Paul Chodirker is an entertainment lawyer at Heenan Blaikie LLP in Toronto. He is also featured on the “law boys” radio segment which can be heard every Wednesday night on the Toronto-based radio station, 102.1 The Edge.

What was the number one selling album on Billboard’s top 200 chart at the end of January 2008? It wasn’t Radiohead’s In Rainbows, or Mary J. Blige’s Growing Pains. Can you guess what it was? It was a soundtrack album from “the little film that could” known as, Juno.

If you’re not familiar with the Juno soundtrack, it’s basically made up of indie darlings and musicians that you’ve probably never heard of, like Barry Louis Polisar and Kimya Dawson. Barry Louis Polisar is actually a musician who writes music for children. So, what can the success of the Juno soundtrack do for the average indie musician? The answer: a lot!!

To start, film producers have paid far less attention to a film’s soundtrack since the world discovered how to download these songs for free. Thus, less soundtrack’s were sold and producers no longer saw it as another valuable revenue stream that could be packaged with the release of the theatrical film. It was clear that the music world had indeed changed since the release of the Pulp Fiction soundtrack in 1994 (which sold more than 2 million copies worldwide). Now, Juno has come along to revive the popularity of the film soundtrack and independent musicians are increasingly being called upon to create a movie’s soundscape.

Unless you’re Martin Scorsese and you’re filling your film with songs from The Rolling Stones and Derek & The Dominos, film producers will not be able to afford music from chart topping bands to include in their picture. More so, it appears that a soundtrack which includes indie music would probably sell better anyways. So, how can a musician that nobody has ever heard of get their songs into a film?

Step 1. Get to know and pay attention to a film’s music supervisor. A music supervisor is the person or persons who oversee the music in a particular production. They typically work with the director and producer to choose songs for the score, seek out interesting new sounds that might work well for a particular film and handle the contractual and licensing issues related to the inclusion of music in film. So, the next time the credits start to roll at the end of a movie, stay in your seat a little while longer and write down the name of the film’s music supervisor. Better yet, go to a website like IMDB.com and search your favourite movie’s to find out who acted as music supervisor’s during production. Also, a website like musicregistry.com will sell directories, which include the names and contact information of various music supervisors in the film and television industry. 

Step 2. Understand how and whether I can license my songs for use in a film. The music business is complicated. Anyone who says differently has never worked in the music industry before. I will make the following portion of this article as simple as possible.

There are two things a music supervisor will need before they can include your song in a film – a synchronization license and a master use license. The question then becomes whether myself or my band have the right to provide such licenses to the music supervisor. There are two ways of knowing whether you or your band have such rights:

1: Find out who owns the musical composition.

If I write a song called, “The Guess Who Rock” (and they do), and I solely contributed to the creation of the music and lyrics of the song, I own the musical composition. I could have also written the song with my band-mates, and in that instance, the band may own the musical composition. It is also possible that myself or my band signed to a musical publisher and assigned the rights in the musical composition to the publisher. In that case, the band and its publisher may own and control the musical composition.

Step 2: Find out who owns the master recording.

If I record the song, “The Guess Who Rock” in the basement of my house, the master recording becomes that recorded version of the musical composition. However, in many instances, if a band were signed to a music label, chances are pretty good that the rights in the master recordings have been assigned to the record company. So, in many instances, a record company may own and control the master recordings. However, if I have no affiliation with a label and I’ve recorded the musical composition on my own, I should own and control the master recording.

Why does ownership in the musical composition and the master recording matter? Because, in order to license music in a film, you need to license the use of the musical composition ( typically called a Synchronization or “Synch” license, because you are synchronizing the composition with visual images) and a license to use and synchronize the master recording of the musical composition (typically known as a Master Use license).

Get it? The music supervisor needs two license to put a song in a film – Synchronization and Master Use.

Finally, what fees can musicians expect from the sale of these licenses and what sort of deal should I make if the film producer wants to use my songs on a film’s soundtrack? These topics and more will be included in Part B of this series.