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MUSIC

In general, there are three ways music is acquired for film:

•  Preexisting musical recordings are licensed for use in the picture.

•  A preexisting musical composition is rerecorded and used in the picture.

•  Music is composed especially for the picture.

Many films use a combination of these three methods.

MUSIC LICENSING

Using Prerecorded Music

Music licensing is one of the trickiest areas of entertainment law. For prerecorded songs the work of seeking permissions is doubled. This is because there are actually two kinds of copyrights to every piece of recorded music, and licenses need to be obtained from each copyright owner. You need to secure the permissions from:

•  The party who owns the copyright to the musical composition.

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