Background: noticed yesterday an old tune of ours was getting hundreds of hits not stemming from SC reposts etc., which is unusual enough that I wanted to dig into it.

The source kind of blew my mind: an excellent, obviously professional, video which as far as I can tell is done by a car culture website as a wrapup for some car show in Orlando. Opening track is a(n official) remix of one of our old tunes.

The vid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WIA9CvfmPU

The guy has 108,000 YT followers. It's been played over 30k times in its first 36 hours, and in the accompanying writeup the poster includes the soundtrack piece musicians & titles and the note 'please support the original artists.'

My first thought is 'damn, that's good promotion.' I sent the dude an email to say thanks and ask if we could share on FB , etc.

My second thought is, well, my bandmate wrote the song and another collaborator did the remix. All that's left of me on there is that melodica skank. The other two guys have a lot more IP tied up in it.

My third thought was 'I wonder how much he got paid to do that?' b/c if it's a labor of love, no problem, but if the guy is getting many thousands of dollars, well, it would have been nice to actually license it. Not that I would have expected to be able to charge more than $100 or whatever, so there's not much of a practical economic benefit for me. But.

All in all, a pretty cool thing and a pretty amazing & surprising project to be included in, & I'm very flattered ... but.

Anyone have similar experience?

(This is definitely preferable to the time I posted a mix in the Lesson and another OKP found it on Yelp, with the guy who posted it on Yelp behaving as though it were his mix... I think disco_dj went through a similar thing once as well.)

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so I'm in a band now:
album ---> http://greenwoodburns.bandcamp.com/releases
Soundcloud ---> http://soundcloud.com/greenwood-burns

my own stuff -->http://soundcloud.com/lonesomedstringband

avy by buckshot_defunct

Not sure if its commercial use. Maybe send a note and just say you're cool reach out if it is a true commercial effort.

█▆▇▅▇█▇▆▄▁▃
Big PEMFin H & z's
"I ain't no entertainer, and ain't trying to be one. I am 1 thing, a musician." � Miles

"When the music stops he falls back in the abyss."

the link to our page is great. And getting heard 30k+ times (just shy of $32k now) in 36 hours is frigging great, that's more than we've gotten in 18 months on SC.

I did email with enthusiasm (before checking with the other two guys) to say thanks or using it.

It's very possible the guy does it for the love, which is also great. But " Recently they flew me down to Florida to capture their Orlando banger at the Convention Center. " Sounds pretty pro. I took a look at the Clean Culture website but couldn't make heads or tails about whether it's a commercial operation or what. I probably wouldn't have bothered thinking about it further if a) it weren't obviously a pro film (though you're right, perhaps not commercial), and b) the guy had asked first. I think you can appreciate that aspect.

Humor element: This use is in stark contrast to the other trailer one of our tunes was used for (with permission that time), which is a documentary about being gay in Alabama.

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so I'm in a band now:
album ---> http://greenwoodburns.bandcamp.com/releases
Soundcloud ---> http://soundcloud.com/greenwood-burns

my own stuff -->http://soundcloud.com/lonesomedstringband

avy by buckshot_defunct

tens of thousands of views or more worth of ad revenue is commercial enough for me not to feel bad asking for a cut.

the broader issue is of course that nobody understands or respects copyright law. i deal with this increasingly in my job. people think anything they can retrieve on the web is fair game to use without clearance. at least this guy credited the music, which is often not the case, but make no mistake, money is being made here. a lot of these youtubers are successful enough that making videos is how they make their living.

(p.s., hi, guys, i know i owe you both emails. i hope all is well.)

to use somebodys music if I were a position to need to....
what resources/path do you follow to do it?


"Get ready....for your blessing....."

Soundcloud has a decent messaging/inbox feature. Would make a good start. That's where I sent him my note.

Could also find us on Facebook or Bandcamp and send a message through that.

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so I'm in a band now:
album ---> http://greenwoodburns.bandcamp.com/releases
Soundcloud ---> http://soundcloud.com/greenwood-burns

my own stuff -->http://soundcloud.com/lonesomedstringband

avy by buckshot_defunct

from the video description, the uploader either has soundcloud as a favorite haunt for finding music or is under the impression it's either free to use or the artists won't complain if they even find out about it. in this case, since he obviously had their soundcloud links, he could have messaged them through there first and gotten written permission.

as far as using music that's higher profile, whether we like it or not, the label usually holds copyright. i would hit up the contact listed on the label web site before using the music in this situation. labels are all too happy to license their music to commercial ventures these days, but it's not going to be free. chances are even a highly successful youtube user won't want or be able to pay whatever a label would charge, which is why these folks tend to go small, like to soundcloud.

number of plays showing on our stats, which I check every day or two... no favorites or comments though so I didn't reach out. And he listened to a bunch of our tracks (even though I could see very few of them being appropriate for a project like this), which is very cool. Took a quick look at his Facebook page and he seems to be good about giving props to the musicians whose stuff he uses in his videos. So no real red flags other than the lack of asking, which isn't all that big a deal. I was kinda more curious about people here (a lot of whom make music and would probably be more likely than I am to find themselves in a similar situation) would react.

