To say video games are big business would be an understatement. After all, according to estimates, the global market for video games in 2019 was more than $151 billion and growing at Compound Annual Growth Rate of nearly 13%. While the action and the animation are usually the most-talked-about points in any game review, all gamers will agree that music is integral to their user experience and the quality of the music can be a very important part of the attraction of playing a game. While older readers will remember the mesmerizing sounds of Super Mario, young gamers will swear by the thrilling soundtracks of FIFA or Road Rash.
However, it was with the entry of CDs into the music and gaming industries that sparked off an enduring love-hate relationship between the gaming and the music industries. Not only have both these industries come to depend on each other for revenues but also tend to get into tussles over licensing and copyright infringement. Music licensing has become a very important and complex issue for the gaming industry, including online roulette, because not only does the gaming industry rack up billions of dollars in sales every year but also it represents a very good opportunity for bands and artists to become popular besides being a lucrative income stream for music companies and private musicians.
Game Music Licensing – More Complicated Than Is Assumed
When game developers want to include music tracks in their games, they need to work out a licensing arrangement. Since the legal implications can be wide and far-reaching, these contracts are usually very complicated. They need to not only specify the duration of the licensing agreement to whether it will cover releases in the future. Also, the copyright issues need to be distinctly defined as there are different copyrights to be taken care of – one in the song and the other in the recording, which means that when a song recording is used in the game, rights to both the song as well as the recording need to be obtained. Another complication that has to be very frequently dealt with is that songs are very often co-owned, which means that each of the co-owners has to give their permission separately to the game company and things can fall through if a co-owner refuses the permission.
Music Licensing for Online Games – A Different Dimension
If a game developer uses a music track for which he has obtained the necessary rights, these permissions will generally be valid for distribution of the game on physical media like CDs and cartridges. If the same game is being made available online, the permission for copying the music track will hold well, however, a separate license for the “communicating” will be required. This is because, in the music industry, different licenses are issued for these two things. Again, game companies will need to reckon with multiple ownership issues as well as the difference in licensing rules in different countries where the game is being made accessible online.
Enter the Music Supervisor
With so many legal complications that game companies are not equipped to handle, the music licensing legalities are best handled by a special breed of people called music supervisors. They are specialized lawyers with domain expertise on various aspects of music licensing that both large companies, as well as small game developers prefer to use to iron out all the issues regarding the use of music tracks in their games. Mistakes made by inexperienced game developers can easily result in expensive lawsuits while the sales of the game are halted losing valuable revenue earning opportunities.
Conclusion
With the large number of factors to be considered for buying the music rights, music supervisors enter into negotiations with music companies well in advance of the game launch. As may be imagined, the cost of the music rights not only varies with the status of the artist or band involved but also the opportunity for music companies to use the games to promote the music that may be being scheduled for release. The overall financial outlay of the game company also depends on the number of tracks involved and can run into millions of dollars. Smaller developers can avoid this kind of an investment by accessing library music or use music for which the copyrights have expired or are nearing expiry. However, copyright infringement, whether inadvertent or deliberate can be very expensive in compensation and legal costs.
