The short answer? Probably “no”. But let’s dive into an important question: what do you do if you want to include a copyrighted song in your wedding video?
Before we look into options, let’s quickly talk about copyright laws.
In short, copyright protects original work like songs, which means that the songwriter, performer, or music publisher owns them. Using a copyrighted song without permission is illegal and can result in big fines that can vary between $40,000 and $150,000 per song. Even if you want to use a song for something personal, like your wedding video, the law doesn’t make a distinction between personal and commercial use.
So, how do you legally use a copyrighted song?
The answer is simple: you need a music license. For a wedding video, you’ll usually need a “sync” license, which allows you to pair the music with video. To get one, you’ll need to contact the copyright holder or their representative. For example, if you want a song by Taylor Swift or Beyoncé, you can expect to pay over $10,000 for the license per song.
Licensing can be a hassle and pretty expensive, especially for big-name songs.
A great alternative is royalty-free music and there are tons of websites that offer high-quality tracks already licensed for projects like wedding videos. Just to clarify, we don’t have access to big-name artists, but we do use music platforms with copyright cleared music and we pay a yearly fee to access these libraries. It might not be your favorite hits, but the right track can still bring out the emotions and make your video feel amazing.