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52-789: Associated Production Music, LLC (commonly known as APM Music ) is an American production music company headquartered in Hollywood , California , a joint venture between Sony Music Publishing and Universal Music Publishing Group . APM Music's catalog contains more than 1,000,000 tracks and its libraries include KPM Music , Bruton, Sonoton , Cezame, Hard and Kosinus, among others. Music tracks from APM Music are used in TV shows, including SpongeBob SquarePants , The Ren & Stimpy Show , Rocko's Modern Life , NCIS , Chicago Fire , The Bear , Ted Lasso , A Christmas Story , Top Gear , The Simpsons , Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of

104-471: A Member State provides for the possibility of a legal person to be the original rightholder, then the duration of protection is in general the same as the copyright term for a personal copyright: i.e., for a literary or artistic work, 70 years from the death of the human author, or in the case of works of joint authorship, 70 years from the death of the last surviving author. If the natural author or authors are not identified, nor become known subsequently, then

156-610: A broad range of musical styles and genres, enabling producers and editors to find diverse types of music within the same library. Music libraries vary in size from a few hundred tracks up to many thousands. Production music is frequently used as theme or background music in radio, film and television. Well-known examples of British TV series with theme songs sourced from library catalogs include Ski Sunday ("Pop Looks Bach" by Sam Fonteyn), Dave Allen At Large ("Studio 69", sometimes known as "Blarney's Stoned", by Alan Hawkshaw ), Mastermind ("Approaching Menace" by Neil Richardson ),

208-409: A composer to sign a non-exclusive agreement allowing the artist to license the same piece to other libraries and clients with the same non-exclusive agreement. In other words, their intellectual property (their composition) can be licensed to multiple clients simultaneously, provided that they are not contractually bound by an exclusive agreement with another company. The non-exclusive library doesn't own

260-512: A cult following. Trunk wrote the first book on the subject, The Music Library , published in 2005, and in the following years many classic production music records were reissued . In the 2000s, library music also began to interest crate-digging hip hop producers. Some were interested, in part, because of the sample -clearance issues faced with commercial music releases while others, such as Madlib , have used it for its unique musical quality. Library music has been sampled by artists including

312-512: A joint venture between Zomba/Jive Production Music and EMI Production Music (which now are owned by Universal and Sony, respectively). Sam Trust, former head of ATV, founded APM as a joint-venture between what is now held by Universal (which owns the Kosinus and Bruton library) and Sony (which owns KPM). The company was primarily set up to distribute third-party music libraries. Its core business revolves around curation and guiding, where most music

364-552: A joint venture between the NFL and APM Music where music is composed for NFL-related media. The APM catalog includes recordings dating back to 1900, music representing 192 countries, and well-known tracks like " Heavy Action " (the theme for Monday Night Football ), "The Big One" (the theme for The People's Court ), and "Sweet Victory" (from the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Band Geeks"). APM Music came to be in 1983 as

416-413: A non-exclusive basis where it can be used in perpetuity without any usage reporting. The music is licensed by the customers according to an accepted license agreement, and they cannot sell it or license it to others. Because of advancing technology, it is becoming easier for independent musicians to set up their own shops through which they can license music. Non-exclusive production music libraries enable

468-410: A non-exhaustive list of factors relevant to determining whether a hired party is an employee). On the other hand, if the work is created by an independent contractor or freelancer, the work may be considered a work for hire only if all of the following conditions are met: In other words, mutual agreement that a work is a work for hire is not enough. Any agreement not meeting all of the above criteria

520-473: A result of a new interest in production music of the 1960s and 1970s, notably the 'beat' and electronica cues recorded for KPM and other labels, which have been widely sampled by DJs and record producers. In recent years, some of these British musicians have given public performances of their classic compositions under the group name KPM Allstars . As noted by library music historian Jonny Trunk , founder of Trunk Records , library music gained wider appeal in

572-516: A small amount of income from sales of physical CDs or online track downloads). Assuming that the music is broadcast, royalties are paid on the music, though it is the broadcaster who pays them via annual fees to the performing rights societies, not the producer who uses the music in their production. Some companies offer truly royalty-free music which is not registered with any performance rights organisation (also known as "royalty collection agencies"). These companies license music to their customers on

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624-454: A specially commissioned work could be prohibitively expensive. Similarly, licensing a well-known piece of popular music could cost anywhere from tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars, depending on the prominence of the performer(s). The first production music library was set up by De Wolfe Music in 1927 with the advent of sound in film. The company originally scored music for use in silent film . Production music libraries typically offer

