Question about music

[louee]

Hello. Do you know where can I download royalty free vocaloid songs (or even real human voice) which I can use as opening for my visual novel?

[Aleema]

Is your game going to be commercial? If not, Magnatune has a generous policy for non-profit projects.

[Norenche]

For a non-profit game is it OK to use vocaloid songs? I never knew if they are copyrighted or not.

[Aleema]

If you didn't compose the music, then someone owns that song, and it is not you ... So you don't have the right to use it unless you ask. Since Vocaloid is popular with everyday people, you might actually get their permission if you ask. If you make your OWN vocaloid song with the program, I'm sure there are details about how you can use the songs you make in their licenses or something ... *doesn't personally know*

[louee]

Thanks for the info. My project is non-profit

[IceD]

Vocaloid is like any other kind of music software, being basically a voice/speech and sound synthesiser. It's not designed for music composition, but for creation of realistic vocals for your music, but it's scope of usefulness is much more wider. It isn't cheap, but it's a great choice for those who compose music and would like to have singing in them, and can't afford or find vocalists fit for their needs. Actually, you can have almost every kind of voice variation - from a few years old primary school girl to an adult male sopran, and all of them (the new, second generation voices) sound highly realistic, you almost won't be able to distinguish them from real human voices.

As for the legal implications, if you own one of the vocaloids, you're free to use them as you want - for commercial and personal work, as long as you abide the terms of licence. The only thing, that cannot be done is using any of the vocaloid their mascot images and names in commercial products, as their copyrigths belong to the respective owners. This means, you can't, for example sell voices as vocals sung by those characters.

Check out the vocaloid article on wikipedia for more info, if you're interested.

[Sakura02]

If you're not selling your game I think it's fine as long as you give credit to the songwriter. Realistically speaking I don't think they'll be grave consequences if you do use a Vocaloid song. Vocaloid songs aren't apart of the larger music industry and you won't have someone trying to sue you for thousands of dollars. The worst case scenario, (which is unlikely) is someone may ask you to the remove it, but I doubt since you're developing an indie game. Point is ONLY if you are making the game for non-commercial purposes, I say what the hell. Just give the appropriate credit.

ALTHOUGH personally I think it's in better taste to not use a song that's mainstream.

[Aleema]

I can definitely think of a lot of worse "worst case scenarios" than that actually. xD Fanart/fandubs aren't technically legal, but it's about how accepting the fanbase is and how much attention you bring to yourself. Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged, for example, is repeatedly banned from Youtube because he doesn't own the visuals he uses and Youtube HAS to take down his videos (no matter how much good he's done for the series) if asked. It's doubtful YGO Abridged will be wiped from the internet entirely, since in his own website, it's not heavily advertised to go there and everyone there respects that he doesn't own it.

I would think that if you want your game to be taken seriously here, you'd avoid using songs that people can recognize or by famous people in general. You'd get a lot more respect if you made your game legally, but it all depends on what kind of audience/reception you want. I don't think your game could be featured if it had illegal parts, but it's not going to stop someone from playing it if you just posted it here. Since we all agree it's illegal, it would just be rude to not credit the people whose work your using on top of that.

Also, don't attach yourself to the project personally. If a future employer or someone finds your name on something shady, there goes your reputation!

[louee]

Thank you everyone for your advices. I learned a lot of things.

[Showsni]

I can definitely think of a lot of worse "worst case scenarios" than that actually. xD Fanart/fandubs aren't technically legal, but it's about how accepting the fanbase is and how much attention you bring to yourself. Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged, for example, is repeatedly banned from Youtube because he doesn't own the visuals he uses and Youtube HAS to take down his videos (no matter how much good he's done for the series) if asked. It's doubtful YGO Abridged will be wiped from the internet entirely, since in his own website, it's not heavily advertised to go there and everyone there respects that he doesn't own it.

YGO TAS, though, is clearly a parody work, and thus is actually covered under fair usage of copyright materials, as far as American law is concerned. It's probably not worth trying to go to court about it, though.

[Aleema]

I agree that parodies are legal under American law, but I'd argue there are points when YGOTAS stops being a parody and is just something funny to watch. Not that I don't wish the series back on Youtube immensely. =P