Can I use a song with no lyrics in a short movie without copyright?

Question

Can I use a song without lyrics in a short movie without owning the copyrights? Is that legal? If I edit the song and take the lyrics out. Is that okay? Or if i get a background song with no lyric , you know. Something just to make it more dramatic.

Answer 1

composers of music have copyright. the lyrics or poetry may be by the same person or different. some people add new copyright lyrics to old PD music, for example "land of hope and glory". and new music is sometimes added to old poetry. whether copyrighted together or separate, all current rights have to be observed. if the music comes off a CD, then there is an additional copyright for the recording, even if the lyric and music are PD. I would check with Harry Fox Agency, many composers have their rights cleared there including movie sync rights. As to the recording RIAA enforces those quite vigorously, that will require permission of the record label, and they rarely grant permissions. You may be better off to use new music that you compose and perform, or go to public domain sources such as music4TVandFilms.com