So I'd like to use electro swing in a TV show. Is that okay legally?

July 31, 2017 5:58 PM

So I'd like to use some music from the genre electro swing in a TV project that might get picked up. Usually I just use library music and call it a day. But I'm trying something new. So I found a site that's got some for license that's royalty free. But I can tell the song it's sampling in it. It's pretty pronounced. Is that okay? Or do you have to then license the song IN the song too? Just wanted to get a feel for it.
posted by rileyray3000 to Law & Government (4 answers total)

Any song that has been sampled needs to be cleared independently. If it's on a reputable site, you might be okay in that whoever cleared it for use on said site should have done their due diligence, and made sure that it was also cleared -- but the clearance rules for songs with samples in them are complicated and can be a pain, and a lot of times people skip this step, to their later detriment. If the project is picked up, if they don't choose to swap this music out, whoever does clearance is probably going to have to double check this for you so you don't open yourself up to liability from the artist who is being sampled.

(IANAL but my BF does clearance and I have done some of it myself in a past life.)
posted by Countess Sandwich at 6:12 PM on July 31, 2017

Yeah, clearing samples costs money. The odds that anybody posting music to a RF site has bothered to clear the samples is pretty much zero. I'd stay away.
posted by uncleozzy at 6:29 PM on July 31, 2017 [2 favorites]

To be contrary: looks like you have a source for royalty-free music, shared under a permissive license. I have no idea how due diligence applies here but you can in some sense trust in the supplier of said music and assume you're ok until someone tries to tell you it's not ok with them.

Also I'm not entirely sure what you mean by electro swing but if it's what I think you mean then you can probably contact some artists and get them to produce some completely unencumbered material for far less than the cost of retaining an IP lawyer, and maybe less than the cost of a fancy dinner for four.
posted by SaltySalticid at 7:15 PM on July 31, 2017

if they don't indemnify you for copyright infringement in their license, you're probably going to be on the hook if someone decides to sue you. I'd ask them whether you're covered and make sure it's in writing.
posted by empath at 10:12 AM on August 1, 2017