How to License Music for Movies

The cost to license music can vary from $0 to a million for a song. As a director, I prefer using music that’s already been made rather than working with a composer. There’s something special about musicians who created from their own inspiration and passion and whose music can also help my movie. Working with a composer has a time and a place, but generally, my first option is to place music and learn how much it costs, so that is what this article focuses on.

The legal side of things

I’m not a legal professional, but I’ll explain what I've learned in the simplest terms possible. 

For movies, you need two licenses to use a recorded song: 

1. The publishing rights to whoever wrote the music. 

2. The license to the recorded track. This is known as the master license or synchronization license.  

Typically, when you pay for the licensing, the cost of the publishing license and the synchronization license is equal.  Sometimes, they’re owned by the same person.  We call each of these licenses“sides.” So you have to pay for both “sides.”  

Pricing

To get an idea of pricing, consider how famous an artist or song is and whether or not they’re represented. Very few artists release songs for free, but they do exist. Kevin Macleod, who I use a lot, releases his music for free but accepts donations. The reason he releases music for free is to expose more people to his work to get composing gigs. But this is very rare.  Another way to get free music is to find a musician who loves your work and who you know intimately.  Maybe you can do an exchange.

What’s another thing to consider when you are negotiating a price? If you’re showing on television, likely the artist will suspect you have a higher budget—the same thing for feature-length movies.  

What You Need To Know Before Approaching an Artist

It’s essential to know your overall music budget and how many tracks you need to license.  Musicians rarely give a rate upfront when you ask. They always ask about your budget first, as they don’t want to say a number that is too high that may scare you off, nor do they want to say anything too low where they can’t maximize their profits for their assets.

You also need to know the length of the license.  Most artists will always suggest a license of about a year and for only one type of media.  This means you’ll have to go back to them if you want more licensing. One year is a common length, which could work for a film festival run or a commercial. This can give you time to raise more money for a more extended license because the ideal licensing length and platform you want in your contract is “worldwide and in perpetuity.”  Perpetuity means forever, and worldwide means you can use it in any format existing or to be created, though it’s wise to include those words and be specific in your contract.

Photo by Ricky Rosario on set of Frames of Reference

Who To Contact

Often the most annoying part about licensing is getting hold of the owners.  Sometimes many people own a song because they purchased parts of it, or maybe it was written and recorded by an entire band who no longer work together.  If this is the case, getting in contact with everyone can be a lot of work. Oftentimes the synchronization license is owned by the record label who may have paid for the recording, and the songwriters own the publishing rights. But it can vary, and everyone can sell the rights to their songs.

Mid-range artists sometimes charge around $500 for both sides if they’re not on a label.  But I’ve found this to be more true if I know the artist or at least have met them. If they’re a friend, I may get songs for around $100 for both sides.  

From our award-winning short drama, Prologue

As for represented artists, more people are taking the pie, and they have a middle person negotiating for them.  For example, I licensed from a lesser-known independent artist, Emika, who Ninja Tunes represented.  Ninja Tunes wanted a cut and negotiated with me for a worldwide license in perpetuity.  They argued for $2000 per side after I had already paid them $750 for the first year of theatrical release. So, in the end, I ended up paying $4000 for the song at the end of my movie Prologue.  I also paid the same amount for a more famous composer who represented himself, Goran Bregovich, for the same short movie.  Goran’s people made a deal with me because Prologue is an independent short movie, and they knew I wasn’t making money on it.

For a feature film or television show, you may be able to negotiate a royalty deal where they take less money upfront but will receive some of the profits from the movie their art is helping to create. This is generally only an option for features and content made for broadcast.

Negotiating Price

Marcellus Hall an Artist in New York City played around the world including in at Seoul Webfest.

I’m an independent filmmaker but have gotten a deal with a famous artist.  I licensed Woody Guthrie, who, if you don’t know, wrote: “This Land is Our Land” and “America the Beautiful.” He is one of the most respected American Folk composers of all time.  He is deceased, and various people own his songs, but I wanted to use a cover song performed by the artist in my documentary, Marcellus Hall an Artist in New York City.  I had a meager budget for the series–$10,000 for 31 minutes of an independent web series. But the featured artist in my documentary, Marcellus Hall, is a similar artist to Woody Guthrie, and admires him greatly. So it was important to me to use “Hard, Ain't It Hard,” which was owned by Woody’s kin. Luckily for my team and me, the owner was taken by the documentary and gave me a deal for $500 in perpetuity for the publishing rights, but this is not common.

