Research: Song Choice & Permission

This blog contains the song choice and permission that was done for the Music Video component 3 project. This was done by me (Tisha)

Song Choice

As a team, we have decided on the song pov by Ariana Grande. I have created a blog explaining how we decided on the song pov by Ariana Grande. I will re-explained why we choose the song here again. 

As Ariana Grande is very famous in the Pop genre culture, we believe that it will be easier to create music video which follows the song genre conventions being the song has a mix of Pop and R&B genre conventions. 

Below it shows the song that we are choosing

To choose the right song that we want to do, my team and I listed out some pros and cons that help in choosing the song. 

Pros	Cons
The song was released in 2021, meeting the under-5-year requirement.	The song doesn’t have a music video, which is hard to visualize inspiration that would fit the song.
Without a music video, we have more creative freedom instead of following existing conventions.	With the video being only a lyric/performance video, it limits us to understand what narrative fits in this song.
The song fits within the R&B genre but it also has pop conventions, this gives a more flexible style.	As the song has two genres (R&B and pop) it means we need to combine them both which can be challenging.
We are more familiar with pop conventions, so creating ideas will be easier to do.	The song is more in the subtle tone which makes it more challenging to create visually engaging content without repetition.
As the song contains emotional lyrics, this helps in creating a strong narrative. Allowing us to create a deeper audience engagement.

After understanding the pros and cons, we started planning on the music video. As our music video will be published on Youtube and Instagram, we need to follow their regulation which includes copyright. 

What is Copyright? 

Copyright  that is explained in oxford learners dictionaries means that it is being not allowed to be copied without permission. This would mean that, in order to use the song by Ariana Grande we will need to gain permission. 

Due to needing permission, I decided to find out who owns the song Ariana Grande and if we were to ask permission how would the process be. Which after researching, the song is own by Republic Records which is a division of Universal Music. 

Universal Music 

Universal Music Group is a global music company that owns and manage several songs from artists and providing permission in using the song in media. As it is a large company, in order for people to ask for permission they have made it much more easier which is by using a licensing form system. 

Universal Music Group has 2 different form system they use, which include publishing rights and masters rights. This was a new term for me, which I decided to search what it means from this website: 

https://soundcharts.com/en/blog/master-rights-vs-publishing-rights

• Publishing Rights ━ it refers to how a permission is needed to use the songs lyric's and melody. 

• Masters Rights ━ it refers to gaining a permission in using the original recording of the song. 

As this project component 3 being a music video, my music video consist lip syncing of the lyric with still using the original recording of the song. This means that in order to use it for this project, I will need to gain both of the rights. The website interface of both the Masters Rights and Publishing rights are shown below. Which both include almost similar things to add, includes; company name, project / media type, duration of the license, and many more. 

Masters Rights Form & Publishing Rights form

This project is a non-commercial school production, so we decided not to complete the official licensing forms to request permission for using pov by Ariana Grande. However, we understand that permission would normally be obtained through Universal Music Group, demonstrating our awareness of copyright regulations and potential platform restrictions, such as those on YouTube.

Reflection: We had to understand the pros and cons of the song which allowed us to better plan what can be put in the music video based on the resources that we have. We chose this song specifically by analysing both the advantages and disadvantages. The song had emotional lyics without an existing music video and fit both R&B and pop, which allowed us to get creative and develop a unique concept. 

In addition, I learned that asking for permission to use the song is a crucial part of the production process. As platforms like YouTube have strict copyright policies, it is important to ensure that we have the right to use the audio to avoid issues, such as the video being taken down or muted. This made me more aware of the legal and ethical responsibilities involved in media production.