How can i get music licensing

[hardtofindinthefuture]

I am currently trying to create a open world game

 

and i want radio stations

with songs

 

how do i not get my ass sued

and get assess to songs that i want

[Princess Luna]

use 60 years old songs, there is no more copyright for those as they become public domain.

[Valkyrie Lenneth]

use no copyright songs

 

ncs @ youtube?

 

or get composers to make them for u , i personally have my own composed music for my game ( from a composer ofc )

[hardtofindinthefuture]

1 minute ago, Princess Cadence said:

use 60 years old songs, there is no more copyright for those as they become public domain.

yes, in a action packed game music like this

Wouldn't relay fit the tone of the game

[Clockwork_princess]

look up royalty free music,

 

or you'd have to pay for the license to use and if the song is new or popular youll need to be rich lol 

[AshleyAshes]

3 minutes ago, v0nn_toaster said:

I am currently trying to create a open world game

 

and i want radio stations

with songs

 

how do i not get my ass sued

and get assess to songs that i want

I've seen your threads.  You appear to have minimal financial resources.  You most certainly do not have the funds necessary to license popular music like you would see in a GTA game or something and even cheaper 'Production Music' is pretty likely to be out of your reach.

 

Go for royalty free music.

[hardtofindinthefuture]

Just now, Valkyrie Lenneth said:

use no copyright songs

 

ncs @ youtube?

NCS is used for 10 year old mine craft intros so i try to stay away from it

[Valkyrie Lenneth]

3 minutes ago, v0nn_toaster said:

NCS is used for 10 year old mine craft intros so i try to stay away from it

guess u can always remix them urself? lol

[hardtofindinthefuture]

I heard about services like

ascap

BMI

and

Sesac

 

are those services practical for in game music use?

[TheKDub]

38 minutes ago, v0nn_toaster said:

I am currently trying to create a open world game

 

and i want radio stations

with songs

 

how do i not get my ass sued

and get assess to songs that i want

https://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music

http://www.purple-planet.com/

http://freemusicarchive.org/

http://www.royaltyfreemusic.com/

https://www.audioblocks.com/royalty-free-audio/music

 

And plenty others out there. (Some of these might ask that you give them credit for the music, which you could easily do in the credits.)

[SansVarnic]

1 hour ago, v0nn_toaster said:

and get assess to songs that i want

Huh? 

Not the point you think you intended to get with this. Grammar anyone?

[Drak3]

By contacting record labels that manage/own the IP you want to use, and contacting the bands/musicians to get their blessing.

 

Or commission a musician.

[LogicalDrm]

10 hours ago, SansVarnic said:

Huh? 

Not the point you think you intended to get with this. Grammar anyone?

I guess it means assets or ass sued.

[Volbet]

This is very dependent on where you live and the distribution your going for. 

For example, licensing music in the US would primarily be done through the RIAA and it'll cost you a pretty penny. 

Usually representative organisations will demand a licensing fee upfront and then take a percentage of your overall sales. 

 

If you're going to distribute the game through a multinational distribution service, then you would need to ensure proper licensing in each and every country your game can be sold. 

 

This is why most game publishers will have their own soundtrack made. It's simply easier to manage.

A game series like GTA has run into a slew of issue in regards to licensing, leading to various games being pulled off various markets through the years. 

[Ryujin2003]

Are there any affordable or open source music production software that anyone would recommend? I'm kind of in the same situation.

[RumSwift]

https://www.monstercat.com/ sell licenses to use their music. Don't know if you can sue it in a game but might be worth looking. 

[mariushm]

Licensed music will cost you a ton of money.

You'll have to sign licensing deals in US and you may have to license the music separately in other countries like Germany for example

Then you'll have to be super careful about length of licensing (you heard of games that lose their soundtrack

See :

Alan Wake's music license expiring soon, Remedy has to pull game from sale

GTA: Vice City Back On Steam, Nearly 10 Songs Removed

Video game licence expiration. Why tracks have been removed

 

Then you have to be careful about licenses being for just some mediums for example ONLY digital downloads (steam) , only physical things (cd/dvd) , you may have to license music separately for public broadcast (translation: so that you can give viewers permission to post their gameplay on twitch / youtube)

 

Just go with royalty free music, or music with permissive licenses like Creative Commons (for these you may have to show on screen the Artist and song title every time the song starts, or maybe it's enough in the credits of the game)

There's also some services like Epidemic Sound which license individual songs for small fees so that you won't get copyright strikes on Youtube , or you can have a subscription that allows you to use their songs in Youtube videos and not get copyright claims for music in videos posted while you were subscribed to their service.

Maybe such a service would have an option for video games.

 

 

[JJ smith]

If you want to avoid copyright issues...why not just get someone to issue you with a creative commons license? There are different types of these CC licenses available. I would suggest that you read more on this topic here https://www.1and1.co.uk/digitalguide/websites/digital-law/how-to-use-creative-commons-correctly/ because these sought of licenses grant people the right to use licensed work, plus they also reserve certain rights. We do have a small number of countries that haven’t signed at all , but these are very few and not really integrated into the bigger part of the world economy in any way.

 

[PlayStation 2]

With an assload of money and contracts.