How to License Music For Wedding Films

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• published: 31 Mar 2015
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A wedding film school video tutorial on how to find and license music for your wedding films. Read the full article on our website: http://www.wedfilmschool.com Steps to license music: 1. Search through licensing websites to find a track you like. 2. Download a preview file to edit in your timeline. 3. Edit and customize that track in your wedding film 4. License the track online, download and place into your film. 5. Export, share and enjoy your wedding film. My 5 favorite music licensing websites: Music Bed: https://www.musicbed.com Song Freedom: https://www.songfreedom.com Marmoset: https://www.marmosetmusic.com/browse Triple Scoop Music: http://triplescoopmusic.com Free Music Archive: http://freemusicarchive.org The Free Music Archive is different from the other four music licenseing sites because it seems to be almost non-for-profit. There are way more free tracks that you can use as it is or by simply giving credit to the artist who created it. Just make sure to read the articles they have on Creative Commons: http://www.freemusicarchive.org/faq. I'll usually look through this site for low to no cost songs that are not well known or experimental or classical in nature. Make sure to check it out! Tips and Advice for using licensed music: 1. Make sure to add a link to the tracks that you use because people always ask what the name of the songs that you used are and where they came from. 2. Create and keep wish lists of potential songs for weddings. Sometimes you'll spend a considerable amount of time trying to find the perfect song and this list of great candidates helps in the long run. 3. Educate your couples about the laws of music copyright and why you can't just use Ed Sheeran in their highlight film. Explain why you keep creative control over the entire process. 4. If YouTube or Vimeo flags your video and sends you a take-down notice you can fight and win. Just make sure to license your music whenever you use it and send this proof to them. In most situations, they will just retract their notice and you'll be all set. 5. Customize the tracks in your edit so that it fits your content and story. Most tracks have a typical "arc" but if you need to add or subtract time it's as easy as slicing and crossfading. Try to do this technique on the beat of the song to make it less noticeable. Customized tracks are a stable of more advanced edits. 6. If you do the math, you'll realize that licensing the music in your films isn't that big of an expense. The typical track license is about $50 so if you're shooting about twenty weddings each year and using 1-2 tracks per wedding that's only about $100 spent on every wedding. All together your total costs for the year would be about $2,000. If you think that number seems large just add on $100 to your packages and see what changes. In most cases, the only thing that changes is that you book more couples and make more money because your films sounds better. 7. There is always new music coming out all of the time on these websites. It's easy to mix up your film scoring but you don't always have to. I say not to worry about re-using a track in your films. I doubt your couples will know or care in the end. Just make sure to re-license them and pay attention to the restrictions of each license. GEAR http://bit.ly/1NRJNWQ FREE DOWNLOAD http://bit.ly/147oJsr FACEBOOK http://on.fb.me/1CnjJN8 TWITTER http://bit.ly/1IFi1aW INSTAGRAM http://bit.ly/1NIllJZ OFFICIAL WEBSITE http://www.wedfilmschool.com PERSONAL WEBSITE http://www.kraigadams.com/ WEDDING STUDIO http://www.emissaryfilm.com/ WFS is an online education platform for filmmakers in the wedding event industry. Find new content every week including: buyer’s guides, gear reviews, tips, tricks and tutorials. Share the latest trends, news and gear releases. Learn new shooting techniques, business practices and editing processes. Be inspired by the best and brightest leaders in the industry. Videos shot and edited by Kraig Adams.