Matthew King Kaufman – Page 2 – Matthew King Kaufman

Easy Way to License Music For Film Or Video

Adding music to your film/video is way complicated.

It doesn’t need to be!

I am able to offer a unique solution.

I own a small independent label (Fun Fun Fun Recordings), along with the publishing rights to a large percentage of these quality sound recordings.

I founded little independent label, Beserkley Records, and I was their chief record producer. We had international hits and established the careers of Jonathan Richman, Greg Kihn, The Rubinoos, and Earth Quake.

I’ve already spoken to the Fun Fun Fun Recording Artists, who agree and want to enable creators to use their music. So there is no need to negotiate in advance to, acquire music to create your work. I’m offering music to fill the your scenes, with no upfront negotiations, one-stop clearance, and i’m inclined to allow free use, if your use is non-commercial.

Yes I will lend you music for your film/video creations so you can get the needed financing, no need to negotiate licenses in advance. I will also grant both synchronization and music licences for free if you are a non-commercial user. I’m one guy to deal with, and I’m a creator myself.

Here’s what you need to know about getting music for your film or video.

There are two separate rights-holders to negotiate with, for music rights: the owner of the sound recording grants the “synchronization license,” and the songwriter grants the “music license.”

Both rights-holders must grant the rights to the film/video maker.

To make things more complicated, the sound recording might be owned or controlled by a recording company. This use is governed by the contract between the record company and the recording artist, and can include the business affairs and legal departments and lawyers, to get a license.

After the copyright holder of the sound recording grants the use of the recording, the film/video maker still needs rights from the songwriter’s representative to use his/her song in their film/video.

Starting to sound complicated?

Here’s a good explanation http://www.copyrightkids.org/permissioninformation.htm

Plus the songwriter usually has granted rights to represent his/her song to a publisher, and this usually requires negotiations as well. Also, the writer is a member of a performing rights society (ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC for example), to collect on behalf of the songwriter from broadcasters for the music rights.

Please note there is no central clearing house for the synch license, and once the synchronization fee is paid, the distribution has already been negotiated in the recording contract if there is one.

Youtube, Vimeo and other sites have made blanket deals with major labels and large publishers which allows them to use the music on their site, and they rely heavily on a DMCA defense as well.

I WANT TO HELP!!

Get in touch:

Here’s are some examples videos using Fun Fun Fun music, where I have granted licenses to the creators:

The Uptones – Laws n Sausage from Miss Lisa on Vimeo.

Uptones, what are you thinking?? 4 yrs between shows

Four years between shows is way too long for me to wait to see my favorite music combo, The Uptones. I saw them @ the benefit they threw recently for the NorCal fire victims @ the Ashkenaz in Berkeley, CA. It was so enjoyable, it was the kind of music show I’ve come to appreciate – meaningful songs and superior playing from a combo who likes each other, and likes performing together. I only wish they wouldn’t wait 4 more years to have another show. The Uptones’ horn section is magnificent, and the solos by Adam Beach, Jeanne Geiger, and Jay Sanders display a true mastery of their instruments. It was a pleasure to witness the sheer joy of playing from the band members. I think the fun had on stage by the Berkeley High School band founders Ben Eastwood, Eric Din and Paul Jackson (who’ve been performing together since the early 80’s when they started), along with their tremendous drummer, Mikey Stevens, is infectious and exactly what you’d expect from a “30-plus years tight” group. I glowed for days, after witnessing the performances of 12 GR8 (well known only in the Bay Area) original songs, by this talented band. Being in the same room with that much music, wisdom, and joy was worth the price of admission!

Music Is the Music Business’s Problem

ILoveMyMusic

Music apathy is the industry’s biggest hurdle to overcome.

The Music Business has been focused too much on the marketing and sales of music.

Not the music itself.

There are a lot of good marketing plans.

The public has responded by not participating.

The solution to the music business’s problem is improving the music.

I don’t see anyone currently trying to solve this problem.

Artifical Intelligence Music Will Eliminate Royalities

The “jukebox that pays,” the major label’s Frankenstein, Spotify, is about to bite its enabler/creator (the major labels) in the ass. I saw some disquieting news today I thought I’d share. Spotify is planning to hire the Artificial Intelligence expert, Francois Pachet.

