Audio Visual
This refers to an intended use of production music. Audio Visual can refer to a film, or an audio-only production.
Background Music
Music used (other than as feature or theme music) that creates mood and supports the spoken dialogue of a radio program or visual action of an audio visual work.
Bootlegging
Unauthorized recording and selling of a song or music recording.
BPM
This acronym stands for "beats per minute" and is a measure of production music tempo.
Buyout Music Library
A production music library that sells CDs to a producer and does not require music usage reports or blanket licensing - the production music on the CDs can be used on an unlimited basis provided that the music is not re-distributed.
Catalog
A collection of production music tracks, songs and/or recordings.
Clearance
Refers to the intended use of production music. It generally defines the media and/or territory in which the final production will be exploited.
Composition
A copyrighted music track, song or theme.
Copyright
The exclusive right, granted by law for a stated period, usually until at least 50 years after the death of the surviving author of the work, to make, dispose of, and otherwise control copies of literary, musical, dramatic, pictorial and other copyrightable works. The exclusive right is set forth in the 1976 Copyright Act Section 106.
Encryption
A technological method of locking and limiting the use of a song or track in a production music library.
Imaging Elements
Distinctive sound bites that create a mood, feeling or statement (also known as Production Elements).
License
A license is a grant to a "user" permitting use of a copyright for any of the following:
- Mechanical Rights (reproduction of records, tapes, CDs)
- Non-Dramatic Performance Rights (the public performance of a song over radio or TV, or at a club, hotel or concerts)
- Grand Rights (dramatic performance of a musical work, musical comedy, play, opera, operetta, or ballet)
- Synchronization Rights (the use of a musical composition on the soundtrack of an audio/visual work for theatrical exhibition or television)
- Print Rights (sheet music, folios, songbooks or other printed editions - the grant is usually made for a specified period of time and for a designated territory
- Commercial Rights (the use of a musical composition as part of an advertisement)
The party to whom a license for the use of production music is granted.
Licensor
The party who grants a license for use of production music.
Mechanical License
The license issued by a publisher or his agent, usually to a record company, granting the record company the right to record and release a specific composition at an agreed-upon fee per unit manufactured and sold.
Media
The method of reaching an intended audience (Radio, TV, Cable).
Musical Elements
Production elements that include a short musical melody, a brief musical chord sequence (also known as a "riff" or a "lick"), or the sound of a recognizable musical instrument being played without accompaniment.
These short clips of music and instrumentation are often used to introduce the beginning of a presentation or bring it to a close. They are also used to provide backdrops to a voiceover or as transitions from one section to another of a broadcast, a feature film, or any other kind of audio-visual presentation or promo.
Musical elements can take many forms, including:
- fanfares & intros
- beds, bumpers, pads & stagers
- IDs, logos & tags
- bridges, dissolves & segues
- accents & stingers
A production that is intended to be used without use of broadcast airwaves.
Piracy
Unauthorized copying of a record, tape, compact disc or hard drive content.
Production Element
(Also known as Imaging Elements) - distinctive bites of sound that create a mood, feeling or statement. They have a vocabulary of their own. Some of the more popular styles of Production Elements include: Logos, Fanfares & Stingers, Whooshes, Sweeps & Dissolves, Hits & Attacks, Rewinds & Scratches, Space Lasers & Drones.
Production Music Library
A collection of musical compositions that are licensed by the publisher or administrator for use as background, theme, or score music, on radio, broadcast and cable television, films, or video productions.
Public Domain
Refers to the status of a work having no copyright protection and, therefore, belonging to the world. When a work is "in" or has "fallen into" public domain, it means that the music is available for unrestricted use by anyone.
Permission and/or payment are not required for the use of the music (for instance, you can hire an orchestra and record your own version of a Public Domain song), however, existing recordings of a Public Domain work are not free to use. They belong to the producer of the recording.
Except with respect to certain foreign-originated works eligible for restoration of copyright, once a work falls into the public domain ("PD"), it can never be recaptured by the owner.
Publisher
A person or company that publishes and exploits songs, scores or compositions, usually acquired from the author via an assignment of copyright.
Royalty Free Music Library
A production music library that sells CDs to a producer and does not require music usage reports or blanket licensing - the production music on the CDs can be used on an unlimited basis provided that the music is not re-distributed.
Sampling
The act of removing sound bytes electronically from a master recording and through technological imitation placing them within the context of another composition. The length of the bytes can be limitless and can contain lyric and music in combination or in part from any segment of the score. Depending upon the length of the bytes and how they are used, unauthorized sampling could be held to be a copyright infringement of the sound recording from which they were taken and from the musical work they first appeared in.
Score
The music that is used in synchronization with an audio/visual work, or the body of music composed for a dramatic-musical work.
Sound Effect
A single isolated recording of either an everyday (real) sound, a specialty (fantasy) sound, or a background ambience track. There are several types of sound effects - from everyday sounds like doorbells, car horns and telephone rings, to specialty sounds like comedy, fantasy and science fiction FX.
Synchronization Right
The exclusive right of a copyright owner, granted by the Copyright Act, to authorize the recording of a musical work onto the soundtrack of an audio/visual work. The song is synchronized with images on the screen, hence the name.
Watermarking
A technological method of identifying production music by imbedding an ownership code within a recording.
Other Pages on this Web Site:
- Help Stop Piracy Home Page
- What is Copyright?
- Why Use Production Music Products?
- How Do I Use Production Music Products?
- What is Copyright Infringement?
- How Do I Report Illegal Copies?
- Links to More Information