Comments on: USING MUSIC IN RADIO COMMERCIALS: Legal vs. Illegal

By: Dan O'Day

Dan O'Day — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 22:00:55 +0000

@Justin: Correct. It's all covered in the book.

By: Justin Martin

Justin Martin — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 21:41:34 +0000

As an attorney and a station manager, I get beat up and questioned by all sales weasels. And to be clear, even a radio station promotional television commercial must have licenses to use a montage of songs, correct?

By: Chad P.

Chad P. — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 14:15:15 +0000

Dan,

I have one for ya. Our station has a client who owns an electric train shop. The A.E. thought it would be cute to give him a spec spot and show him how “awesome” his train shop would sound on the radio. While production did use a generic, up-beat track…the very beginning of the spot is Ozzy screaming “All Aboard!” from Crazy Train. Then it transitions into the generic bed music. Sooooo, would that spot be illegal? Curious minds want to know.

Thanks,
Chad

P.S. You guessed it…the train shop owner LOVED the spot and wanted it on the air. He mentioned that the “All Aboard” was the icing on the cake.

By: Dan O'Day

Dan O'Day — Mon, 10 May 2010 18:34:59 +0000

@Stevie: I’m not dispensing legal advice, just giving my opinion based upon my own understanding of copyright laws — Right?

Answer: It depends.

As I explain in the copyright laws book, if you pay BMI/ASCAP license fees you’re allowed to use the music for your programming — which would include promos for your programming.

But if they’re for sponsored promos (e.g., “Come to Y107′s Spring Frolic, sponsored by Ed’s Motors) or promos for sponsored events (even if the sponsor isn’t mentioned), your license fees wouldn’t cover them.

The production house itself has different responsibilities. I suspect they don’t pay license fees, yet they’re making a new recording of copyrighted works.

If part of their business model is to make new recordings of copyrighted works and sell those recordings to radio stations…and they haven’t negotiated license fees….

Well, one day we’ll all enjoy reading about it in the trades.

By: Stevie Masen

Stevie Masen — Mon, 10 May 2010 17:50:14 +0000

If I had a dime for every time I’d had this conversation…well, I wouldn’t be worrying so much about paying bills on my hourly wage, that’s for sure.

My question is, what about liners that we get from our production house? I frequently hear snippets of songs in them. Are we liable if we use those?