APM Music Deal Gives Producers Extraordinary Online Access to Premiere
Film and Television Music Library; Current Assumes Costs
San Francisco (September 14, 2006) – Providing filmmakers an unprecedented new tool in
creating short-form content that viscerally connects with young audiences, Current TV has
signed a multi-year agreement with APM Music, the largest and most diverse provider of music
for use in film, television, radio, and new media productions. APM and Current TV are two of
the first companies to empower independent producers by giving them unfettered access to the
largest music library in the industry. Current will pay for all associated costs, which include
synch and master use fees for use on Current’s broadcast network and website.
For the first time, Current’s video producers – what the network calls its viewer created content
(VC2) community – will have access to over 200,000 professional recordings through a cobranded version of APM Music’s website, accessible through Current’s online studio
(www.current.tv). Producers can score their own short-form “pods” with music that may be
easily downloaded and searched by a deep array of styles and categories, using proprietary music search functionality developed by APM Music in conjunction Los Angeles-based Globalist.net, which allows content creators to easily find and audition recordings based on guided and textbased descriptive queries.
“Throughout the history of media, there was a great ‘sound barrier.’ The best stuff was reserved
for the media elite, and everyone else got what was left over. Today, APM and Current have torn
down that barrier. It’s another step in our mission to democratize media,” stated David Neuman,
president of programming for Current TV.
Recent productions featuring APM Music’s recordings include the major motion picture releases
Superman Returns, Cars and Nacho Libre, theatrical film trailers for The Devil Wears Prada, XMen 3 and Monster House, the television shows “The Simpsons,” “Nip/Tuck” and “The Daily
Show” and the videogame titles The Godfather, Grand Theft Auto and NBA Live 07.
“This arrangement, the first of its kind, makes the vast APM Music library available to the
creators of consumer generated media, while recognizing the rights of the respective copyright
owners,” stated APM Music President Adam Taylor. “This will be an important model moving
forward for all consumer generated media sites.”
Prior to this offering, clearing rights for music used in a film required several arduous steps.
Producers usually have to conduct extensive research to find who held the publishing rights (the
intellectual property rights around the actual composition) and the master recording rights (the
rights to use the composition recording), and then negotiate permission to use the music in
synchronization with a visual image. Each rights holder typically needs to be compensated, and
failure to do so can result in copyright infringement.
The sheer scope and complexity of the process is a barrier to most independent producers, many
of whom are not even aware that such permissions need to be obtained. The arrangement
between APM and Current TV not only simplifies the music clearance process, it also goes a
long way towards educating producers about their legal responsibilities when using music
created and recorded by someone else.
About APM Music
APM Music, a joint venture of EMI Music Publishing (the world’s largest music publisher) and
BMG Music Publishing (a division of Bertelsmann AG) provides the United States and Canada
with exclusive access to over 23 different music libraries specifically created for use in film,
television, radio, recording, and new media. APM Music is the largest and most diverse
collection of original music available to entertainment and media producers. For more
information about APM’s production music library as well as its custom music services, please
visit: http://www.ipressroom.com/pr/apm/info/news.asp
About Current TV
Current TV, which launched August 1, 2005, is the first national network created by, for and
with an 18-34 year-old audience. The network shows young adults what’s going on in their
world, in their voice. Current is also the first network in history whose programming is supplied
in part by the very audience who watches it. It has developed the television industry’s leading
model of “viewer created content” (VC2), which comprises roughly one-third of Current’s on-air
broadcast, and allows the audience to submit short-form, nonfiction video “pods,” “viewer
created ads” (V-CAMs), and mobile video. Its award-winning programming ranges from the
hottest trends in technology, fashion, music and videogames, to pressing issues such as the
environment, relationships, parenting, finance, politics and spirituality. Current is available in 30million U.S. homes via Comcast (channel 107 nationwide), Time Warner Cable, and DirecTV
(channel 366 nationwide). For more information, please visit the website: www.current.tv.
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This is amazing news. I have been watching current for a very long time, and I am glad to see the wide variety of good footage will be able to meet with a wide variety of great non-diagetic sound. I have kept my eye on current as a new innovative market for documentary work, and I think steps like these are making it a bigger deal. Lets just hope that more music franchises become as generous as APM. I think a lot of us have great potential of doing some kickass stories and seeing them broadcasted on current in our near futures.
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