Producing : Music License question by Michael Yanovich

Michael Yanovich

Music License question

I'm editing a short film at the moment, and we're negotiating with our composers for the license ownership of the score. There was some contention that was resolved when I spoke to a friend of mine who is a studio exec. He said the solution was straightforward, to treat the score as if we were licensing songs. His wording: "You have to own the rights to the music in perpetuity throughout the universe and all media known today or to be invented. They can on the music and all other aspects. They can on the soundtrack. But you must on the music while it is married to the picture." In short, we own the music as it's in the film, the composers would own the music for every other aspect. He says it's completely standard and there's no mystery about it. What I need now is a boilerplate contract that does just this. Ideally including the phrase, "...music in perpetuity throughout the universe and all media known today or to be invented." Since he's a studio exec, he can't send me his studio's contract, but I'm sure there's a good boilerplate out there. And as this is a self-financed short, we need to do this as inexpensively as possible. We also need to be able to exclude three songs which were written by another musician, and we already have those rights. Anyone have suggestions on where to find an agreement like this on the web?

Steven Harris Anzelowitz

ASCAP?

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