How would you get the rights to use one of Jade's songs?

[Taotrac]

Well, for one, I'm directing a movie starting in just a few short weeks, it's a very beautiful and romantic film that has a extreme horror twist in the middle, then goes back to romance. It's really something extremely moving, heartfelt and unique, but also shocking and thrilling to watch. The coolest thing is I get to use a instrumental horror track composed by a singer I really enjoy, and it's very inspired by Moonlight Sonata. I've also for some reason always pictured Unbreakable for the credits to this film, at the end, but I just tonight made the connection that the instrumenal peice I'm using, and Unbreakable, truly have Moonlight Sonata in common!!

Anyway, I plan on presenting this film to Lionsgate when it's done, they are extremely supportive of indie horror films, and I feel like this one will really hit gold with them because of it's unusual romantic feel, and while they probably have all the pull and money they need to snag a few permissions and rights for me, if for some reason they decided to be a bit lazy, or even if they didn't accept this movie at all, how exactly would I contact whoever you would have to pay to have one of Jade's songs in a dvd-release film? This film is really being planned to be the next semi-big indie culture icon (Napoleon Dynamite, Juno, Blair Witch Project, etc ect) and if it had a huge impact socially, or even a small one, it would no doubt cause a tremendous help to Jade's American pressence. I could get any old song for the credits, even one I could write myself, but I think Unbreakable connects and the fact I want to help out Jade in any way possible is just boiling up inside me so much, if it was around $1000 or so to use a song, I'd most definatly pay it, with a little help from this film's budget. I have no idea about song rights, though.

So yeah, any advice on this?

[Vhazza]

There's a wonderful thing called Google...you should become good friends with it as a quick search would have provided you with the following:

Music Publisher Contacts

Obtaining permission to use music is sometimes a little more confusing than obtaining permission to use other types of copyrighted works, because there are two different rights in any piece of recorded music: the rights to the song itself, which is what can be written on sheet music, and the rights to the particular recording. The songwriter(s) owns the rights to the song itself, but generally grants those rights to a "music publisher" to administer the rights. A particular recording of the song (what's on the CD) is generally owned by the record company that released the CD. If you want to use a recording of a song, you have to get permission from both the music publisher (to use the song itself) and the record company (to use the recording). Sometimes, people choose to make their own recording of a song. If this is what you want to do, then the only permission you would need to obtain is permission to use the song, which you would obtain from the music publisher(s). Also please be aware that songs can be owned by more than one music publisher. You need to obtain permission from all of the publishers who own copyrights in a song in order to use that song.

The easiest way to find the contact information for a music publisher is through ASCAP, BMI and SESAC. These organizations are called "performing rights societies;" their web site addresses are http://www.ascap.com, http://www.bmi.com and http://www.sesac.com. All songwriters and music publishers have to belong to one of these organizations, but membership is exclusive so each songwriter can be a member of only one of these organizations. If you go to the ASCAP site and you don't find the title you are looking for, chances are the song is represented by either BMI or SESAC. Also some songs are written by more than one songwriter, one of who may be with ASCAP and another with BMI and/or SESAC. Unfortunately, the performing rights societies will only give out the publisher information for the writers they represent. Therefore, if you want to use a song written by writers from different societies, you will need to go to each society's web site to find all of the publisher information. The label on the CD or cassette often indicates which performing rights society represents the writer of a particular song.

BTW, the song doesn't appear on any of the sites listed (although Jade does appear on ASCAP for Trying To Be Me (once known as Remember apparently), I'll Be There, Human (the Cheetah Girls) and Change The World. (?? the Ernest Gold connection)

Anyways, based on that information, it looks like you'd have to get permission from

Jade & Geo
Universal J (who released it in Japan)
Sony Music Korea (who released it in Korea)

More than likely, you'd only be able to use it is all parties agree to it. To find out what performing rights society is involved though, you're going to have to check the back of the CD on in the booklet. That way you'll likely get the address for those that you need to contact. Do bear in mind that you will likely have a language barrier to cross too

[TopCat]

You might contact Heiko Grupe about it. He should at least know who you should contact, from what companies you need permission and how likely it is to get it.

