analogy, I'm not certain that your reasoning is correct. However, YouTube also counts as social media. And for sure, a view should only be counted if someone listens to your song, not only looks at your cover (analogy of “buying” the disk).

All in all, to be 100% sure, you will need to ask a lawyer specialized in this item.

Look here for more information on licensing: https://community.adobe.com/t5/stock/links-for-licensing-terms/td-p/11366788
(Disclaimer: As always with licensing, this is my interpretation of the rules. I think they are correct and advice is based on reading and interpreting the licence terms and on fair use for both the buyer and the artist/stock company, but I cannot rule out that my interpretation is wrong. I'm not an Adobe employee).

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