Francois is currently in charge of Sony Music’s Artificial Intelligence research for the last 20 years. He has been Director of the Sony Computer Science Laboratory. He is allowing his contract to expire and sign a deal with Spotify. Under his leadership at Sony, several AI-created compositions have been created and published. I’m not going to dignify these compositions by discussing them here.

I’ve written about how pedestrian this music sounded before, but I’d like to comment on a disturbing trend. Spotify supposedly engaged in fake artist/playlist creation to reduce royalty payments. Combine that with recent comments by Francois. When he spoke at Buma Music In Motion, friends of mine told me he felt: AI-written music inherently shouldn’t require any royalties to be paid to copyright holders after it is published.

And now he’s tasked with creating a toolbox for Spotify creators.

This can only mean Spotify wants to create a class of “lesser royalty status compositions,” eliminating the human incentive to create new music, therefore reducing the overhead by adding them to playlists.

As someone who made music in the golden age of recorded music, 1971-1984, I should embrace listening to a Muzak version of my era. But I don’t. At first I hoped AI and music would allow people to create music w/o years of instrument mastery, but now I’m afraid the role of AI will be subverted by business interests to avoid paying humans for music, and figuring out how to find and fool the truly passive music fan into listening to “royalty-free” music.

“FREE MUSIC” IS THE MISSING LINK

Free Music sounds like a simple concept, but why exactly is “FREE MUSIC so important?”

For simplicity sake let’s call it, music delivered free to the user, paid for by someone else.

This concept is at the crux of music marketing.

For decades, Curated Recorded Music Content was the “killer app” for the earlier technological advance we know as radio. The technologies of the period were advanced vinyl recordings, plus the phonograph, a device that allowed this recorded music to be heard, and the jukebox allowing for payments.

Music “free to the user” fueled the spread of this hardware: radios, vinyl, and turntables. It was supported by advertisers using music to sell their wares.

“Free music” on the radio has been responsible for sales of hundreds of millions of varying vinyl configurations as well as the advertiser’s product. Radio “free music,” and the “free listen” (where you could hear music someone else paid for) were responsible for my love of music. Most of the music I purchased, I had heard before at a friend’s, and most of the music I liked and eventually paid for in a jukebox, but didn’t buy, I heard on a favorite radio station. I might have never appreciated Patsy Kline without being stuck in a diner during a snowstorm with a huge Patsy Kline fan who fed the jukebox and played her music all night.

All music needs to start “free” for exposure to build or reach an audience. The more you can give away your music, the more you can sell.

Michael Jackson and the Beatles are top music sellers and their songs are among the most played on radio.

Exposure and discovery of music are based on “FREE.”

“FREE MUSIC” IS ESSENTIAL TO THE MUSIC ECOSYSTEM.

It’s important to note radio only played these artists BEST songs, made and paid for by record companies. These artists sold millions of CDs, albums and singles, making the investment by the recording companies worth tons of $.

While today’s free music opportunities are confusing:

Radio, a dying media, has tried it’s best to salvage its role as an indispensable tool for mass marketing of popular songs. There is no discovery, only exposure for corporate music possibilities. Music radio is a corrupt shell of it’s former self, so it can’t be counted on for creating “music love” any more. Radio has become a full-on marketing tool for major labels.

This monopolistic hold on “Free Music” by business interests is dumbing down the users of this language and harming music. Streaming services and Internet radio are equally as guilty in neglecting this human language and art form. It seems cultivating a dumb audience is the goal of all the corporate business interests involved in the “music business.”

These subscription services are using ”Free Music” to entice users to their premium services. Today’s corporate greedy( both major labels and technology companies) are perverting the “Free Music Concept” to diminish any payments to the music creator for exposure for their latest product. If this was the only perversion, I wouldn’t waste time over it. It’s a common business practice for the costs of marketing to be paid back to the business from the creation’s income before any payment or royalties are due to the creator .

But what really concerns me is that the free music experience has been de-valuated for the public as well. The “Free Music” uses in the current music subscription services, are designed to be a lesser-value use (free access ad supported) to the subscription service, to supposedly entice you to use their premium service without ads and more features.

