NOVEMBER, 2004
UNIQUETRACKS PRODUCTION MUSIC Vol. 1 No. 6

November 30, 2004 ISSN 1553-7765 Circulation: 4305

Volume 1 No. 6
November, 2004
Published by UniqueTracks Production Music
John Bickerton - Creative Director

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>> Featured Article: Stock Media Licensing Explained
>> Some Stock Photo and Footage Companies that I use.

>> Quick Poll: What MP3 player do you use?

Pub Note: I'm about one week late getting our newsletter out this month. We're swamped with new CD releases - about 23 of them! Hopefully we'll have all the new music available by early January.

Featured Article:
Stock Media Licensing Explained

Stock media companies provide ready-made media content that can be legally added to your work in a matter of minutes

Off-the-Shelf Solutions - Stock Media includes photographs, illustrations video footage, music recordings, Flash animations, web site templates, PowerPoint backgrounds and clipart.

Many stock companies refer to themselves as libraries because, like a library,  they carry a broad array of materials that tries to satisfy a wide range of tastes and needs.

Licensed Not Sold - With stock media, what you are really buying is a license that gives you permission to use the material you're interested in.

Once you have a license you don't in fact own the material. It is still owned by the stock company. They remain the copyright holders. Your license lets you legally use the material in your production.

There are two main types of stock licenses.

1. Rights Managed

The price of a rights managed license depends on how you wish to use the media you're interested in.

For instance, is it going to be used in a national advertising campaign or is it for your company brochure? Is it being considered for a PowerPoint presentation or is it going to be used in a motion picture? Each usage has a different price.

A rights managed license also takes into consideration how long you will use the media. Periods usually range from 3 months to several years.

If you are going to include the material in a product, your license will be based on how many pieces you plan to manufacture.

With a right managed license, at the end of the license period, you no longer have permission to use the media. Your relationship with the company ends (unless you extend your license).

2. Royalty Free

Royalty free means you are not charged a fee for each separate commercial use of the media. You can use the material as often as you’d like for as long as you’d like. You pay an initial fee for the license and are then free and clear of any further licensing restraints.

A rights managed license is more expensive Why? Because when you license, for instance, a rights managed photo, the stock company removes the photo from circulation for the period of your license.  No one else can use it.

This is the main advantage a rights-managed license provides.  It protects against simultaneous use - so your competitor won't be using the same photo as you to launch their ad campaign. When you use royalty free content, there is no such protection.  The same photo or music track may be being used by hundreds of companies at the same time.

The question to ask is…is this important to me?  Do I care if another company is using this image or this particular web template?  If you do, then you will want to pursue a rights managed solution.   If, on the other hand, it really doesn't matter to you, then you'll want to take a serious look at royalty free media because it is so much cheaper.

Stock by any other name - Rights managed recordings are known as "needle-drops" in the stock music world. This name came from the act of actually lowering a phonograph needle onto a record to place the music in a production. Now with compact discs, they've started calling it "laser-drop". I find "rights managed" to be a much better description.

Royalty free is sometimes called "buy out". I've also seen it referred to as "copyright-free" but this is really an error. The material is in fact fully copyrighted by the stock media company. UniqueTracks is a royalty free stock music company.

There are hundreds of stock image companies. The Stock Photo Deskbook is a comprehensive listing that also includes licensing details.


Stock Photo Smart

I also recommend Stock Photo Smart, a great primer on using stock photography and how to save time while searching the libraries for the best photos.

Other Stock Media Companies

A Luna Blue is a stock footage company that I have used for

product demos and have had great success with. Check out these pages for great background motions for your video or flash project…

Street Lights
Picture Start
TV Noise
Oceanic
Flag Rays

 

Make your project great with photos from Corbis.Corbis Stock Media

Corbis licenses rights managed and royalty free photos, footage and illustrations. They provide advertisers, editors, publishers, and filmmakers, with a single stock source.

Their best deal, especially if you are somewhat new to the world of stock media, is their subscription-based license that lets you pay-as-you-go.

Royalty-Free Photos By Subscription

Another valuable subscription-based stock photo company is photos.com. You can join for 1 month, 2 months, 6 months, etc. and have unlimited access to their photo library for the period of your subscription. High Quality stuff.

Underscore Quick Poll

I have become smitten with my MP3 player! I now find that almost all of my music listening is done through my MP3 player - this from a guy who grew up listening to LPs - which I have tons of - and still love.

If you have an MP3 player, let us know which one you are currently using (and because this is a poll I won't yet reveal which one I have).

What MP3 Player do you use?
Please let us know by voting in our poll ---> click here.


iPod 20 GB

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Published by John Bickerton
Creative Director, UniqueTracks.com
(c) copyright 2004 UniqueTracks.com
PO Box 150414, Van Brunt Station
Brooklyn, New York 11215
USA

 

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The results of last month's poll, "Which Video Editing Software do you use?" revealed a clear winner - Adobe Premiere with about 30% of the votes

Adobe Premiere
Adobe Premiere Pro is the flagship digital video editor from Adobe.

Premiere Elements
Premiere Elements is a stripped down version of Premiere for the home video market (still pretty powerful - similar to iMovie in design).

The second most popular digital editor in our poll was Apple's Final Cut with about 25% of the vote.

Final Cut Pro
Final Cut Pro is Apple's incredibly powerful DV editor. It was designed to compete with Avid's products but is priced thousands less (Avid received zero votes in our poll)

Final Cut Express
Final Cut Express is an entry level version of Final Cut Pro - a great way to start with DV editing.

Other DV editors receiving votes in the poll were Pinnacle Systems Studio 8 (15%), Sony Vegas Video 5 (15%) and Roxio Videowave (10%)

If you haven't already voted, you can still vote for your favorite digital video editor here

Please remember to vote in this month's new poll - "Which MP3 player do you use?"

More DV Resources


Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5 Studio Techniques

This approachable, volume gets readers beyond the basics. Offering in-depth explanations guaranteed to make the knowledge stick and in an easygoing style that makes the book fun to read.


Advanced Editing and Finishing Techniques in Final Cut Pro 4
Assuming a familiarity with Final Cut's interface and the fundamentals of film post-production, this book provides instruction on advanced editing and finishing techniques, editing, trimming, color correction, as well as the use of the bundled software Soundtrack and LiveType.


The Secrets of Final Cut Pro CD
Secrets" is an advanced series designed for Final Cut Pro users who want to take their skills to a whole new level and learn a bunch of very cool techniques.


Apple Pro Training Series Final Cut Express
The only Apple-certified source for Final Cut Express 2 training. Apple's feature-rich DV editing software is designed for the complete beginner, the aspiring filmmaker, the educator and the experienced DV editor alike.