When making feature films, a lot of these prices go up.  I’d say from a short or web series to a feature or a television show, expect a price hike of 2-4 times.

Every single contract is unique and negotiated by both sides.  It’s always wise to have options because you never know what an artist will say.  I’ve had artists who would not license their music to me after seeing my movie. They wouldn’t even give me a price.  Why? I’m not sure. They wouldn’t say. 

A common question is, what do famous artists cost?  Well, I keep my ears open.  For a news television show I worked on, we licensed the publishing rights to an early 1900’s composer’s most famous song.  We played it safe because the copyright holders are trying to make as much money as they can in the final years they have the rights to the music’s copyright.  This ended up costing $10,000.

How about Pop artists?  I’ve heard Brittany Spears’ songs go for around $20,000 for both sides, which seemed low to me.  Then I’ve heard almost everyone say The Beatles’ and Radiohead’s songs are around $1 million dollars for both sides.  

Myself (Justin Joseph Hall) playing bass for my senior photo

A mid-range price I’ve heard was $80,000 for the Grease soundtrack because the musicians (bass player, guitar player, all the singers) are all union, so many people are getting a slice of the payment. In this case, the team I was working with ended up cutting costs by licensing a song that only uses the original vocals of the cast with alternate instrumentation. This wasn’t ideal but was likely unnoticeable to the average audience member, and it saved tens of thousands of dollars in licensing fees.

Ordering more from the same artist and agency also helps you negotiate, especially from independent artists.  So try to use songs from the same artist, writer(s), or publisher. For example, it may help to take songs from the same album. Or get to know the artist by offering to share your work with them before you ask to license music. You never know; a little legwork can go a long way.

Don’t forget about your trailer!

In the past, I’ve been successful at asking to include publicity and advertisement use when I’m licensing an entire album or multiple songs from an artist. If you have a lower budget, is there a band that’s not as known or a singer who wants to get a song to a broader audience?  They may be willing to let you also license for publicity and advertising.  

 If you have any questions, please contact us at info@fourwindfilms.com  We’re happy to answer a few of your questions or work at licensing music for you for hire.

Copy Editor - Piper Werle

Sound Mixing 101: Compressors and Limiters

By Justin Joseph Hall

Compressors and Limiters are audio effects that control volume or amplitude of sound.  They are used to create equilibrium in what you hear.  They are often used in the mixing and mastering stages of music.  They are also used when mixing dialogue for film, video, and radio.

Let’s start with the compressor.  The compressor is created to lessen the ratio of dynamic range in a recorded sound.  For example, if you are recording guitar input and someone accidentally bumps the pickup (which is like the microphone for a guitar that “picks up” the sounds of the strings to amplify them), there will be a spike in the waveform that is much louder than the rest of the recording.  The compressor dampens a spike in volume so it doesn’t stick out as much.  It diminishes the amplitude of the sound wave by “compressing” any sound that registers above a certain threshold at the compression ratio you set it at.

When using a compressor there are a few key terms.  

The threshold refers to the amplitude that the compressor kicks in.  So if you set the threshold at -16dBs then anything that goes over -16 decibels will be affected by the compressor.   

The ratio refers to the amount of compression.  If you have a 3:1 ratio in your compressor then the sound above the threshold will become ⅓ as loud as the original.

The attack or attack time is how fast the compressor will kick in after the amplitude gets over the threshold.  Often too fast of an attack time may compress small peaks that barely get over the threshold and can sound odd unless it’s sustained for at least a short period of time.  The length it takes to turn on the attack time is usually measured in milliseconds.  This is an adjustment you can alter in order to make sure the compressor isn’t turned off and on too often which can be noticeably irritating.

The release or release time is the delay that the compressor should shut off if the amplitude goes under the threshold.  This is to prevent the compressor from turning off and on if the amplitude wavers on the threshold and sometimes drops below it.  The release and attack times are adjusted to make the transition into the effect smoother and less noticeable.  Often the presets work well from the factory, but play around with the setting to see if you can make it sound smoother, especially if the effect is sounding choppy.

