Music licensing for Instagram/Facebook

[QuattroFour4]

Jurisdiction

Florida

I am growing a small business and frequently feature video examples of my work (3D virtual tours) on Instagram and Facebook, with a caption usually directing the viewer to my website or something to that effect. So far, I've only paired the videos with music that I know is free for commercial use. Am I doing the right thing, or is this not necessary for these types of videos?

 

[Tax Counsel]

I am growing a small business and frequently feature video examples of my work (3D virtual tours) on Instagram and Facebook, with a caption usually directing the viewer to my website or something to that effect. So far, I've only paired the videos with music that I know is free for commercial use. Am I doing the right thing, or is this not necessary for these types of videos?

Is what not necessary? You need to have permission from the copyright holders for your use of any music that someone other than you has created and for which the copyright has not yet expired. That permission may be in the form of work that has been made freely available for others to use (though there may be some limitations that the holder imposes) or it may be a license that you have paid for. What you don't want to do is just pick some music that you like and use it without assurance that you have the right to do so. Copyright infringement claims can be quite costly.

 

[Michael Wechsler]

I am growing a small business and frequently feature video examples of my work (3D virtual tours) on Instagram and Facebook, with a caption usually directing the viewer to my website or something to that effect. So far, I've only paired the videos with music that I know is free for commercial use. Am I doing the right thing, or is this not necessary for these types of videos?

In other words, the source offering the music states that it is being provided as being free to use, including commercial uses such as creating advertisements. Nobody here can tell you whether doing this is right or "lawful". We can tell you that you need to weigh the risks and read carefully:

1) You're trusting the representation of an unknown party. It's possible that the site owner wants to generate traffic and used someone else's music that they thought would never be discovered. Or maybe they don't care. Or perhaps the uploader thought they had sufficient intellectual property rights to provide such a license but didn't. If another party who is the proper rights holder sues you, there is no defense that someone else told you that it was free for use and for such purpose. This is why many consider the trustworthiness of the source and there is often a cost to lower the risk.

2) We don't know the licensing terms, which you must read carefully and abide.

 

[zddoodah]

So far, I've only paired the videos with music that I know is free for commercial use. Am I doing the right thing

"The right thing"? Using only music for which you have a copyright license or which requires no license is a good idea. Using music which requires a license and for which you have no license is a bad idea.

or is this not necessary for these types of videos?

Not really sure what this means. If you're asking whether licenses are generally needed for social media-based advertising, the answer is yes.

 

[QuattroFour4]

Not really sure what this means. If you're asking whether licenses are generally needed for social media-based advertising, the answer is yes.

I guess I wasn't sure where the line is drawn for advertising in need of licenses. If, in the post, I'm directing them to a website that offers paid services, I can see how I'd need a license for that. What if there's no such explicit advertisement? Do I need licensing regardless because it's on my company's account? It sounds like a better-safe-than-sorry scenario to me, anyway.

 

[Michael Wechsler]

I guess I wasn't sure where the line is drawn for advertising in need of licenses. If, in the post, I'm directing them to a website that offers paid services, I can see how I'd need a license for that. What if there's no such explicit advertisement? Do I need licensing regardless because it's on my company's account? It sounds like a better-safe-than-sorry scenario to me, anyway.

Your use depends on the terms contained in the license. If there are no restrictions then it would seem it can be used for any purpose. Some items are in the public domain and don't require licensing (more often old written works whose copyrights have expired). This is a favorite of "free sites" to induce people to visit and download form their "library" of content.

You get what you pay for. I've often found much higher quality royalty free jingles at sites well known for producing them. Unfortunately we're not in a position to provide much insight - not having seen the site, the license, nor being in any position to appraise the representations (or lack of) made by the site operator. It's take it as-is and let the user beware of the potential consequences.

 

[flyingron]

The strict rule is as Michael states, you need permission to use the music as a backdrop for your own videos. These are called sync rights and are distinct from just using the music for on a webstream or the like. It matters not much if you are profitting from the site that you're using the material or not.

I don't know how Insty or Facebook handle this but I can directly address YouTube. YouTube has agreements with many of the music publishers. If you upload something with content that they detect as being one of those they redirect that advertising stream to that person and insert some additional links (how to obtain the music) as agreed between them and the owner.

For example, I posted a video of me flying a jet pack around and used the James Bond theme and this happened.

For other works, the license holder as told YouTube, "no way." These will go poof shortly after you upload them.

Then the middle ground is material that YouTube doesn't have a agreement or prohibition. THese are the dangerous ones that you can get sued over and if the owner files a DMCA complaint, not only will your video disappear, but YouTube will ban you if you get three of these complaints.

 

[zddoodah]

I guess I wasn't sure where the line is drawn for advertising in need of licenses. If, in the post, I'm directing them to a website that offers paid services, I can see how I'd need a license for that. What if there's no such explicit advertisement? Do I need licensing regardless because it's on my company's account? It sounds like a better-safe-than-sorry scenario to me, anyway.

Owning a copyright comes with several exclusive rights. The owner of the copyright has the exclusive right to do and license others to do the followign:

(1) to reproduce the copyrighted work in copies or phonorecords;
(2) to prepare derivative works based upon the copyrighted work;
(3) to distribute copies or phonorecords of the copyrighted work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending;
(4) in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and motion pictures and other audiovisual works, to perform the copyrighted work publicly;
(5) in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and pictorial, graphic, or sculptural works, including the individual images of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, to display the copyrighted work publicly; and
(6) in the case of sound recordings, to perform the copyrighted work publicly by means of a digital audio transmission.

17 U.S.C. section 106.

Using a copyright-protected song/sound recording in social media advertising would violate both the public performance and digital audio transmission rights. Copyright owners might let stuff like this go in random videos, but it's unlikely anyone of any consequence will let it go in advertising.

 

[flyingron]

I've seen innocuous videos go poof on both YouTube and Facebook. For example, I do online swing dance classes. Every once in a while one gets shutdown because a song (and most of these are fairly old stuff) is marked infringing.