Hey, my name is Matt Johnson.
And if you film weddings for any length of time,
you are inevitably going to run into a couple
that has a specific song that they want you to use in their video.
Maybe it's their song that they played whenever they fell in love,
or it's their first dance song, etc.
But without fail, this song is likely going to be a top
40 song, meaning that
it is an incredibly popular song that is oftentimes played on the radio
and most importantly of all, this song is not typically going
to be available on a traditional music licensing site.
So in this video I'm going to share with you some lesser
known about sites that you can use to actually license
these very popular songs that you commonly hear on the radio
so you can easily use them in your wedding films legally
and make your couples happy to save you time.
I've actually linked to all of these sites down below.
And also before we get started, for the sake of ethics, I want you to know
that none of these sites that we're going to be talking about
have paid me or sponsored this video in any way.
They don't even know that I'm making it, but I am an affiliate member
for some of these sites.
So if you do sign up for them, I may get a kickback
starting off the first site that I recommend that you check out
if you're looking for top 40 songs that are incredibly popular
is going to be a site called It Tracks Music.
Tracks Music has a truly massive selection of Top 40 songs from artists
like Ed Sheeran, James Blind, Charlie Puth, Michael Bublé, etc.
And they offer a very simple pay per use license,
meaning that if you have a couple that is insisting, oh my gosh,
I really want you to use Perfect by Ed Sheeran, you can license it
for only 79 bucks and use that song in their wedding film without worry.
It's a pretty great deal, but there are a few caveats that you need to be aware of.
First, you cannot monetize your videos on YouTube
if you use a song from tracks music.
Unfortunately, that is not allowed.
So if you're in the YouTube partner program,
you are not going to be able to make money from ads if you use one of these songs.
Also tracks.
Music is really focused on licensing music to videographers in the United States,
meaning that they really only want you to use this music for weddings
and other quote unquote life events, as they call them.
So birthday parties, quinceaneras, and any other event
like that and their license only covers you.
If you are based in the United States.
So if you live in another country and want to license one of these songs,
unfortunately you can't use Trax music.
Like I said though,
if you have a couple that is demanding that you use one of these songs
and they're wanting to pay you a lot of money to film their wedding,
I think the price for Track's music makes it worth it.
Moving on to the next website that I recommend
you check for Top 40 music is actually going to be closely related to
tracks music, and that site is called Firefly.
The reason Firefly is so closely related to tracks
is that they're actually owned by the same company.
But the difference is that whereas tracks, music
requires you to pay per song, the you want to use.
Firefly offers a subscription option for $299 per year
that allows you to download unlimited music from them.
To be clear, not all of these songs available on tracks
music are also available on Firefly with a subscription.
But Firefly does have some great options, like the Afters
and Dave Barns to name a few available with their subscription.
In addition, because tracks music and Firefly are essentially
the same company, if you sign up for a Firefly subscription,
you also get a discount on any songs that you can license from tracks music
instead of needing to pay $79 per song with tracks.
If you have a subscription to Firefly,
you'll need to pay $39 to license a song from Trax.
So here's what I would do.
As you are looking for Top 40 music, I would first check
tracks, music and license from them, especially if you do not find yourself
often using very popular music like this.
But if you commonly find yourself getting couples that want top 40 music,
then I would look into signing up for Firefly and using the discount from tracks
music as well to save some money.
Lastly, the final music licensing site that I recommend
that you check out for popular Top 40 music has arguably the weirdest name,
and if you thought Firefly was weird, you haven't seen anything yet
because this next website is called Licht.
That's Eli CKD
with the meaning I think being closely related to the term for a series of notes
used in a song and not something that you do with your tongue.
But regardless, it does make me feel a little uncomfortable
to say the name of this website.
My feeling about the name aside,
Licht does offer a ton of top 40 tracks for you to be able to license,
and while the majority of Lic's marketing is targeted
toward YouTubers and influencers, they do have a helpful FGCU page
that says, Yes, you can use this music for wedding films as well.
So if you were looking for music from Imagine Dragons, Migos, Charlie Puth,
Papa Roach dang, that takes me back to high school.
My point is that Licht has a ton of options
and they claim that they have over 1 million tracks available for license.
Now, unlike tracks, music and Firefly, Licht bases
their pricing on the amount of YouTube views your videos typically get
to figure out how much you're going to have to pay to license a song
you can enter your YouTube channel info on Links website
and they will then analyze the average views.
The last 50 videos have you've uploaded.
If you're getting less than 50,000 views on average per video,
congratulations, you are only going to have to pay $8 for one of these songs.
But if you're a very popular wedding film YouTuber and you are getting hundreds
of thousands of views per video, of course this can get more expensive.
One nice plus, though, is that Licht will allow you
to monetize your videos using music that you license from them.
So if you are in the YouTube partner program
and you want to make some extra money, this is a great way to do it.
And there you have it.
If you need popular of Top 40 music to use in your wedding films
and you do not want to have to deal with the headache
that usually comes from licensing popular music tracks.
Music.
Firefly and Licht are all great places that I would check to license music.
Lastly, before you go, I have one more thing for you.
If you film weddings and use YouTube, which I assume
that you do, considering that you're watching me on YouTube right now,
I have created a guide called YouTube Tips for Wedding Filmmakers.
It's completely free, and it will walk you through
some practical things that you can do to dramatically increase
the amount of views, likes and bookings you get from couples on YouTube.
You can download this guide for free at the link done well.
Thanks so much for watching and have a great day.
Maybe it's an Ed
Sheeran song or a michael Bublé song or Christina Perry
I'll Love You for a thousand year.
I don't sound like her at all, but that's great.
Regardless, this, of course, leaves you scrambling because you're trying
to make this couple happy.
But at the same time, you don't want to get sued for using a song illegally.
So you start looking into licensing this track and maybe email
the artists record label or management only to either never get a reply,
or if they do reply they tell you, Of course,
we would love to license this track to you for $20,000.
Also, you can only use it for six months.
That sucks.
And this is also one of the big reasons that I never recommend that you let
your couples choose which songs they get to use in their wedding films.
The music should always be your decision.
But that said, I realize that sometimes a couple is super insistent
that you use the track that they love, and if you won't do it,
they're going to find a videographer
that will be cool with breaking the law and using an unlicensed track.
And you're going to miss out on a booking and some money because of it.
And don't worry, you aren't going to need to reach out to their management
or record label or deal with crazy $20,000
fees, either.
What's also great about
Firefly is they offer more than just a top 40 tracks with your license.
They have over 10,000 songs available for license with your subscription,
and there's a lot of great tracks from indie artists as well.
In addition,
they also have a video player service that you can use
to host your wedding films and other videos,
and they say that you will not need
to worry about your video being taken down due to copyright claims.
So that's pretty cool to.