5 Tips on Clearing Music For Your Film

Celine Palavioux presents 5 pointers for getting permission to use recorded music in your film.

And I’m not talking about a bad score or a cheesy tune. No, I’m talking about music rights. You only need one unclear copyright and you can say goodbye to your distribution deal or being shown at film festivals. No one will touch your film until the copyright in question is cleared.

As a filmmaker it is your responsibility to clear music rights. You cannot expect a distributor or film festival to do it for you and if you are a new filmmaker, it is highly likely you will have to do it yourself.

Unfortunately music is not always straightforward to clear and, more often than not, you may have to change your plans. But there are actually things you can do to simplify the process and make sure you deliver the music fully cleared. I will go through them at length during the Music For Film course on Monday 25th of February but here are 5 tips to help you get started.

Tip 1: Know your copyrights!

If you don’t know the difference between a sound recording and a composition, find out! Music licensing is much easier once you understand the basics of how music copyright works.

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