This question is probably more suited to dopers who travel, live or have lived outside the United States (specifically UK) since I doubt that CNN International is commonly viewed in the US.
I know that some songs by modern artists are chosen for their promos, but the majority of them seem to be ‘royalty free’ instrumentals; they are created either by artists and then used by various news organisations like CNN International, CNBC International, Bloomberg, BBC World News etc…or they are created specifically for CNN.
I’ve heard quite a few enjoyable pieces of music used on YouTube channels on all sorts of videos but some are unidentifiable.
Not sure what music you are talking about, but here’s a go.
First of all, copyrights expire on music, and classical music from the distant past is royalty-free. There are also music producers specifically to be used as mood or background music for broadcast. Users can just buy the inexpensive package, and have unrestricted use of the material in the repertoire. These may be composed by hack musicians who work nine to five in the studio that produces the package. It is the music equivalent to “clip art”, graphic representations that publishers use to illustrate ads.
Before 1990, any music store had a rack of classical music discs, tapes or CD’s performed by Soviet and Eastern Bloc orchestras, whose musicians were employees of the state. Those performances were distributed royalty-free, simply because the state orchestras distributed them free to labels who charged only their own cost of producing and marketing the disc, and the retail price was a small fraction of the music performed by artists who demanded a royalty. Classical CD’s by eastern orchestras were typically 1.99, compared to $5-10 for western recordings of the same classical compositions.
Sometimes if you search for a particular channel or show you can find a page that lists all of the music they use (works for a lot of TV shows). I didn’t have too much luck searching for CNN though (admittedly, I only did a fairly brief search).
I found this on youtube:
According to the video description, it was composed by Atlanta-based composer, Herb Avery, exclusively for CNN.
A composer named Michael Picton also states on his webpage portfolio that he has composed music for CNN international.
So it looks like at least some, if not all, of their music is composed specifically for CNN.
Youtube has playlists of royalty music of all different genres. If you are looking for something similar, you might try those.
A lot of youtube videos and channels will say what music they are using either on the channel page or in the video description. If not, I’ve been able to find some music info in the comments. Someone will ask something like hey, what’s the music you are using for this video and either the channel owner or just some random commenter will answer it.
A friend of mine is a very prolific composer, and his music is frequently used as background music on TV and in videos. As I understand it, he grants free use of his music for these, using a Creative Commons license (ensuring that he’s credited for his work).
As a result, I see his name in credits a lot, and his IMDB entry lists him with over 2400 (!) credits:
I have no idea if there are other composers who work this way (he uses it as a way to get his name and work out there, which leads to paying gigs).
Second, they can commission people to compose music for them. As part of the contract, they can use the music as much as they want for as long as they want.
It’s not new. Warner Brothers was doing it in the 1930s; Harry Warren wrote songs for musicals that were repurposed for Looney Tunes, and, of course, Carl Stalling purchased Raymond Scott’s recordings.
This is merely a work for hire. Extremely common. The company hiring the creative artist (composer, musician, etc.) retains all copyrights. (This is a better way of phrasing it.) They don’t have to pay royalties to themselves. But if someone wanted to use the music that CNN, say, had paid to be written/played, then they have to pony up money to CNN. The creative folk have are not part of this.
So the contract specifies it’s a work for hire. The composer therefore never had any copyrights at all.
One distinction of work for hire in US copyright law is the lifespan: 95 to 120 years depending on publication versus life plus 70 years for non-work for hire. CNN doesn’t have a “life”. <insert stupid joke.>
You can also buy songs from music libraries that have thousands of songs in different styles and orchestrations. Terms vary–sometimes you can get exclusivity for a cue, sometimes for a short period of time, and sometimes not at all. And there are many libraries. I have heard songs I’ve used in TV shows in other shows and in commercials.
For CNN, I feel pretty sure that all cues come from a library exclusively composed for them. These would be works for hire as mentioned above.
I don’t understand the premise of the question. If you simply listen to some music, what makes you suspect that it is royalty-free? Isn’t it just as reasonable to presume that CNN is paying the royalty? What clues do you have one way or the other?
You’re right, they might be paying royalties–there’s no way to know without looking at the deal. I still suspect it’s a buyout because union protections are weaker in news and CNN would probably pay one big fee once than deal with weekly/monthly cue sheets for payments.