HERE’S WHERE THE RUBBER MEETS THE ROAD. One of those paid for features is the unlimited ability to fast forward through songs you don’t like. Radios in cars had this feature (to exit a playlist) and it was essential to have this “skip-ability.” While these digital services treat mediocre songs (known as album cuts) included on long playing recordings for fan consumption, the same as they treat the best songs of an artist. Plus the bogus bonus tracks used to add value to the some CD sale or one hundred remixes of a hit are treated with equal value to the BEST version of a song or an artist’s recording. This may be good for these rental services, but not gr8 for nurturing love for a language and an art form. Even the subjectively created playlist have a limited ability to fast forward.

Radio thrived by only featuring these BEST songs, and there was a healthy demand for ownership of this music, ergo a thriving music business.

With all this FILLER music in subscription services intentionally skewing the music pool, and the limited ability to fast-forward, the “Free Music Experience” has been DIMINISHED considerably.

Historically, deejays, music lovers, and other HUMAN music curators, created free music experiences, by selecting songs they SUBJECTIVELY valued as worthy. These humans passed on their music love, competing over the ability to find music you might love is sorely lacking in the corporate approaches I see so far.

So I created the FREE MUSIC LIST to improve the quality of, and draw attention to the value of FREE MUSIC. I can’t allow a language and an art form I love denied information because of corporate greed.

I NEED HELP SPREADING THE WORD, FINDING AND ADDING VALUE TO THE FREE MUSIC LIST!!

Until then I’m going it alone. I have compiled music since 1999 when I felt the lights go out in the subjective selection of music world.

SO:

I’m offering the music I control for Free to listen to and use non commercially.
We’ve found music for Free in the Public Domain.
I designed web-sites, and with the help of many, found some GR8 music available for Free offered by the music creators who needed exposure.

Ergo the FREE MUSIC LIST @ SURF4U.COM.

I hope you enjoy the experience.

USING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TO CREATE MUSIC IS TRULY DISTURBING

The idea of using artificial intelligence to create music is a truly disturbing concept. The word music comes from the Greek word μουσική (mousike), which means “(art) of the Muses.” In many cultures, music is an important part of peoples’ way of life, as it plays a key role in religious rituals, rite of passage ceremonies, and social activities. The Sony Computer Science Laboratory has released several songs created by artificial intelligence. This is only the 1st step in complicated software replacing man. I have witnessed drum machines and digital samples replacing human music makers. It is a simple business equation, Artificial Intelligence doesn’t require the same funding human musicians require. As someone, who has been involved in music from an entertainment and business point of view, I FIND THIS TREND ACCELERATING AT AN ALARMING PACE. Music is a human form of artistic expression that is an endangered species. With the elimination of music education in our schools, this human art form needs to be preserved. So action is necessary!

With a lot of help, I’ve creating a new website called HumanMusicIntelligence as a substitute for dwindling music education opportunities. It features music created by humans. This site allows anyone to enjoy the early history of human recorded music. FOR FREE. As of 2017, this great music is in the public domain! I selected Jazz as the first genre to demonstrate the “joy of collaboration,” “the blending of instruments,” and “the value of the composition.” I am hoping to demonstrate the human’s ability to create a unique kind of music and art.I selected seven songs essential to the early roots of jazz and have posted them on the web-site. This kind of music is irreplaceable and may never be made again. Somehow I feel compelled to pay music back for the personal rewards I received. Just like any great art, that stands the test of time this music is a treasure.

I realize this isn’t about life or death, and I’m not anti-technology. I’m looking forward to driver-less cars and artificial intelligence’s contributions to medicine, but I’m afraid the use of AI in the music business, which has only profit as its motivation, and not the good of mankind or music. If you notice this recent artificial intelligence release is a spear headed by an large corporate, existing member of the music industry establishment, Sony. And they have convinced this music is worthy of discussion and criticism by knowable sources in the music and technology community. Do a Google search for artificial music intelligence to see the reach of this corporate music power. I wonder if they realize these efforts in artificial intelligence are going to eliminate the “golden goose” of recorded music?

