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The Joys of Free Music

Posted on by Kevin MacLeod Posted in Copyright, Music

One might think is is simple to record music and distribute it for free online, but there are companies that work against people who do this.

Recently, I was sent a round-up of a very nicely organized pile of issues. You can check it out here:
http://leoxdmusic.wordpress.com/incompetech/content-id/ (Thanks, Leo!)

I have issues with everyone on this list. But let me take just one of them, and explain exactly why they are a pain: The Harry Fox Agency.
These guys are amazing. They have entered a giant pile of public domain compositions into YouTube’s ContentID database. Not recordings (which are still under copyright) but compositions – some of which date back 300 years or more. Do they have the rights to do this? Not by any laws I’ve ever seen. Why does YouTube allow them to claim ownership of compositions written hundreds of years ago? I have no idea.

According to Leo’s list (linked above), they will (through their own inaction) eventually release the claims that are placed on videos uploaded to YouTube if you contest them, so I guess that is ‘good’.

What The Harry Fox Agency should do is remove all claims to music in the Public Domain, and refund all of the money they earned on those claims to the people who uploaded the videos.

—

There is a notable absence on this list: The Orchard Music. This company had erroneously claimed an large number of videos that used my music. I contacted them many times to remove the bad assets from the ContentID database. Well, they didn’t actually do that at first – but they did release the claims on all of the videos that I found.

So I did some more research, and provided them with over 100 falsely claimed videos (and zero correctly claimed videos). They eventually removed the bad asset from the ContentID database. They kept all of the money from the false claims, but persistence can pay off! :-)

The sad note on this is… after all of those false claims were cleared up, Harry Fox came in and laid claim to those videos.

—

So if you work for Harry Fox, or know someone who does, I would love to talk to you about how it is possible to claim ownership to Public Domain compositions.

[/rant]

Available now in Czech

Connect5 NeoN

Posted on by Kevin MacLeod Posted in Sightings

Here is a nicely polished game that is free until October 26th, 2012. Connect5 NeoN. Go get yours now if you have an iPad!

I played it a bit… and if you play on the easiest difficulty – you can actually feel a little smart that you can beat it.
Not sure if it is possible for a human to beat it on the high difficulties.

Let’s Play Video Games

Posted on by Kevin MacLeod Posted in Copyright

There is a very popular movement in videos right now; People playing video games. Typically, people video capture themselves playing a video game, and then post the game play to YouTube. There are some thing to be aware of if you’re doing this. Some games license music from people for use in their games; other games have clear rights to the music.

So, what does that mean?

Though you can play the game and post your video to YouTube, you may not have the rights to use the music included with the game (and you may not be able to make money on your videos).

If you produce videos like this – mute the background music, and record like normal. Then come here and select music that is appropriate to your game and your gameplay/commentary style. Mix my music into your video, and upload. Simple!
This will also give your video some differentiation from all of the other videos that are playing that game. Wins all around!

Here is just one example of the thousands of videos that use this technique. (Courtesy of NatskiGaming)

Polish version: http://www.autoteiledirekt.de/science/zagrajmy-w-gry-wideo

Back in NYC

Posted on by Kevin MacLeod Posted in Music

Just got back to NYC, and I’ve got a LOT of work to catch up on.

So far, I finished off publishing the rough Score to “Cipher”, updated a bunch of software, and am installing some new bits.

[activate on-hold voice]
If you have a project pending with me, I’m taking them in the order that they came in… Your business is very important to me, please stay on the line…
[deactivate on-hold voice]

Copyright Issues Roundup

Posted on by Kevin MacLeod Posted in Copyright

CDBaby is removing the Hypnotherapy assets from the ContentID Database; so, Yay! Should be completed in about 2 weeks.

It appears Music Video Distributors (MVD) claims to own the rights to “Sunshine (Ver 2)”. This is just developing, so I don’t have any details on it yet.

A video using “Pinball Spring” was declined for monitization. Appeal in process on this. Not sure what is holding it up.

Music Publishing Rights Collecting Society continues to claim my Brandenberg Concerto – but they are releasing contests to the claim in a timely manner. So this is just another ongoing issue where a publisher is claiming rights to a piece in the Public Domain.

Made in Etaly (“Ozone-Ozone”) is claiming… something of mine. not sure which one yet. I’ll let you know more when I know more.

Getting things straight with Hypnotherapy

Posted on by Kevin MacLeod Posted in Copyright

I’ve decided to start chronicling a thing that I’ve been spending a lot of time on recently: fighting bad copyright claims concerning my music. Sony, Universal, and at least a dozen other corporations have – at some point – claimed that my music belongs to them.

The one I’m dealing with right now is Steven B Schneider: Certified Hypnotherapist.

What Happened.
They put together a weight loss CD and used my music as the background. This is both legal AND encouraged!

What should not have happened.
CDBaby entered the audio recordings into YouTube’s ContentID system, and everyone who ever used that particular piece of music was matched against it. None of these people used the hypnotherapy recording – they used the same music as the hypnotherapist did.

Who is affected.
At least these videos:










If any of these is you – contest it. CDBaby will release the claims. Will they give you the revenue they received for the false claim? Well, I’d hope so.

What’s going on.
Ball is in CDBaby’s court. My guess is they are going to try to protect their client. Hopefully they’ll pull the asset from ContentID – and continue to sell the audio by their client.