License free music-

Alex DeLarge

I wanted to know if anyone here could offer some help with the subject of license free music.

I was told that all music older than 70 years old is up for grabs. Is this true?

Would this mean that all classical music is free for use? Or even old comercial jingles or pop tunes that take place before 1937?

This pertains to using said music in a movie that will be distributed.

(with that said, I am not looking for current "royalty free" music, which is just crap incarnate, Im specifically talking about music that is offically in the public domain by age or other circumstances and as to how large that repository just might be.)

If you can be of help, thanks.

Szechuanosaurus

Non-reissued recordings over 70 years old are probably copyright free. This doesn't mean that classical music is automatically copyright free, because it's typically been recorded fairly recently. Additionally, if the owners of a recording reissue the recording (eg, remastered, rereleased on CD etc.) then the copyright is extended for another 70 years beyond that point IIRC.

ps, 'Pop' didn't really exist before 1937. It only really came into existence in the late 70s at the earliest although you could claim it has cultural origins in the 50s.

However, if a piece of music was written longer than 70 years ago, I think you can probably record an original performance of it. So if you could get an orchestra together, you could record an original performance of say Holst's Planet Suite and claim ownership of that recording (although the original sheet music remains in public domain).

I'm working off my rough understanding of copyright in music here, it's not really my speciality - I'm more design copyright and a minor understanding of prose and novel copyright which is probably the closest similar to music copyright - the RIAA may have managed to make it somewhat more complicated.

Google 'music copyright law' and you should get further clarity.

Alex DeLarge

Thank you, quite helpful.