676-417: A supplementary work, as a compilation, as an instructional text, as a test, as answer material for a test, or as an atlas, if the parties expressly agree in a written instrument signed by them that the work shall be considered a work made for hire. (17 U.S.C. § 101) The first situation applies only when the work's creator is an employee, not an independent contractor. The determination of whether an individual

728-545: A wide range of pre-1960s production music cues, some of which were composed by Emil Cadkin —including many pieces familiar from their use in earlier cartoons—which were chosen for their ironic, suspenseful, patriotic and humorous effect. Production music composers and session performers typically work anonymously and have rarely become known outside their professional circle. In recent years some veteran composer-performers in this field such as Alan Hawkshaw, John Cameron and Keith Mansfield have achieved attention and popularity as

780-514: A work is "made for hire", the employer, not the employee, is considered the legal author. In some countries, this is known as corporate authorship . The entity serving as an employer may be a corporation or other legal entity, an organization, or an individual. Accreditation has no impact on work for hire in the US. The actual creator may or may not be publicly credited for the work, and this credit does not affect its legal status. States that are party to

832-502: Is an employee for the purposes of the work made for hire doctrine is determined under the common law of agency, in which a court looks to a multitude of factors to determine whether an employer-employee relationship exists. In the Supreme Court case affirming that the common law of agency should be used to distinguish employees from independent contractors in the work for hire context, Community for Creative Non-Violence v. Reid ,

884-476: Is necessary to compel a commissioning party to fulfill its obligations. An author has the inalienable right to terminate a copyright transfer 35 years after agreeing to permanently relinquish the copyright. However, according to the US Copyright Office, Circular 9 "the termination provisions of the law do not apply to works made for hire." These restrictions, in both the work for hire doctrine and

936-481: Is not a valid work for hire agreement and all rights to the work will remain with the creator. Further, courts have held that the agreement must be negotiated, though not signed, before the work begins. Retroactive contractual designation as a work for hire is not permitted. When relying on agreements in which creators transfer rights to a hiring party ( copyright transfer agreement ), a hiring party often finds that it has only limited scope to alter, update, or transform

988-449: Is specifically conditioned to fill a market need. Instrumental to such curation is a dedicated team of expert Music Directors with whom clients consistently partner for creative collaboration. Some notable composers who have worked with APM Music include: Production music Unlike popular and classical music publishers, who typically own less than 50 percent of the copyright in a composition, production music libraries own all of

1040-404: Is the largest independent production music library. Other independent libraries include Vanacore Music, ALIBI Music , West One Music Group and TYTO Music . The business model of production music libraries is based on two income streams: This method of licensing combines the creation of original, custom music with a catalog of traditional "library" music under one license agreement. The goal

1092-430: Is to suit the needs of a budget conscious production but still provide that production with a unique and original show theme or audio brand. In this scenario, the show producer identifies those scenes they feel are most important to the success of the show, and those scenes are scored to picture by the composer. Those less important scenes will utilize the library also provided by the same publisher/composer. Upon completion,

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1144-643: The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works recognize separately copyrights and moral rights , with moral rights including the right of the actual creators to publicly identify themselves as such, and to maintain the integrity of their work. For example, Microsoft hired many programmers to develop the Windows operating system , which is credited simply to Microsoft Corporation. By contrast, Adobe Systems lists many of

1196-467: The 1990s when it was made public for the first time. In the 1980s, there were hundreds of library companies producing music with old records becoming redundant, especially with the advent of CDs. By the mid-1990s, these companies, many located in Soho , London, were dumping their old and obsolete vinyl records on local record and charity shops. Many record collectors became interested in the genre, and it gained

1248-513: The Avalanches , Jay-Z , Beyoncé , A$ AP Rocky , Flying Lotus , RZA , Swizz Beatz and Ghostface Killah . Some music producers, such as Frank Dukes , have also been inspired by the library music model and distribute some of their compositions as production music for sampling . The production music market is dominated by libraries affiliated with the large record and publishing companies: Universal Music Publishing Group library music has

1300-454: The Court listed some of these factors: In determining whether a hired party is an employee under the general common law of agency, we consider the hiring party's right to control the manner and means by which the product is accomplished. Among the other factors relevant to this inquiry are the skill required; the source of the instrumentalities and tools; the location of the work; the duration of

1352-550: The De Wolfe catalogue) as background or incidental music. American TV has also utilized production music, most notably with the themes for Monday Night Football (" Heavy Action " by Johnny Pearson ) and The People's Court ("The Big One" by Alan Tew ). Other notable examples are the Nickelodeon animated series The Ren and Stimpy Show and SpongeBob SquarePants , which use well-known classical music excerpts and

