What is a legal way to use music from registered authors in a game?

I have recently asked a question about music in games like Guitar Hero.

I have found that that in Europe (at least) if I do want to use a track composed by a musician member of a royalty collecting society I need to pay a flat fee to the society and not only to the member.

So a "one-to-one" agreement is not valid and the society can come up to me and ask me for money for each download. Even if for FREE!

This is a fee sheet list of the UK agency: for fee, see "Permanent download services"

It is about 1,200 GBP for less than 22,000 copies and they DON'T specify anything more and they said me on the phone that I need to wait and see how many downloads I get before knowing the price.

This is kind of crazy as If I give away the App for free I will have to PAY 1,200 GBP!!

I am shocked and I feel very bad.

The other solution is to work only with non registered musicians.

The question here to you is:

Has anyone found a legal way to use music from registered authors in a game?

Answer

If the artist has entered into an agreement with a royalties collection agency - whether for the recording, or the songwriting - then you can't use their music without a licence from the relevant agency or agencies in order to use the music. This is because the artist has assigned their rights to the collection agency, and is no longer legally allowed to give you a separate licence to use the work.

In theory, the artist and the collection agency could negotiate individual exceptions. In practice, this won't happen. The reason collections agencies exist is to make it easier for everybody - without them, each artist would have to talk to each venue or business to get their royalties. With a collections agency, the artist only has to deal with one organisation, and so do the venues and businesses. If the agency then had to keep track of each individual direct agreement between artists and 3rd parties, the job of collecting and distributing revenues would be much more complex.

Your only options are these:

• buy a licence for yourself


• work as part of an organisation that already has a licence


• work exclusively with artists who have not transferred their rights to a collections agency