FAQs
Absolutely. Even if you have commissioned the music for your game, the right usages need to be cleared in the initial contract.
Do I Need Permission to Use Music in a Game?
1
Both the publishing and master rights must be cleared. One without the other, unfortunately, won’t cover you. As well as this, there are actual restrictions in the usage of the rights cleared.
What Rights Need To Be Cleared?
2
Can Commissioned Music Still Create Copyright Problems?
3
Commissioned music can still cause complications in the process depending on the rights cleared in the contract with the musicians and composers. A great deal of the time, this can relate to residual royalties and usage allowed.
This allows streamers to play and stream your game with the original soundtrack. Again, a lot of this is dictated by the contracts you have in place and requires correct clearances and can include royalties accounting
What Does “Streamer Safe” Actually Mean?
4
Can Music Licences Expire?
5
The short answer to this is Yes. Licences can expire. Take the dead musician, that in the 1990s, was rumoured to have written the soundtrack for a game starring a fast moving, nocturnal animal, that may or may not have been blue. The rights were cleared for the initial cartridge release, but not for unseen future rereleases. The same goes for the samples that De La Soul used, these were cleared for the release at the time, but the music industry of the 1980s, rightfully, couldn’t predict the advent and rise of the digital era.
Can Cover Versions Be Used in Games?
6
Covers absolutely can be used in games, and the advertising industry has already shown this can be effective in both financial cost and the effectiveness of the music. In these cases, you are commissioning a new recording of an existing work. In the first instance, you need to clear the publishing side. Depending on how many writers were involved in the original writing, there might be a few. There is a Beyonce track that has 18 writers, all with their own share, all with their own publishers to deal with. On top of this, you will need to commission a new cover version, fund it, and cover arrangement, recording and session musician costs.
Do you still release Records?
7
Unfortunately, we no longer release records. As time goes on, and this website evolves, links to past artists we’ve worked with go up, somewhere, at some time.