iTunes purchases won’t play in FCP

[Walter Biscardi]

[JasonOnaMac] “The songs I purchased from iTunes are labeled as (protected) m4p and have no vital signs in FCP. MP3s play fine. Is there a way to get around this?”

This is part of the digital protection of the music. It’s illegal to edit a video to commercial music without a sync license. Your purchase price does not include that license.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Broadcast and independent productions.

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Read my blog! https://blogs.creativecow.net/WalterBiscardi

[Jasononamac]

Ah crap! Well, if this is just for my own entertainment, is there a tricky way around it?

And thanks for that quick response!

[John Davidson]

Did you know that you can burn those songs via itunes to a regular audio cd?

Did you also know that you can import regular audio cd’s into itunes, encoding the files into any format you like, many of which (like aiff) are extremely functional in Final Cut Pro?

iTunes is a pretty functional program….

John Davidson____ writer | producer | director____https://www.magicfeather.tv

[Steven Gonzales]

If it’s just for your own entertainment, why don’t you write your own music in Garage Band?

If the music is good, maybe it will have commercial value, and you can sell and license it to others.

It’s your intellectual property, so shouldn’t you be able to benefit from its use? I hope that it is really great music, and that no one steals it from you, denying you the value of your own creation.

[John Davidson]

My network clients license all the music in the spots we produce for them, so in my particular situation, the method I describe actually makes artists quite a bit of flow and garners them national broadcast exposure.

For example, this year some of the artists that made a great deal of cash from this are:

John Parr (Man in Motion song from St. Elmo’s Fire)
Big Head Todd & the Monsters (my favorites)
Everclear
Barenaked Ladies
Scissor Sisters
Persiphone’s Bees
Ursula 1000

It would be even easier if I didn’t have to deal with DRM forcing me to waste a cd every time I try to test a song out in a spot.

John Davidson____ writer | producer | director____https://www.magicfeather.tv

[Kerry Brown]

Where did your client get the sync licenses and do you have copies?
How do the artists make the money you mention?

KB

[John Davidson]

Every network has their own music person who obtains clearances through the license holders. TNT, ABC, Disney, FX, etc., each has it’s own method of handling it, but there’s usually one company that handles the actual aquiring of licenses from the labels that all the networks go through. Some clearances are quick (Big Head Todd was pretty fast), some take forever to never (Electric Light Orchestra, surprisingly).

I can’t remember off the top of my head who handles most of the clearances. I think it’s a division of BMG or Killer Tracks. Some tracks take longer to clear if there are multiple owners of a song. The John Parr song was held by 3 different labels 1 in London, 1 in NYC, and one in Nashville (I think), so it almost didn’t get cleared in time.

I assume they get paid by royalties in check form.

[John Davidson]

And no, I don’t keep copies of sync licenses. My company is an outside vendor under the creative direction of the networks who maintain all paperwork and responsibility for what they air. I provide creative, they provide approval and clearance.

Sometimes when promoting a movie or series, music is already cleared in the promotional use of the film/series for x number of years. For example, every syndicated promo for “Friends” uses the Rembrandts “I’ll be there for you” music. Another example is for the movie “Last Action Hero”: specific songs by Megadeath and Alice in Chains were available for promotional use, free of charge, because they had been paid for for use in the movie.

Clearance for each song is different, some are very expensive and some are surprisingly cheap. For cable networks, my submissions gravitate towards songs that will likely be more affordable to the network (like catchy 80’s music). For broadcast networks, I go a little more mainstream (Barenaked Ladies, Pink, etc).

Nothing gets aired without clearance. Ever. That would be a nightmare.

[Kerry Brown]

Thanks for the feedback. Very interesting.

KB

[Chad Denning]

If this is a shameless plug, please forgive me, but we have a person on staff that does music clearance and placement. It still amazes me for a how little, and sometimes how much a particular song costs to use. On our placement side, we represent artists that own all of their own publishing and masters so we can turn around a song we rep incredibly fast.

http://www.gammablast.com