NEVER MIND THE COPYRIGHT THERE’S A NEW PUBLIC DOMAIN LAW

As of January, 2017, the new public domain laws regarding music take effect. Public domain is intended to benefit mankind by allowing anyone to use material that has been previously protected by copyright, with out any responsibilities to the creators. The control and tyranny of recorded music by the “music business” has now been counter balanced by allowing the public access to music beyond copyright ownership. Simply put, after 75 years, the creators’ contributions, formerly protected by copyright, have been transferred to public ownership.

The stifling practices of an industry driven by profit and the bottom line has left a wake of under- and over appreciated music creators and consequently their creations are either over or under exposed. The profit motive and competition has changed an art form to conform to current broadcast technologies, like radio and television, for example.

The new public domain laws make this control of music more difficult. The public domain laws in music have opened the door for alternative listening. The lean forward music enthusiast will have access to many recordings previously neglected as not as profitable as popular music. We must remember music is a language and an art that has been appreciated by mankind for all ages. This universal language has been constantly evolving.

With the growth of recorded music, people have the technology to enjoy music more easily than at any time in history. Throughout the ages there were lots of different technologies necessary to communicate using music. The technologies to make instruments and record them are much older than today’s very prevalent digital technologies. We also have made great advances in the way to listen to music. This beautiful language made in the past by talented musicians on the cutting edge of the new recording technologies (Recordings) and the cutting edge of a new musical school of expression (Jazz/Blues.) I’ve spent some time filtering and trying to make this early music accessible to the modern listening breakthroughs. Starting in 2017, I intend to offer a listening opportunity to some of the music that has stood the test of time, that I feel is essential to having an appreciation of the art that is music. I’ve benefitted from many music lovers who have ripped cylinders and 78s to mp3. I’ve decided to further enhance the process by mastering for streaming the digital files that have been preserved from wax. I’ve created two sites to offer music lovers a chance to listen to this worthy music for free: PublicDomain4u.com and HumanMusicIntelligence.com. I must confess at first I was horrified by the concept of music being creating by artificial intelligence, but now I only want some of the “out of the box” songs I’ve posted to be considered by this new approach to creation. My hope is to expose the qualities of human music creation to the changing world. This music has been discovered and rediscovered, I hope you’ll enjoy this music as much as i do.

For your edification please listen to “The Early Roots of Jazz” and “Love the Blues” @humanmusicintelligence.com.

love-blues-200px

BLOCKAI IS THE FUTURE!! CONTENT CREATORS REJOICE BLOCKAI RETHINKS COPYRIGHTS

What a tool! Formal, irrefutable proof of copyright ownership by just uploading my art. This is an visionary idea using “Bitcoin Technology.” The Blockchain technology always had the potential to be a great tool for us, copyright owners. Blockai had the vision to make this possible. In all my time as an independent label operator (Beserkley, Fun Fun Fun Recordings), no one has offered a better tool to manage artwork copyrights. Besides the music, there is a lot of art (covers, logos, video images, and photos) that are exclusive to my little label. Blockai allowed me to add these images smoothly and intuitively. I realize nothing can replace the copyright office, but Blockai is the next best thing. Being able to prove ownership in a time stamped Bitcoin Blockchan is the “best evidence” I need for much of my artwork, and Blockai allows me so see where all the image uses on the WWW are.

The final joy is the moment the art is done, ‘Wham Bam Thank You Mam,” It’s protected!

MASTERED FOR STREAMING

I’ve got a new passion!

I’m helping preserve music!

With some help from Michael Rosen, I’m digitally remastering songs recorded originally on cylinder and 78 rpm.

These masterpieces deserve to be enhanced so they are listenable w/o the snap and crackle of their original recording mediums, while converting to headphone friendly.

Selling Out Nightclubs And Still in High School

uptones-rolling-stone-ska-berkeley-joel-selvin-podcast
The Uptones were selling out night clubs when they were still Berkeley High School students. Uptones’ founders, Eric Din and Paul Jackson sit down with Bay Area music journalist, Joel Selvin, and talk about why they choose to be a Berkeley Ska Band. The podcast includes lots of Uptones music. It’s worth a listen, and makes me proud to be a small part of this narrative. Listen to the podcast, you’ll really enjoy it!