Fans of this site and Hot Dog Stories know I do a lot of video. Recently, I began experimenting with soundtracks. I used The Who's Baba O'Reilly in a story at Luke's Coney Island in St. Petersburg. I used Chariots of Fire by Vangelis and The Godfather Waltz by Nino Rota in the Dogfather's Chili Dog Eating Contest 2012. They were all short sound clips that added to the video.
Youtube has a thing about using music that you don't have rights to- they don't always allow you to do it. "Always" is the key phrase here. Many times using music is allowed, you just can't put ads on your videos. I am OK with that. I don't make much on the ads on videos and using recognizable music makes the segments a bit more fun. Youtube inserts a link on the video page and sells an MP3 of whatever music is used. It's a win-win in my book.
I recently made a video montage for my National Hot Dog Month Tour using O Fortuna a medieval poem set to music by the German composer Carl Orff in 1936. It is the most played piece of classical music in the past 75 years and has a near ubiquitous presence in movies, television, and commercials where epic music is required. It is also all over Youtube- that's where I got the sound clip.
Unfortunately, I downloaded a version that appeared on a recording from EMI Music, one of the world’s leading music companies and home to some of the most successful and best known recording artists. Back in the day, The Sex Pistols recorded a goof on EMI after being dropped by the company.
But I digress. I was talking about National Hot Dog Month and the epic video I made to promote funding for the film I intend to make. Apparently I downloaded a version produced by EMI. They blocked the video. Now I don't dispute their right to do that, I would probably do the same, especially if I reworked a 77 year old musical rendition of a medieval poem. I know the music industry's argument on this, but I sincerely doubt my using 45 seconds of O Fortuna in a hot dog video is going to bring down EMI.
Here's the original video:
If you can see it, great! Most will see a "Content Blocked" warning. Bummer. So I went and found a creative commons version by the MIT Concert Choir who allows the use of their version with attribution. That was easy! So the epic can now be seen by all. It's the featured video on Hot Dog Stories and on my IndieGoGo National Hot Dog Month 2012 funding site. So THANK YOU MIT Concert Choir! And screw EMI!
Here's the video:
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