The knee is a gradual curve in how the compressor affects the amplitude. So if your compressor is set at -16 decibels at a 3:1 ratio, the knee may prevent the compressor from compressing the sound to 3:1 ratio directly at -16dBs.  Instead, it will be applied on a gradient that is adjusted by the knee.  It makes the compressor effect more gradual and less noticeable.

Compressors limit the range of the amplitude of a sound.  This is key for making recorded sound easier to listen to on speakers.  There are as many different types of speakers as there are flavors of ice cream. Compressing sound to a smaller range makes it so listeners won’t hurt their ears if they turn up the volume during a quiet moment in a film that’s followed by a loud explosion scene. Compressing the sound should make it so that people don’t have to turn the volume up or down at all. 

Often, the more a sound is compressed the more pleasant the listening experience.  Many podcasts, audiobooks, and radio shows use compressors on the vocals so that voices sound similar throughout the program and listeners don’t have to fiddle with their knobs.

In music, pop songs are highly compressed.  This is pleasant and makes all songs have a similar dynamic range.  Some of the least compressed music is classically recorded music where the range of instruments will not be heard without a large dynamic range.  In a recording of an orchestral concert, you want to hear the comparison of the piccolo solo, strings section, and the full orchestra playing without sacrificing the uniqueness of each sound.

Photo of author.

Limiters

Compressors are often used in conjunction with Limiters.  The two audio effects work very well in tandem.  As the Compressor makes the dynamic range smaller, it softens the loudest sounds.  This is because audio begins from no sound and increases like a bar graph in amplitude.  If we have a sound that is -10 decibels, the peak of that soundwave is at -10 decibels.  When we compress it, the mountain moves to a lower peak.

A Limiter is often applied after a compressor.  This is because once you have the desired ratio of your sound, all peaks are compressed to a certain height of amplitude.  A limiter brings those peaks higher or lower equally across your sound’s amplitude without going over.

The Limiter earned its name because even though it may increase the amplitude, it limits the amplitude to a Limiter’s threshold.  Like the Compressor’s threshold, a Limiter’s threshold is a cutoff point that says no sound peaks will go over this amount.  This is to prevent peaking, which is when a recorded sound is too loud for a mic and distorts.  For digital audio this is 0 decibels.  For analog audio it can vary and depends on what you’re working with, but it is often seen from +6 to +12 decibels.

Limiters also have release and attack inputs which work the same as a compressor’s. They are measured in milliseconds and are when the Limiter kicks in (attack) and when the effect drops out (release).

Why use a Limiter? 

So that the sound you are creating is loud enough to hear after a compressor is applied.  It would be very annoying for someone to compress a song to be very quiet and then listen to a song that is really loud afterward because you’d have to keep adjusting the volume.

For example, if you listen to a classical song that barely uses a compressor and has a huge dynamic range from -60 decibels all the way to -3 decibels, and follow it with a pop song, you want the loudest part of each song to be at the exact same peak.  This is so if you set the music at a house party at a certain volume, that volume is never exceeded and you don’t suddenly scare your neighbors with O Fortuna blasting right after listening to a compressed pop song.  Most music players have a setting that levels the peaks of songs so you may already be familiar with this automated process in those kinds of digital music players.

Pop songs actually use Limiters a lot. This trend of mixing music slowly became popular with the rise of Rock N’ Roll wanting loud music, and the Metal of the 1970’s pushing that trend even more. Sound mixers kept making mixes louder by compressing them to a small dynamic range and then raising the peaks to the maximum volume. This puts songs near the top of the possible amplitude without going over 0 decibels and distorting.   Eventually, the radio ads also started competing with this music to get the listener's attention and radio ads started being mixed even louder than the music.  This became known as the “Loudness Wars,” which really peaked (pardon the pun) in the 1990s and 2000s.  You can really hear the dynamic range lessening, especially in pop music during that time.

Compression and limiting are powerful tools that help you create the listening experience you want  whether it’s for a song, radio show, or even a movie mix.  Compressors and Limiters are used in virtually every professional sound mix of any sort.  Learn the ins and outs and what sounds good to your own ear, practice a lot, and you’ll have mastered one of the basics of sound mixing.

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