music, licensing , and annoying client expectations.

[Patrick Bannon]

Hi all, I have some questions regarding music, licensing , and client expectations. 

As a photographer getting more into video, I repeatedly end up in annoying situations where clients (some of which work in AV etc, so you'd think would know better) are just expecting me to put music on their videos and then expecting  to be able to use them on social media without any regard for copyright. 

Its clear in my mind that music has to be licensed properly but I keep getting in this annoying and tense dialogue with clients - its making me think I am being overly strict about it all , or that I am missing something.

Anyone got any thoughts on this?? Am I being too stringent and are there ways around this that people do, or do I need to just really make it clear with clients that licences must be paid for and just put my foot down? 

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hi @Patrick Bannon,

Thanks for bringing up the topic. I placed your post in the Video Lounge. I hope that is OK. I hope you get some excellent responses. 

Best Wishes,

Kevin

[John T Smith]

I have not used this so you will need to check to see if what you want is available
Free pictures-sounds-video https://pixabay.com/

[Warren Heaton · Accepted solution]

It sound like you are taking on the role of music supervisor for your clients.

If the music has a copyright, your client will need the master sync license and the master use license in order for it to be used in whatever they publish.

Here are some good articles on the topic:

• https://lwks.com/blog/the-essential-guide-to-music-licensing-for-video-creators
• https://entertainmentlawyermiami.com/the-importance-of-music-licensing-in-the-entertainment-industry...

The YouTube Creator Studio provides an audio library of music and effects that can be used with any video uploaded to YouTube; however, the music is not licensed for use on other social media platforms.  If the same video posted to YouTube is also posted to Instagram, it can be expected to get removed by Instagram at some point due to unlicensed use of the music.

You can find free and paid options in the Adobe Stock music library.  Another approach to easily find free music from Adobe is to start an Adobe Rush project, add audio there, and then open that Project in Premiere Pro.

You could also look into AI music generation.  Here's one option for that:  https://soundful.com/en-us/