I know you have to get permission and pay a lot of money to use certain music in your film. But what about doing a Kubrick and using Beethoven in your film? How does one go about doing that?

Beethoven's music is in the public domain. But... the recordings of his music aren't. So, unless you're going to record the music yourself, you still need to get permission to use that specific recording.

Get a friend to play the piece, or play it yourself.

I am doing short now

Here is a clip from my short

I found a Brazilian pianist who plays Bach and he gave me permission to use his recorded track

I paid only a small amount and formed a new relationship too (nice guy)

I did a search online of pianist. You might also want to try versusmedia.com

Musicians galore on there, playing all kinds of music and I got a huge response when I posted a need for a track. Over 75 musicians responded within 3 days


I used his track here

Also, get it from a musician who is motivated and actively playing and who get noticed. Aggressive musicians will help promote your film/video if their music is in it

Not all musicians and bans are motivated or have good business sense. Just like filmmakers, there are a lot people talking the talk and talk and you want someone who is walkin the walk.

If you don't already know a musician you can hire to play and record the music you want, look at music videos on youtube. Then you can not only hear their sound, you can see they have proven they can actually complete a project.

James:
Beethoven's music is in the public domain. But... the recordings of his music aren't. So, unless you're going to record the music yourself, you still need to get permission to use that specific recording.

Also the arrangements are copyrighted. so you need mechanical, and performance rights for a film and music clearance can be a sticky issue, which is why we have people we hire do that work that know the ins and outs of that. That also means for musicicans you want to get music supervisors in your camp.

da cat:

James:
Beethoven's music is in the public domain. But... the recordings of his music aren't. So, unless you're going to record the music yourself, you still need to get permission to use that specific recording.

Also the arrangements are copyrighted. so you need mechanical, and performance rights for a film and music clearance can be a sticky issue, which is why we have people we hire do that work that know the ins and outs of that.

Beethoven's music comes prearranged (see what I did there?) so you don't have to worry about them. In fact, all the scores are free online so if you're not using existing recordings, you can work right from the original score. I did this with a Brahms piano quartet on one of my early films.

But you're right in that if you find a piece of classical music in a film soundtrack, it may have been rearranged to fit the orchestration of the rest of the movie and this will be copyrighted, so you're better off looking for an old recording and trying to get the rights to that. It's highly unlikely that a "serious" recording of a classical piece will have been rearranged and classical labels don't hold on as tightly to recordings sitting in their back catalog.

You may find some talented orchestral musicians at your local college who would love a credit in a film.

I use Sonicpro..It's cheap, and use it in the right way it sounds like the real thing..

There are also Royalty Free music libraries that have classical and other music. Several films on which I have worked used classical pieces from Unique Tracks. The caveat with Unique Tracks, however, is that you need to do additional licensing and other paperwork if the use is for broadcast or the distribution would be more than 10,000 copies. I've auditioned many Royalty Free music libraries when working as a music supervisor and the problem always seems to be that the better the quality the more you pay and the less "freedom" you have with regards to usage.

Thanks for the great response everyone!! I will look into all your answers. Thanks again :)

My Space Music alone could help your search for a music composer, singer or band that could help score your film. It has been well-known in filmmaking and in cinema how much the permission of using someone's song could cost you. I am not sure how much Kurbrick's budget shelled out for the Ninth Symphony in A Clockwork Orange, but I am sure that it was not inexpensive.

Your best bet is to look for musicians and to talk to them, and let them know your style. Ennio Morricone had a special chemistry with Sergio Leone and John Williams has a special chemistry with Spielberg. You can certainly find someone to fit your style.
Good luck.