One thing I'm curious about is how he got a good copy of the track in an editable form since we don't have it for free download from SC. Maybe he bought it off Bandcamp but we've done diddly there. I'll take a look at the stats but I don't think it'll show me anything.
*edit* shit, I forgot we don't have the remix on our bandcamp. There was a small spike in plays of the original version there yesterday though. Interesting. We haven't sold squat though.

Either way, I'm honored that the filmmaker used it, and that he credited it, and pretty much would have just been a little more at ease if he'd asked first. I did hear back from the remix producer who said 'No worries on my end' and that's it.

-------
so I'm in a band now:
album ---> http://greenwoodburns.bandcamp.com/releases
Soundcloud ---> http://soundcloud.com/greenwood-burns

my own stuff -->http://soundcloud.com/lonesomedstringband

avy by buckshot_defunct

it is great exposure, and that may be enough to justify the breach of etiquette. like i said, a lot of people don't understand or care how copyright works, and that really matters when it comes to actually making money, as people do on youtube. with him pulling music from soundcloud, most probably would give him free use if he just asked first.


>One thing I'm curious about is how he got a good copy of the
>track in an editable form since we don't have it for free
>download from SC.

a browser addon or any of those sites with the sole purpose of providing mp3 downloads ripped from soundcloud streams. the file is the 128 kbps transcode that streams, not the original upload. 128 seems to be good enough for people in general and video editors/content creators in particular.


>Maybe he bought it off Bandcamp

FYI, if you did have it up there, bandcamp is also susceptible to the 128 kbps streaming mp3 being easily ripped and saved. both of these sites provide clean sounding, unwatermarked copies in "good enough" quality.


>Either way, I'm honored that the filmmaker used it, and that
>he credited it, and pretty much would have just been a little
>more at ease if he'd asked first. I did hear back from the
>remix producer who said 'No worries on my end' and that's it.

i don't mean to sway you on it; what you think is what matters most. i have no idea how i'd feel about it.

I'm pretty sure we wouldn't have objected if he'd asked us to use it for free - like I said, that's more exposure than we've ever generated on our own, and even though we don't sell much of anything there's clearly value in it. But (as far as I know - I haven't talked to Jeff since this went up ) he didn't ask.

-------
so I'm in a band now:
album ---> http://greenwoodburns.bandcamp.com/releases
Soundcloud ---> http://soundcloud.com/greenwood-burns

my own stuff -->http://soundcloud.com/lonesomedstringband

avy by buckshot_defunct

old episodes of Love it or List It or some shit like that on HGTV.......

One them local assed local biz commercials comes on....damn...I can't even remember the company...but the tune...the TUNE was damn familiar as hell! AND recently released....

It was this Foreign Exchange track:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7ELR-W7BKs

On some random local assed local biz commercial.

I posted it up on OKP bringing it to their attention....JUST in case it wasn't authorized use....
Then proceeded to get shat on in typical OKP fashion....on some "how you know they didn't approve it??" "How you assume they ain't on top of their biz??" yada yada yada, dog pile, dog pile, shat on shat on shat on....


Then Phonte came through the post like "Thanks for bringing this our attention Fam."


ahhh...
good times on OKP...


"Get ready....for your blessing....."

deals on washers and dryers... with FE playing in the background.

Love it.

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so I'm in a band now:
album ---> http://greenwoodburns.bandcamp.com/releases
Soundcloud ---> http://soundcloud.com/greenwood-burns

my own stuff -->http://soundcloud.com/lonesomedstringband

avy by buckshot_defunct

how could anyone see that as anything but a good deed?

****************
TBH the fact that you're even a mod here fits squarely within Jag's narrative of OK-sanctioned aggression, bullying, and toxicity. *shrug*

Maybe I'm petty.


"I wasn't sure if I was lost or running away again. . ."

http://austinato.bandcamp.com

http://www.discogs.com/lists/Favorites-of-2016/269401

can't be mad at THAT

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so I'm in a band now:
album ---> http://greenwoodburns.bandcamp.com/releases
Soundcloud ---> http://soundcloud.com/greenwood-burns

my own stuff -->http://soundcloud.com/lonesomedstringband

avy by buckshot_defunct

I must be old school-minded, because to me, the exposure wouldn't really cancel out the rudeness of not initially asking permission.



"I wasn't sure if I was lost or running away again. . ."

http://austinato.bandcamp.com

http://www.discogs.com/lists/Favorites-of-2016/269401

------------------------------------
2019 CABG Survivor

2016 OK Survivor Champion

be about it or be without it

RIP GOATs

-------
so I'm in a band now:
album ---> http://greenwoodburns.bandcamp.com/releases
Soundcloud ---> http://soundcloud.com/greenwood-burns

my own stuff -->http://soundcloud.com/lonesomedstringband

avy by buckshot_defunct