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TheBuzz Erika Engle |
Learning not to burn
could be music to
local artists’ earsThe Na Leo CD "Love Is ..." released in May comes with licensing rights to use the music in videos at no extra charge.
It also comes with an education on copyright infringement.
The concept of selling a limited license along with the CD came through brainstorming with Na Leo, said Jon de Mello, chief executive officer of The Mountain Apple Company.
"I don't know of anybody else who's done this," he said.
Band member Nalani Choy said the concept sprung from an "if you can't beat 'em join 'em" attitude.
"It really comes from the last couple years," Choy said. "People have been burning CDs and using music in an unauthorized manner."
People think if they buy a CD they can do anything they want with it, Choy said.
"The only thing you can do with that one CD is to burn it for your own use. But if you burn it and give a copy to someone else that's illegal. If you burn it and sell it, it's definitely illegal," she said.
It is also unlawful to record music on videos without permission from the composer and the performer, for either personal or commercial use, according to Suzi Mechler, vice president of Mountain Apple.
"Any time you take a piece of intellectual property for synching it to a video you are legally required to license it," she said.
Gerald Kato, associate professor of journalism at the University of Hawaii, concurs.
He described a hypothetical situation where he uses an Eminem song as background for a video about himself for his own enjoyment.
"If I do that without clearing the copyright it would clearly be an infringement ... but I don't think it will rise to the level where the copyright holder is going to pursue enforcement or legal action," he said.
The CD contains 11 of Na Leo's best-known love songs and two additional instrumental recordings of "The Rest of Your Life" and "Saving Forever." That the romantic CD comes with the limited license makes it a selling point for wedding planners, Mechler said.
"They can purchase the CD, one per customer, and put it together as part of a video package," she said.
Aloha Wedding Planners Inc. instructs clients to provide their own music for videos, "because we don't have any of the licensing rights," said President Susan O'Donnell.
"I think Mountain Apple's idea is terrific," she said, noting that the company could make wide use of the tactic to promote Hawaiian music.
Laws governing the use of music have always been in place, "but people didn't have the physical capability and technology to use it. The laws are still in effect but because people have access to computers, it has become a big problem in our industry," Choy said.
People think they're just one person copying a song or two, "but in Hawaii it seriously hurts a lot of little companies."
Such as NLP Music Inc., Na Leo's label.
The purchase price of a CD is split between the retailer; distributor, such as Mountain Apple; the record label; the composers; and the performers.
"With all the ripping that's going on, with copyright infringement a part of our every day lives, we need to be more careful about this," de Mello said. "Otherwise the people that make this beautiful stuff aren't going to make it for us anymore because it will become too expensive because they're getting ripped."
There is no exact measure of the cost to the industry, said de Mello, who praises the new dollar-a-holler downloads which are gaining in popularity.
"It's very important for the people in the food chain, from the artist to the brick and mortar retailer to make this (money) all the way up," de Mello said. "Everybody gets about the same amount of money."
The electronic world of MP3 users should also pay the food chain, de Mello said.
The 99-cent-per-song fee is cut up differently than the way a record company would do it, which de Mello says is a reflection of the changes taking place in the whole entertainment industry.
International record companies are losing money, too, but the impact is far greater on the much smaller Hawaii recording industry, said Choy.
"It's really a business that's built on numbers. When you're not doing the kind of numbers we used to do because of CD burning ... the little labels like us are more affected. That's the one thing I'd like to get across to people."
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin.
Call 529-4302, fax 529-4750 or write to Erika Engle,
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210,
Honolulu, HI 96813. She can also be reached
at: eengle@starbulletin.com