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

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?

By: James Rabe

James Rabe — Mon, 10 May 2010 02:20:02 +0000

I was in a market with extra energetic auto dealerships. One dealership used a current, hit song in his spot (we produced it under the ‘we’ll play the odds’ plan). Another dealership heard it and called the appropriate people. Thanks to the .mp3, he was able to send ‘em an actual aircheck.

Fortunately for us and for the dealership, all they got was a cease/desist order…but for once, we had the ‘I told you so’ grin (but of course, we didn’t say it…c’mon…we’re just DJ’s).

By: Andrew F

Andrew F — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 20:25:49 +0000

Oh man,

The number of times I’ve had this argument with clients. Some of my favourite responses to “Can’t do that, it’s illegal” include:
“But I saw it on youtube, if *record label*’s lawyers haven’t removed it from there, they won’t get it here”
“Oh, who will know”
“But I heard another station using it in a commercial” <- This one lead to a lengthy discussion about use for promotional vs commercial

And my all time personal favorite
"Just make up 2 versions. If *record label* complains, pull the first one and run the second one"
They knew it was illegal, but just didn't care. Oddly the client owned a business that was the recent victim of piracy…