Copyrighted music in wedding video...BIG NO NO!

Your videographer can't use it, because you are paying him to make the video for you, so he would have to pay for a license to use it.

Most things you see with popular songs are either done illegally or somebody did them themselves without knowing about it.

Interesting... I have a videographer and he chooses the songs so maybe its ones he already purchased??

Our videographer is just shooting raw footage, then my FH whose pretty good at tech and editing himself is just going to add the music we want and cut and edit it .... hopefully it all goes as planned, getting raw footage is also a good way to save on the price if you have someone who can edit it for u =)

We picked songs from a list where the license can be purchased to use them. My understanding is that if it's the those highlight videos you see posted on Vimeo or YouTube, license must be purchased to use them. If it's a video made for you for your private viewing that will not be posted on the internet, I thought you could use your music that was legally purchased. Don't quote me on that though. We are doing the typical 3-5 minute highlight reel and picked songs from song freedom per our videographer.

Bump for those who didn't know to find out!

ETA: Yup. This is super correct. I took a copyright class in college. Anything you post publicly with copyrighted material without permission COULD you get sued or fined. Your home video that you put to your favorite song on YouTube? Yup. Could happen.

Could you pay the licensing fee? Or is your videographer willing to pay it?

I know some of the videographers that i was looking at said part of their fee goes to buying the license for the songs. would that be an option? to pay extra for the specific song you want?

eta: or the videographer could just not post the video online, and you keep it for personal use.

Our Videographer has a huge library of songs they have purchased the licenses to for the videos they make for their clients. They will also purchase a license if they dont already have it. With how much money we're paying them they can buy the damn license.

Would it be possible for yours do purchase it? or use Surfergirls suggestion? I know for the company I work for (Media) we can use what ever music we want/need for things that are staying internal, its just when it gets distributed to the Mass Public that things get difficult.

I work for a company that does business music. I work hand in hand with ASCAP, SESAC, and BMI. The reason he won't add the music himself, is if he gets reported- he can be fined up to $100k PER SONG. Typically they get businesses for more around $30 to $40k the first occurrence. This is something I see everyday.

By the letter of the law, once music is added to a video the music needs to have the proper licensing. Regardless if it's personal and no one else will see it. It does not matter. It is considered sharing music once it's incorporated.

You can contact the royalty holder who specifically hold the rights to a certain song (BMI, ASCAP, and SESAC) and pay them directly. That would be crazy expensive thought.

I would be wary of a videographer that A) doesn't know the laws or B) willing does it anyways.

There are many music downloaders around, but most of them are not allowed to download copyrighted music for weddings. Fortunately, AmoyShare Free MP3 Finder works.

It is a very advanced and feature-rich online music downloader that allows you to download any music for free.

View Quoted Comment Hey Ginna,


I just noticed this thread on Wedding Wire and thought I’d reply to provide some clarity to future brides.
As a wedding videographer leading a team capturing over 200 weddings a year, I’ve got a little bit of insight on this subject.
To answer your question;
Most commonly, songs are licensed through companies that specialize in commercial song licensing. These companies typically require a membership fee and some also require an additional per song license in addition to their membership fee.
We offer 4 platforms for our couples to pick songs from. That’s hundreds of thousands of songs with plenty of known and beloved songs.

View Quoted Comment Hey Diana,


I just noticed this thread on Wedding Wire and thought I’d reply to provide some clarity to future brides.
As a wedding videographer leading a team capturing over 200 weddings a year, I’ve got a little bit of insight on this subject.
To answer your question;
Even if a video is never posted online, it’s still considered a commercial product as money has exchanged hands.
If you pay a videographer to create a video using an unlicensed song, they are subject to liability.

View Quoted Comment Hey Brigitte,


I just noticed this thread on Wedding Wire and thought I’d reply to provide some clarity to future brides.
As a wedding videographer leading a team capturing over 200 weddings a year, I’ve got a little bit of insight on this subject.
To answer your question;
Even if you keep it for personal use, it’s still a commercial product because you paid for it. Therefore it’s still subject to liability!
The problem isn’t the money for videographers. It’s the actual ability in which to license the songs. We can only license what’s available through song licensing platforms like artlist, music bed, lickd etc.
To license songs from artists that aren’t on these platforms would require having industry connections with record labels and the respective artists agent. Outside of these platforms getting a commercial license can cost 10s of thousands of dollars.

Look at Sommar Films, they charge 20k plus and use any music they want. Daylight robbery for the artist. They should be ashamed. How do they get away with it?

View Quoted Comment

The biggest compnaies like sommar films and plus two use anything want and cahrge up to 30k for a wedding film.