Abstract
It is no secret that making a living as a musician is not as lucrative of a proposition as it was a generation ago. For this reason, musicians have had to diversify their sources of income. Placement of a song in advertisements, film, or television programs have become an integral part of many successful musician’s careers, but far too many independent artists still find these opportunities out of reach. This disparity is often the result of technical deficiencies in the audio files submitted for consideration, making it difficult to identify and contact the requisite rights holders in order to negotiate a sync license. This article proposes that the consistent application of uniform metadata to audio files could solve this problem and argues that the United State Copyright Office should be empowered by Congress to issue metadata identifiers as a part of the copyright registration process for audio files. Such a change to the registration process would have the beneficial effects of ensuring a reliable method of rights holder authentication and lay down critical legal infrastructure which would promote the formation of a publicly searchable database of copyrighted songs, both developments will make it easier for those looking to license songs for audiovisual works from musicians to get in touch the proper parties in order to facilitate these transactions.
Recommended Citation
Michael Reed,
Harmonizing the Liner Notes: How the USCO’s Adoption of Metadata Standards Will Improve the Efficiency of Licensing Agreements for Audiovisual Works,
18
Chi.-Kent J. Intell. Prop.
23
(2019).
Available at:
https://scholarship.kentlaw.iit.edu/ckjip/vol18/iss1/2