ASK & DISCUSS INDEX

10 years, 6 months ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin

Probably 4 figures, roughly, to make it worth a broker clearing it for you. There are two sets of rights, performance and mechanical/publishing, so it needs to be done properly. Truth be told, probably not worth it.

10 years, 6 months ago - Kim Halliday

You could always get a composer. I'm often asked to write things in the style of other people. Or you can commission something new, which is much more fun!

10 years, 6 months ago - Marlom Tander

Do you really need a recognisable peice?

If not there are all sorts of amazing musicians, bands etc who would gladly let you use their track for beer money and kudos.

10 years, 6 months ago - Ben Blaine

Reach out! The joy of Kickstarter is the way it enables us to connect with strangers. When my brother and I used it to raise money for our film "Nina Forever" we took the opportunity to approach one of our favourite musicians, Amanda Palmer and she allowed us to use one of her tracks for free for the duration of the campaign. All it took was a couple of tweets!

Even if the track you're after is by an artist who is not as internet savvy or as currently alive as Amanda then you'll still be surprised by what a bit of online research can produce. One of the tracks we looked into licensing for the film's soundtrack was by an artist who passed away in the 90's. His label were uncooperative but the underlying rights had passed to his grandson, ten minutes after typing his name into google we had an email address from his grandson's website and two hours later we had a reply saying he'd be delighted to let us the track (in this case for a fee but it's the soundtrack of a feature film so a slightly different deal).

Kim and Marlom are right, there are other ways of getting great music in your Kickstarter. The key thing is to remember that the essential function of a crowdsourcing website is to connect you with other people, those connections are always of far more value than any money that may come in.

10 years, 6 months ago - Lee 'Wozy' Warren

Common sense dictates that if something belongs to someone else, unless you have their permission to use said thing, then you have to pay for it.