1404-459: The German copyright law, editions as the result of scholarly or scientific analysis have a copyright length of 25 years. Therefore, the editor of an urtext score of an opera by Beethoven would only receive 25 years of protection, but the arrangement of the full orchestral part for piano would receive a full 70 year protection – timed from the publication of the piano arrangement and not the death of

1456-532: The WFH designation. Work for hire is a statutorily defined term ( 17 U.S.C.   § 101 ) and so a work for hire is not created merely because parties to an agreement state that the work is a work for hire. It is an exception to the general rule that the person who actually creates a work is the legally-recognized author of that work. In the United States and certain other copyright jurisdictions, if

1508-1089: The Were-Rabbit , What We Do in the Shadows , Yellowjackets , All American , Loki , Poker Face , Only Murders in the Building , Reservation Dogs , Chopped , Family Guy , and Saturday Night Live ; films, including Oppenheimer , Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse , Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny , Once Upon a Time in Hollywood , No Time to Die , Nope , Boyhood , Minions , and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button ; and video games, including Skylanders: Imaginators , Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare , and Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands . They were also used in various Motorola phones as ringtones. NFL Films has

1560-415: The composer want to enter the piece into an exclusive agreement with a library or client, they would first need to remove that piece from all non-exclusive agreements. An advantage to using a non-exclusive library is the possible broad exposure through multiple outlets, and the ability of the artist to retain control. Conversely, if an artist sells their piece to an exclusive library they are paid upfront for

1612-555: The copyright code's definition of a work made for hire applies. To help determine who is an employee, the Supreme Court in CCNV v. Reid identified certain factors that characterize an "employer-employee" relationship as defined by agency law: In the United States a "work for hire" (published after 1978) receives copyright protection until 120 years after creation or 95 years after publication, whichever comes first. This differs from

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1664-421: The copyright term is the same as that for an anonymous or pseudonymous work, i.e. 70 years from publication for a literary or artistic work; or, if the work has not been published in that time, 70 years from creation. (Copyright durations for works created before 1993 may be subject to transitional arrangements.) An exception is for scientific or critical editions of works in the public domain. Per article 70 of

1716-407: The copyrights of their music. Thus, it can be licensed without the composer's permission, as is necessary in licensing music from normal publishers. This is because virtually all music created for music libraries is done on a work-for-hire basis. Production music is a convenient solution for media producers—they are able to license any piece of music in the library at a reasonable rate, whereas

1768-434: The custom music and the library tracks are licensed together under one production blanket, the ownership of the custom music remains with the publisher who produced it, and the publisher can (after a term of exclusivity negotiated between the parties) re-license the custom music as part of its library to recoup production costs. This allows the music composer/producer to quote lower rates because they are retaining ownership of

1820-404: The custom music, and will have the ability to make money with the same recording in a different production later on. It also allows the program or film producer to deliver content of very high quality, ensures that the most important scenes have the perfect music, and those less important scenes are addressed with an affordable solution. With the proliferation of music libraries in recent years and

1872-416: The developers of Photoshop in its credits. In both cases, the software is the property of the employing company. In both cases, the actual creators have moral rights. Similarly, newspapers routinely credit news articles written by their staff, and publishers credit the writers and illustrators who produce comic books featuring characters such as Batman or Spider-Man , but the publishers hold copyrights to

1924-526: The employee works remotely and is not directly supervised, or if the employee is paid entirely in equity without benefits or tax withholding. In 1999, a work for hire related amendment was inserted into the Satellite Home Viewer Improvement Act of 1999. It specified that sound recordings from musical artists could be categorized as works for hire from the recording studios. If a work is created by an employee, part 1 of

1976-429: The hiring party. However, if not a work made for hire, the author or the author's heirs may exercise their right to terminate the grant. Termination of a grant cannot be effective until 35 years after the execution of the grant or, if the grant covers the right of publication, no earlier than 40 years after the execution of the grant or 35 years after publication under the grant (whichever comes first). The application of

2028-460: The increase in competition, some smaller libraries have evolved the royalty-free music model. These libraries do not charge their customers for licensing the music. Instead, the customers purchase a CD or access to an electronic collection of music—priced typically between 50 and 300 dollars—whose content is licensed in perpetuity for them to synchronize as often as they wish. These libraries depend mainly on performance royalties for their income (with