[John]

The publisher is Jade's own independent publisher J-Art (the writers of course being Jade & Geo). The record label is Universal J. So those are the 2 parties you need to contact.

EDIT: Unbreakable is ALSO published in Japan by Nippon Television Music Corporation.

[Dreamquake]

Sounds tricky - good luck Taotrac!

[Taotrac]

Honestly, all of that doesn't seem that tough. As I said, I'd bet my film distributor/company (especially a more famous one) would have the contacts to get all that done. One cool thing is I decided to halt the production of this specific film, and I'm making a couple others first just to build up my name a bit better (it's all gonna be pretty cool, I'm gonna do film tours and stuff like that...it's a surprising concept, but tons of films like Repo: The Genetic Opera with Paris Hilton starring, have done it.) By then, I'm sure it'd be a piece of cake to end up getting one of Jade's songs in my films.

It's a strange concept though, Jade single handedly introduced me to music as an art form (before Jade's songs or music videos, I had never seen or even liked a single song in existance, I was devoid of everything cept classical music which I already loved as a young kid.) She changed my life more than any force on this planet earth. What if I end up being the biggest help to her career? What if I end up pulling practically another FFX-2 for her? I'd at least be paying her back for a couple cd's of hers I honestly pirated :p.

[tony]

i saw them promoting the genetic opera in the gaslamp out side comic-con today

[Rhi]

What if I end up being the biggest help to her career? What if I end up pulling practically another FFX-2 for her? I'd at least be paying her back for a couple cd's of hers I honestly pirated :p.

Dude, I think you're getting way ahead of yourself here. You will be one of millions of people with the same dream as you, and most of them will never be heard of despite their efforts. I'm not saying don't go for it, but you're assuming things are going to fall into place and it isn't like that. Ultimately, for anything like directing, acting, music, anything creative like that, the odds are you'll never make it big and sadly you can't just assume that you'll 'make' Jade's career and that she'll owe everything to you. Good luck, but you're going to need it regardless of how talented you may be and I think you need to realise that

[padmelover]

Honestly, I have no clue how you would go about it. In the states, I would assume you would contact one of those organazation thingies dedicated to getting artists paid for their music. I would think they would have some sort of the same thing in Japan? But I don't know.

Well, Rhi, I can only agree with what you said about it being hard to get started. I spent a few months trying to pitch a novel that I had written to several different agents. I mean, it wasn't a masterpeice but it was pretty good, aimed at teenagers, stuff like that. Turns out you have to query this agents with a summary of both your novel (which has to be written in a very particular way) and yourself. Then, you get to wait to get back automated emails that either accept you or reject you. I didn't get accepted by any. Not even a glimpse at my product, but out of the running because of a paragraph. It was beyond my belief.

Still, I haven't given up and I still write and write, and I think I've gotten pretty good at it. One day, you'll see my name on some sort of book, I swear. And I plan to thank Jade for inspiration from her music, and maybe it do the whole Stephene Meyer Muse sort of thing and help.

Anyway, I wish you luck with the process, and hope that getting a film out there isn't nearly as soul less as trying to get published.

And I don't think you meant it to sound like you would "make" Jade's career, I think you meant it to sound like you wanted to repay someone who had made a difference in your life. And I say go for it!

[samDavenga]

Good luck, Taotrac! I agree with padmelover. Good luck to you too on publishing a book!

[Nem]

As Anja said - it's best that you contact Heiko Groupe and ask him everything about it.

And it's blasphemy to compare your work with FF cuz you have yet to gain the success the series has had over the past 24 years. I am not saying that won't happen, just that you should be more modest ^^

[Ire]

so it sounds difficult