Using audio clips from audio-books in my music

[thesatorisound]

Hello,

I am an aspiring producer of motivational/inspirational dance/electronic music. In my songs I take powerful messages from well know motivational speakers (from their audio-books) and mix them in with my own self created high energy music. Up to this point I have been simply sharing such material for free on youtube, facebook, etc, but I am being asked over and over again where to purchase/download my songs. I want to make this into a career by monetizing my work, but certainly don't want to violate any copyright laws. I am hopeful that those whose work I am using will be thrilled to have their messages spread even further and look at this as free exposure (I am sure to give credit on each song and even provide web addresses to those whose material I have used).

Any advice and/or direction will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Adam aka Satori

 

[Michael Wechsler]

I am an aspiring producer of motivational/inspirational dance/electronic music. In my songs I take powerful messages from well know motivational speakers (from their audio-books) and mix them in with my own self created high energy music. Up to this point I have been simply sharing such material for free on youtube, facebook, etc, but I am being asked over and over again where to purchase/download my songs. I want to make this into a career by monetizing my work, but certainly don't want to violate any copyright laws. I am hopeful that those whose work I am using will be thrilled to have their messages spread even further and look at this as free exposure (I am sure to give credit on each song and even provide web addresses to those whose material I have used).

Let me as you this - what if these motivational speakers took your high energy music and put it behind their motivational speaking clips, sold them, kept the money and hoped that you would be thrilled to have such great exposure as a result of their fantastic sales but with no shared revenues? I hope my answer doesn't sound insulting. As a musician (or do you just mix music of others?), I'm guessing you understand.

If you're just mixing some phrases muttered by these motivational speakers, why not just do the vocals yourself or hire a professional voiceover artist? If there is no copyright or trademark protection available for some of these phrases, then why bother dealing with trouble? You can always find out more about mechanical licenses:

http://www.harryfox.com/public/Licensing-GeneralFAQ.jsp