applying for music copyright

The copyright law gives a director or producer of certain media pieces, such as music, books and videos, control over how it is used and shared. Therefore, when you buy a music track or watch a music video, the copyright law prevents you from giving a copy to a friend or publishing a music video based on the song on a video platform such as YouTube without permission from the creator. However, it is permissible to copy a piece of media to a certain degree without infringing the work for certain purposes such as for education. The copyright law ensures that if an artist produces something similar to another artist then action would be taken as the success of their music is not completely theirs; copying someones work is known as plagiarism and is illegal. However, you are permitted to request to use an artist's song in your own work; for example, Birdy released a piano cover of Bon Iver's "Skinny Love" but evidently had to seek permission as it was not originally her song. There is the issue that if two artists make a song that is exceedingly similar, then the artist who originally made the song could receive less credit for their own work. Therefore, it is paramount that an artist requests permission with the original creator of a song or video to see if they are happy with certain elements being copied.

The reason why we had to apply for copyright law is so that when we make our music video and publish it on YouTube so the examiners can see it, we want to make sure the record label of Gabrielle Aplin - Parlophone - are comfortable with us keeping the video up. If we do not have permission, the label is eligible to take the 
video down from Youtube due to infringement. If this occurred, someone is lawfully able to take the person who exploited the copyright law to court. Applying for copyright is exceedingly important as it shows the public that the work you have created is in fact not an original authorship, but rather your ideas have been taken from elsewhere. Therefore, my group and I had to apply for permission to use Gabrielle Aplin's song "Salvation". In order to obtain permission, we first had to establish who the copyright owner of the song was; in this case it was the artist's record label "Parlophone". We then had to search up the label and find the correct email of the person to talk to regarding the matter. We found the managing director's mail address, Keith Wozencroft, and explained our situation as A-Level students creating a coursework piece. This way, we have taken the correct measures before creating our music video. As our situation involves educational purposes, it is more likely that copying various elements of the song will be deemed acceptable as it is not for our own personal financial gain. Telling the record label that it is not a commercial purpose is crucial as otherwise we may have had to pay a fee. The screenshot above on the left is a copy of the email that we sent to the record label. We have currently only emailed them once and have not received a response yet.

There have been some cases in the music industry where copyright has been an issue. For example, the well-know song "Ghostbusters" by "Ray Parker Jr." actually bears an uncanny similarity to Huey Lewis and the News' "I Want a New Drug". Huey Lewis had actually been approached by the Ghostbusters producer to write a song for the movie but turned the opportunity down and therefore his song created high suspicion of infringement. However, the law suit filed was supposed to go undiscovered but as Lewis discussed the copyright issue on a TV show, Ray Parker Jr. sued for breaching the confidentiality agreement. This demonstrates the high importance of keeping to the copyright law and always making sure you have permission before using an artist's work.

My group and I are still waiting for a response from the record label as to whether it is acceptable to use Gabrielle Aplin's song; however we have decided to go ahead and make the music video regardless.