I get this question a lot- ?can I use copywritten music in my podcast?? It?s the question I dread the most. Copywritten music is a slippery slope, there are so many rules and conditions it?s very difficult to nail down just what the rules are and which ones apply to what you?re trying to do. Here?s my personal philosophy on copywritten music and I?m not a lawyer and this is not ?legal advice? but here goes anyway: Just don?t. It?s not worth it. Full disclosure: at Radio Exiles, we?ve violated my own personal philosophy on occasion. It doesn?t happen a lot, but it?s happened half a dozen times or so.
We?ve used a couple pieces of music (less than the alleged ?:30 rule?) as ins and outs to segments, just because the songs were too appropriate for the particular show to pass up. In our Jonas and Andy show they occasionally book guests from popular bands like Geoff Tate, lead vocalist of the metal band Queensryche. They had a new album coming out and we got Geoff?s permission to play a track from the as yet unreleased album. Which sounds awesome in principle, and it was and it got us a lot of traffic, but the fact is it?s risky. Geoff Tate may not own the rights to that track. The label may not have wanted the track aired (although that seems unlikely) and it just could cause a lot of problems.
We used to run a podcast out of Scotland, which was a new music show called ?The Rewind.? The show?s producer would find new, unsigned bands and feature their music, which I thought was brilliant. Unsigned=no rights necessary. You had the band?s permission because they were sending you the tracks and were hungry for the exposure, it was perfect. And the music was really good! Alas, it became really difficult to continually track down new bands and the show stopped.
Bottom line: do your homework. Research copyrights and licensing, etc and you?ll be able to figure out what?s right and what?s wrong for yourself. If you?re not sure, it?s probably something you shouldn?t do. Best case scenario: spend the money and either pay for music rights, or get yourself a few royalty free tracks from someplace like Killer Tracks. Even better- you could get software like Garage Band and if you?re able to, create your own music.
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Brian Baltosiewich has been a broadcast professional for more than 20 years. His podcast website, www.radioexiles.com features professionally-produced podcasts from radio pro?s who have lost their gigs. Reach out to him at brian@radioexiles.com or through their twitter account @radioexiles and on Facebook at radioexiles.com`
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