Transcript:
Did you know you could have a video made for your business, and not actually own it? Let’s talk about video ownership.
One of the worst feelings in the world of business is the feeling you’ve been taken advantage of. It simply can’t be shaken, and this is something we find unfortunately often in the world of marketing. You see it a lot in unmet promises, but one of the most sinister places we find this is in content ownership. I’ve had many people tell me stories about websites or domains taken hostage by the web designers, and video is no different! I’ve had many clients share stories about other videographers requiring subscription services for businesses to use THEIR OWN videos! That’s simply ludicrous to me. If a business is paying for a video to be made, they should own the video. They should be able to put it wherever they want, share it to whoever they want, and I believe they should be able to edit or change it as well. After all, it’s theirs!
When you’re working with any business for your marketing services, be sure that once the bills are paid, that you own the copyright to the finished products. The contract I share with my clients says that they own the finished videos, and the only right I have is that I can use some of the content in my own marketing to help build my business, which in turn gives them some extra exposure as well. Though, I always give them the option to revoke that part if they so desire.
The one thing that complicates ownership a little bit is stock video and music. I’ve covered stock video already, but when utilizing stock video, I, nor my client can claim ownership of that footage, but are licensed to use it in a number of places. Stock music is similar: usually a music track, like the one behind this video, was not created by myself or the client. Rather, I use a platform where I pay for a license to use it. It’s important to know the licensing terms as well, as most platforms you can license music from are very specific about the use cases. For example, out of the many subscriptions I own to license music, only one of them allow me to license for broadcasting the video on TV. So make sure that if you’re looking to be able to have your video on TV, that all the music, interviews, and any stock footage is licensed appropriately, otherwise you could get into legal trouble down the road, and that’s no fun.
If you’re looking for video content that is professionally created and that has no questionable ownership or legality, I’d love to help you out! I’m Adam Oliver with Olivedia Productions. Thanks for watching.
