Audition tapes?

farss wrote on 2/21/2006, 2:56 PM
Don't wish to drag up anymore ongoing debate, enough of it in numerous threads already but I'm looking at a business venture and I can't find anything on this. To me it seems like a real no go but I thought it might be worth asking as I can find nothing on this elsewhere.

How do I stand making audition tapes / DVDs of someone performing a piece? To me it seems like we'll be in breach of copyright however when large networks are asking for prospective entrants to send an audition DVD I gotta wonder what gives here.

I'm not talking small scale networks either, I'm talking about our national carrier and they're totally observant of copyright to an almost absurd extent yet they regularly ask for people to send in audtion videos of them performing.

Thanks to anyone who can shed any light on this and again my apologies. I hope we can keep this specific.

Bob.

Comments

Bob Greaves wrote on 2/21/2006, 3:26 PM
The total number of people in the universe who recognize that a copyright issue is even involved is (counting you and me) only a few more than three.

The Audition tapes sent into national TV shows become the property of the show and or its producers for the very reasons you sense a problem. They are the ones who must secure the rights to use the song in that form. They are also the ones requiring that it be submitted.

As an example, American Idol pays big bucks in rights to have a TV show featuring all the songs that they use. So American Idol would not think of you as selling anyone YOUR DVD with that song on it. You are selling them the time and talent you posess to enable them to have THEIR own DVD using that song. The reason it becomes property of the show is so that the show can handle any rights required.

Because shows like American Idol do pay huge bucks to copyright owners for the songs that get used on the show, no one wants to rock the boat. You'd have to be a fool to sue American Idol for using a song in an audition tape and then risk not getting mega bucks later if they decide to actually use the song on the air.

Furthermore, most of these shows require the talent to pick a song from an approved list which represents a list of songs for which the show has already cleared permission for this very purpose. Remember American Idol was unable to get permission for Kelly Clarkson.

Mark the DVD "Not for public distribution. Audition for ___________" enter the name of the Show in the blank.

Additionally, audition copies submitted to an educational institution are educational use and are allowed by the copyright law. I would think it highly unlikely that you could get into any trouble. And if you did it would also spell real trouble for that show - and they are not about to allow that to happen to you or them.
winrockpost wrote on 2/21/2006, 3:51 PM
..............The total number of people in the universe who recognize that a copyright issue is even involved is (counting you and me) only a few more than three.

Wow you must not read this forum much,,, most here are so copyright aware its a bit of a phobia.
filmy wrote on 2/21/2006, 5:11 PM
I thought you folks had this thing better covered than us. ;)

I dunno about networks and such but certianly people have done this sort of thing time and time again, over and over again. Since shows like "Making the Band" and "American Idol" have gotten so huge so many radio stations are having their own versions of them and they ask people to submit either audio or video tapes and most people just send in tapes of them doing whatever hit song is out at the moment. The deeper issue, and what i think you are asking, is how to do "pro" tapes for artisits - demo reels if you will. And that is sort of how this ends up going back to the whole event video issue - when someone gets mnarried and they have mom video the wedding chances are no one really cares but when a "pro" company comes in and does it and sells it then it becomes the issue.

And having said that it is like someone once said in one of these threads - seems the issues are more higlighted wehn it comes to video being involved. I mean how many interviews have you seen, heard, read where you hear someone say they come to an audition and jammed on old Zepllin songs or Kiss songs? I mean David Lee Roth ended up hiring Brian, a guitarist in a Van Halen tribute band, for his last few solo tours. I don't think there is an easy answer to your question in this case.
farss wrote on 2/21/2006, 9:49 PM
Well if it's a wedding and copies are only for those attending I can get a licence for that down here, very reasonable price. This covers music used during the event and it gives me the right to sync any music to vision that the client would like so long as they own a legit copy of the music, sanity prevails on this one.

Demo CDs require a mechanical licence, no real problem there, fees are quite reasonable no matter the number of disks produced but nowhere does it mention video!

Confusion sets in fast as all the Australian sites talk about is "public performance", is a demo video / audition video a public performance or not seems to be the question. If not then do we just pay the mechanicals.

Anyway I've lodged an online inquiry, may take a few days to get a response, stay tuned. There's heaps of good info at www.copyright.org.au about heaps of stuff but very, very little about video.

Bob.
farss wrote on 2/26/2006, 2:50 PM
Well it seems no one's too concerned about this. It's very common, no licencing system in place to cover it. Just go ahead, factor the very minimal risk into your business plan.

One thing I will do, insist that any kid playing something other than their own work owns a copy of the sheet music. Hopefully I'll be able to teach them something about copyright in the process.

Bob.