2080-466: The law to materials such as lectures, textbooks, and academic articles produced by teachers is somewhat unclear. The near-universal practice in education has traditionally been to act on the assumption that they were not work for hire. Where start-up technology companies are concerned, some courts have considered that the traditional factors for finding that an author is an "employee" can be less important than in more-established companies, for example if

2132-528: The music libraries of Chappell Recording Music Library, Bruton, Atmosphere, and others such as Killer Tracks ; Concord Music owns Imagem Production Music, formerly Boosey & Hawkes Production Music, which includes the Cavendish, Abaco and Strip Sounds labels; Sony Music Publishing owns KPM Music and Extreme Music ; BMG Rights Management runs its own production music division; and Warner Chappell Music owns Warner/Chappell Production Music. Sonoton

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2184-643: The original theme for the BBC's Grandstand ("News Scoop" by Len Stevens), Crimewatch ("Rescue Helicopter" by John Cameron ) and Grange Hill ("Chicken Man" by Alan Hawkshaw). The Christmas hit single based on the character Mr Blobby uses excerpts from "Mr Jellybun" by Paul Shaw and David Rogers. Arthur Wood 's " Barwick Green ", written in 1924, still serves as the theme for long-running BBC Radio soap The Archers . TV comedy series such as The Benny Hill Show and Monty Python's Flying Circus also made extensive use of production library cues (many sourced from

2236-399: The other hand, a work for hire agreement is less desirable for creators than a copyright transfer agreement. Under work for hire, the commissioning party owns all rights from the very start even if the contract is breached, whereas under a transfer of rights, the creator can hold back the rights until all terms of the contract are fulfilled. Holding back the rights can be a forceful tool when it

2288-402: The piece but the artist typically sells the publishing rights, hence losing control of the piece and future licensing fees. Work for hire A work made for hire ( work for hire or WFH ), in copyright law in the United States , is a work that is subject to copyright and is created by employees as part of their job or some limited types of works for which all parties agree in writing to

2340-496: The publisher. The circumstances in which a work is considered a "work made for hire" is determined by the United States Copyright Act of 1976 as either (1) a work prepared by an employee within the scope of his or her employment; or (2) a work specially ordered or commissioned for use as a contribution to a collective work , as a part of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, as a translation, as

2392-441: The relationship between the parties; whether the hiring party has the right to assign additional projects to the hired party; the extent of the hired party's discretion over when and how long to work; the method of payment; the hired party's role in hiring and paying assistants; whether the hiring party is in business; the provision of employee benefits; and the tax treatment of the hired party. See Restatement § 220(2) (setting forth

2444-452: The right of termination, exist out of recognition that artists frequently face unequal bargaining power in their business dealings. Nonetheless, failure to secure a work-for-hire agreement by commissioning organizations can create difficult situations. One such example is the artist Raymond Kaskey 's 1985 statue Portlandia , an iconic symbol of the city of Portland, Oregon. Unlike most works of public art, Kaskey has put strong prohibitions on

2496-422: The rights outside of the licenses that are made by that library. Typically the library does not pay for the piece, and the artist doesn't get any payment until the piece is licensed at which point the library and the artist split the license fee equally. Libraries typically require the artist to rename the piece in effect creating a unique art work for the library to register with their PRO (BMI, ASCAP, SESAC). Should

2548-464: The standard U.S. copyright term, life of the author plus 70 years, because the "author" of a work for hire is often not an actual person, in which case the standard term would be unlimited, which is unconstitutional. Works published prior to 1978 have no differentiation in copyright term between works made for hire and works with recognized individual creators. In the European Union , even if

2600-555: The use of images of the statue, located atop the main entrance to the famous Portland Building . He sued Paramount Pictures for including shots of the statue in the Madonna motion picture Body of Evidence . As a result, it is nearly impossible to film portions of one of downtown Portland's most vibrant neighborhoods, and the city has lost out on the potential to create merchandise and souvenirs from one of its most iconic landmarks. An author can grant his or her copyright (if any) to

2652-539: The work. For example, a motion picture may hire dozens of creators of copyrightable works (e.g., music scores, scripts, sets, sound effects, costumes) any one of which would require repeated agreements with the creators if conditions for showing the film or creating derivatives of it changed. Failing to reach agreement with any one creator could prevent the showing of the film entirely. To avoid this scenario, producers of motion pictures and similar works require that all contributions by non-employees be works made for hire. On

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2704-439: The work. However, articles published in academic journals, or work produced by freelancers for magazines, are not generally works created as a work for hire, which is why it is common for the publisher to require the copyright owner, the author, to sign a copyright transfer , a short legal document transferring specific author copyrights to the publisher. In this case the authors retain those copyrights in their work not granted to

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