I'm wrapping up editing a short film and have another question about a song. I reached out to the artist for the song I had in mind, and he responded telling me he was cool with me using the song in my film. When I went to upload it to YouTube, the software dinged me for a copyright issue with the song. I know there's a way to dispute it on YouTube, but I haven't done that quite yet because I want to make sure I'm doing it right. Do I dispute it and say, "the artist gave me permission?" Or should I dispute it and say, "I gave the artist credit?" If I left it as is without disputing it and submitted to some film fests, would they look at that copyright issue from the YouTube link and think I don't have the rights to use the song? Am I going about this the right way? Any and all advice would be much appreciated!
Composing : Song Rights/YouTube Question by Trey Alessio
Song Rights/YouTube Question
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If you can Trey, it's worth reaching out to a music/entertainment lawyer and getting an expert's opinion and advice.
Having said that, in my non-music law-expert opinion, disputing the claim and saying the artist gave permission is a smart move. If you only have a verbal agreement with the artist this would be a good time to draw up some kind of contract. There are templates online or the lawyer could help. I would think that festivals would be put off by YouTube flagging copyright issues and it'd deter them from screening the film if they think they might be culpable in some way, so definitely worth sorting before you start submitting to festivals. (I'm not an expert but a lot of films I've worked on use Vimeo links for festival submissions- if you want to crack on with submissions whilst sorting stuff with YouTube it might be worth uploading the film as a private link there, they might not flag it as having a copyright issue which would tide you through).
Hope that helps and please take all the above with a pinch of salt, I'm not a music lawyer and am only speaking out of my own experience.
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Joanna Karselis Thanks for the advice! I disputed it on YouTube yesterday, so we'll see what happens.
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Why are you using YT? If the artist is cool with it, have him send you a master of the song. YT files are almost useless when it comes to audio tracks for film anyway.