Using music for video has been around for years. Many projects incorporate tracks to make their videos more interesting and to give emphasis on thoughts and ideas. However, the scary part about using music comes when you are avoiding to infringe copyright. Here are three common problems about using music on your video projects:
- Background music is not viewed as educational use. You may think that using background music for videos on your school project is covered by “for educational purposes”; but, it isn’t. Educational uses of music only includes the use of music to teach about certain genres. For instance, you can use Sonata in A Major of Mozart if you are studying classical music or Revolution by the Beatles to share how rock music reflected poetry.
- Posting a video to a public site without a written permission is a violation. When you are using music for education purposes, it should be done in a private network. Once you publish ut in your school website or other video site, you need to secure a permission in order to avoid getting chased by the copyright police.
- Legally purchased music is for personal use only. Many people may say that they legally purchased music from iTunes and other legal music e-retailer, but that does not allow them to use the music in school projects and commercial purposes. Those tracks are only for personal and home use only. An entirely new set of rules apply when you use music for video.
If you wish to use music for commercial purposes, you need to acquire the right license – either Royalty Free or Extended. You can get these licenses when you purchase tracks from stock media agencies, such as Shutterstock. Only then you will be able to avoid paying hefty fines and damaging your reputation from copyright infringement charges.
