"Convict Me" is suspected of stealing 16mins songs

Poster of "Convict Me"

The soundtrack is no less important to the film than the artist, but its commercial value has been consciously or unconsciously ignored by the filmmakers. Recently, the news of the film "Convict Me" ending song stealing 16mins songs has exploded in the music industry. Liu Zhao, the founder of Warhorse Times, to which the band belongs yesterday, told the Chengdu Business Daily reporter, "The film producer has not contacted the band and the copyright owner, which is a kind of disrespect for music and our creators, and we are very angry." "At present, War Horse Times has issued a lawyer's letter to the film producer. Sun Liang, the director of "Convict Me", told reporters that the film and the music company have signed a settlement agreement.

In fact, this kind of infringement incident has caught a lot in the music industry. The Chengdu Business Daily reporter conducted an investigation of film producers, musicians, and record companies, and found that the copyright awareness of film producers still needs to be strengthened, especially when the popularity of the musician is small and the film producer has important links to invest, many cooperation that should be bright and upright has become a "confused account".

▼ Typical events

"Convict Me" is suspected of misappropriating band songs

A few days ago, there was a clash between "Movie" and "Music Company": the movie "Convict Me" used a song from Warhorse Times' new album "Demon King" released in 2015, "Their Future" (English name: "They Will"), which lasted more than 5 minutes, but neither 16mins nor Warmas Time said that no one had contacted them.

"At the beginning, fans told us that your music was used in the movie "Convict Me", which is awesome. We're still confused, there's no such thing. The next day, we went to the movie theater and recorded the ending video, which was sure to be our song. At that time, I also lamented that this song is really suitable for the ending song, as if it is tailor-made music, why secretly use it? Si Yu, lead singer of the 16mins band, told reporters.

After contacting the film producers, War Horse Times hopes to have a public apology and corresponding compensation, but this is still under negotiation. The film's director Sun Liang told the Chengdu Business Daily reporter: "This has nothing to do with the director, what I can tell you is that the filmmakers and their company have signed a settlement agreement, and I have read their agreements and memorandums." ”

▼ Anger in the circle

Similar infringements have become the norm

Han Hong told reporters that the "That Sea" he created appeared in two TV series at the same time, without any explanation, and even did not greet him. The youth film "Left Ear" directed by Su Youpeng used piano creator Pianoboy's work "alone on the way" for 54 seconds in the early promotional film, which was exposed as infringing.

"In fact, they understand music, otherwise they would not have chosen our song as the ending song of the movie, and the song and the content of the movie are very compatible." But I don't pay attention to intellectual property rights, I think I use it, so why should I pay you? "In Liu Zhao's view, although the development of Chinese films has advanced by leaps and bounds in recent years, we must not only learn the skin of foreign films, but should learn every link." We use the music of your independent musicians to give you face, we have such a big table, such a big film, what do we use? Zang Hongfei, keyboardist of the Dragon Shinto Band, revealed that many producers always have a condescending attitude towards independent musicians.

The encounter of the 16mins band has been supported by many insiders. Including Song Ke, Han Hong, Old Wolf, Tan Weiwei, etc. all expressed their support for the band's rights protection for the first time, and Old Wolf said: "Please respect the labor of musicians." Song Ke even sent WeChat to Liu Zhao, saying, "What era, and this kind of thing?" If the war horse needs to be needed, the Singing Committee is willing to provide free legal assistance. At the same time, lawyers from relevant parties also gave advice on how to protect rights.

▼Data analysis

Domestic film soundtracks account for only 1% of the total cost

In recent years, the development of China's film market has been booming, which has also provided a broad platform for the development of film music. For musicians, it is undoubtedly one of the best choices to broaden the licensing channels, increase the exposure of music, license music to film producers for film production, and enter the market through film distribution. However, it is worth noting that the proportion of domestic film music production costs in total investment is far less than 8% of European and American standards, and some insiders have revealed that the proportion is only about 1%, and the gap is far away, which also means that the market potential of film music is huge. In 2015, China's total box office of 44.069 billion yuan, domestic films earned 27.136 billion yuan at the box office, accounting for 61.58% of the total box office, and industry insiders estimate that according to the proportion of 8% of the total investment in the film, this cake produced by the soundtrack can also have about 500 million yuan.

The soundtrack investment of domestic films usually accounts for only 1% of the total cost, and Liu Xin, CEO of Taihe Music Group, who has produced and distributed and promoted the soundtracks of many films and televisions such as "Flowers and Bones", "Xuanyuan Sword" and "Splendid Edge", said in an interview that the fundamental reason is that film and television production companies have not yet realized the importance of the soundtrack, so the investment is low. Liu Xin introduced that in the context of low investment, if you encounter shooting overruns, this money is likely to be reduced by the producer.

▼ Film side statement

On the one hand, buy copyright, on the other hand, save costs

In terms of music, "Whose Youth Is Not Confused" uses famous songs such as the Beatles' "hey jude" and Park Shu's "new boy". Author Liu Tong revealed: "In order to be able to use the theme of the film, 'Hey Jude', we went to great lengths and spent $250,000 to buy the rights. Maybe others won't do this, but if you can let the audience in the film soundtrack, in addition to buying the copyright, some crews will hire some professional composers to "tailor" the music for the movie, on the one hand, to make the music and the movie plot fit more closely, on the other hand, it can also greatly reduce the cost of music licensing. It is understood that some large domestic film and television companies will have special departments responsible for the purchase of music copyrights, and some small film and television companies do not have copyright awareness, or ignore the problem of music copyright because of production costs.

Chengdu Business Daily reporter Ren Hongwei Zhang Shihao intern Xiong Ying