REDUX is out now and so I have the time to drop a few lines on how the process of licensing music for the game went. When working with licensed music you always have to clear the following rights; master rights, synchronisation rights and mechanical rights. You might be able to clear all these rights at once or you might have to work these out individually. I’ll get to that a little later on. First let’s take a closer look at what these rights are about.
Master rights denote the rights to the master recording of the song (therefore a.k.a. recording rights). These are owned either by a record label or the artists themselves and are usually cleared with a one time payment.
Synchronisation rights are the rights to distribute a song (a.k.a publishing rights). These are needed to be allowed to associate your intellectual property (the game) with the intellectual property (a song) of an artist. The term stems from the synchronisation of an image with music. Synchronisation rights are either held by a music publisher (label) or by the artists themselves. Often the same label that holds the recording rights also has a publishing department through which synchronization rights can be cleared.
Mechanical rights are the rights to reproduce a song. Although the term originates from the physical reproduction of sound media, mechanical rights also exist for digital reproduction. To clear mechanical rights you have to pay mechanical royalties. These can either be settled with a one time payment if the rights are with the artist or have to be paid on a per unit basis if the artist is registered with a collection society.
Performance rights are the rights to play a song to an audience. If you are a game producer these are usually only relevant if you use music for a video of your game that is then shown on the internet or on TV. Royalties for performance rights also are payable at fixed rates through collection societies.
When looking for music licenses for your game there are several ways to go. If you want big name artists you must be prepared to deal with the major labels and to possibly spend a lot of cash on advance payments if you can’t ensure guaranteed sale numbers.
The easiest method to get music for your games is to work with the musicians themselves. For example you could get unreleased tracks from them and thus be able to clear everything just with one person. You could also ask them for re-recordings or re-edits of their songs to circumvent paying a label for the master rights. We did that for the first Radio Flare where we worked with DJ Glow. He also contributed a track to REDUX.
For REDUX we also worked a way in between and worked with several smaller electronic music labels that feature excellent artists.
Manchester based Mikrowave was started in 2005 by Kevin Gorman. The label has become a platform for established artists and remixers worldwide. The ethos of Mikrowave is to release music that is individual, electronic and abstract, with a strong purpose on the dancefloor.
Fumakilla is a Techno- and Houselabel, founded in 2000 by Woody and based in Berlin, Germany.
Budde Music UK was founded in October 2008 as a new member of the Budde Music network which has a history of more than 60 years of independent publishing. Today the company has a selection of different music styles, ranging from electronic music (Zombie Nation – Kernkraft 400) to hits from the eighties (Opus -Live is Life)!
Another excellent way to license music is through specialized portals. All artists available have all necessary rights pre-cleared by the site and are available through affordable one time fees. For REDUX we had a great experience working with the following two portals:
Launched in February 2006, BeatPick is a specialized online music licensing agent that provides pre-cleared music for both commercial and non commercial multimedia projects. Approximately 250 independent artists have joined the service, from over 40 different countries.
Launched in 2009, the service was developed by jamendo.com, the world’s #1 website for free and legal music downloads under Creative Commons licenses.
On jamendo.com, you can download all the music you like for private, non commercial uses.
Jamendo PRO, on the other hand, offers the purchase of music licenses for commercial uses. Jamendo PRO remunerates the artists fairly: half of its revenue goes straight to them.
So good luck with your licensing ventures and let me know if you have any comments!
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