Members hollsa Posted December 7, 2007 Members Share Posted December 7, 2007 apologies if this has been covered previously! a bit of background to my question: craig is hosting an upcoming webinar on mastering and i'm teetering on signing up (if it's not too late, that is!). in doing a bit of legwork, i've been looking at some of the features in sf 9 (he has a great tutorial on removing hiss in the latest eq, btw). anyone care to share thoughts about what's involved with getting a license to use created mp3s for commercial gain? craig cautions in one article "that because the industry-standard Fraunhofer MP3 algorithm needs to be licensed, MP3 export capability may be optional at extra cost" and I noticed that sf vn. 9 does not provide the green light in that a license has to be purchased. specifically, i'm in the early stages of converting 4-track cassette recordings for a friend into a daw for cleanup and further editing, with the goal of posting them on myspace but also to make them available for purchase. i'd appreciate hearing any pearls of wisdom! (also, i can't believe i've been reading harmony-central's stuff for years now and this is my first post! gahh!) thanks much! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Cry Logic Posted December 7, 2007 Members Share Posted December 7, 2007 Why use Fraunhofer when you can use L.A.M.E. for free? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members spokenward Posted December 7, 2007 Members Share Posted December 7, 2007 Thomson handles the commercial licensing for mp3 and the derivative formats. They provide a FAQ over here. http://mp3licensing.com/help/#5 5) Do I need a license to distribute mp3, mp3PRO or mp3surround encoded content?Yes. A license is needed for commercial (i.e., revenue-generating) use of mp3/mp3PRO in broadcast systems (terrestrial, satellite, cable and/or other distribution channels), streaming applications (via Internet, intranets and/or other networks), other content distribution systems (pay-audio or audio-on-demand applications and the like) or for use of mp3/mp3PRO on physical media (compact discs, digital versatile discs, semiconductor chips, hard drives, memory cards and the like).However, no license is needed for private, non-commercial activities (e.g., home-entertainment, receiving broadcasts and creating a personal music library), not generating revenue or other consideration of any kind or for entities with associated annual gross revenue less than US$ 100 000.00. As always - IANAL, get some guidance if you feel that you have some exposure. The linked page has links to royalty rates. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members hollsa Posted December 7, 2007 Author Members Share Posted December 7, 2007 thanks fretwizz and spokenward, i'll look into both of the avenues you've offered. thanks for the running start. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members philbo Posted December 7, 2007 Members Share Posted December 7, 2007 Yep - LAME is the way to go. Not only free, but sounds the best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members spokenward Posted December 7, 2007 Members Share Posted December 7, 2007 My response was just to the "commercial use" claim. Fraunhofer / Thomson still claims they are owed a commercial royalty regardless of the codec that is used to encode. Their claim is based on the decode technology. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted December 7, 2007 Members Share Posted December 7, 2007 My response was just to the "commercial use" claim.Fraunhofer / Thomson still claims they are owed a commercial royalty regardless of the codec that is used to encode. Their claim is based on the decode technology. But -- unless I've missed something -- they've yet to try to defend that claim, though they keep making it. Correction/update welcomed if I'm behind the times or mistaken. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members hollsa Posted December 8, 2007 Author Members Share Posted December 8, 2007 interesting points. lots to check into. not much online on the mechanics of selling, but i googled 'online music distribution' and got back 5,530,000 hits. sos magazine has a good article here http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/feb04/articles/onlinemusic.htm (but it's 3 years old and doesn't mention mp3 license issues). i'm probably overthinking this. in the end the logical thing to do will probably be to find a distributor who will handle the licensing rights anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members spokenward Posted December 8, 2007 Members Share Posted December 8, 2007 But -- unless I've missed something -- they've yet to try to defend that claim, though they keep making it. Correction/update welcomed if I'm behind the times or mistaken. I think they are kind of doing business by choosing their customers. I don't believe that they have mounted a real defense. They define their customers based upon who is able to pay the royalty and who can be squeezed by a suit or a threat of one. I would believe that most entities don't pay. The marketing plan is basically a shakedown. If you have something to lose, you pay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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