Legal/licensing question re: Maschine Expansions

JC_S · 2022-08-11T04:40:35+00:00

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Hi everyone,

I've been asked by a potential marketing client whether the contents of Maschine Expansions - particularly the already composed demo tracks - could be used once converted into WAV in a playlist on an app?

For example Faded Reels - Chill Jill as part of a Lo-fi playlist. Agreed that this sounds lazy, but they're obviously penny-pinching/unaware of music licensing issues and I could advise them to get a musician to jam with the content if necessary.

But even if they bought the Expansions I'm not sure they have the rights.

Native Instruments' legal terms with my bold below seem to be more about reissuing samples in sample packs or patches.

The usage of this Product (in particular samples, instruments and presets) for the creation of a sound library or as a sound library for any kind of synthesizer, virtual instrument, sample library, sample-based product or other musical instrument is strictly prohibited. Individual samples, sound sets or audio loops may not be distributed (commercially or otherwise) standalone. Furthermore these samples, sound sets or audio may not be repackaged in whole or in part as audio samples, sound libraries or sound effects.

Would the use of Maschine Expansions in an app playlist fall under 'repackaged'? That sounds more likely?

Thanks in advance!

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Comments

D-One

what do you mean by app playlist? Like.. a Spotify playlist? Legal rights are the same regardless of platform, contracts make sure of it by saying funny things like "in all invented formats, to be invented, in this planet and across the universe" just in case someone settles on Mars and wants to find a loophole

Yes, the Eulas discuss samples because that's what people are expected to use, not export the projects and call it their own. Even if that's allowed which I doubt it is you're really looking for trouble if you do that, I'm willing to bet there are tons of copyrighted songs where people just changed the drums, bassline or basically made minor changes to the songs, if one of those ends up being too similar to "yours" and whatever label/publisher has it registered notices it they might claim yours as copyright infringement / plagiarism without knowing anything about where it came from in the first place... I'd avoid a battle vs Goliath.

If that kind of thing was allowed i'd just register every example song as soon as they came out and sue anyone with similar stuff, sounds like it might be a profitable business..

D-One

Oh, and btw, you don't really need to be taking those kinds of chances nowadays, if you need cheap bulk content you got stuff like this:

100 beats for commercial use for 27$ 😂

I've also seen tons of similar stuff, like producers giving away packs copyright free for profit.

Kubrak

It would be better to ask NI, but I think that it might be legaly OK to export sketches to wavs and "publish" it.

But, I agree with D-One that it is asking for problems anyway from producer that has used it before you, or automatic algorithms of platforms.... Beside the fact it is not creative at all.

Conclusion. Even if it would be legaly possible, I would not recomend using it as is. Maybe with considerable amount of changes... Even that is not very creative...

JC_S

Yeah thanks for the replies, to be honest I thought it was probably unfruitful as a route.

They're also exploring various platforms like artlist and epidemic. I'll explore the 'cheap bulk content' route too, but I was trying to ensure my client avoids as many potential copyright issues as possible, they just got particularly fixated some of the reference tracks I showed them from NI.

Thanks!

Nico_NI

I would also not risk it. Many of our demos are made by third-party creators, and in this case their license and copyright terms prevail.

https://support.native-instruments.com/hc/en-us/articles/210264205-Can-I-Use-Native-Instruments-Sounds-for-Commercial-Music-Production-

JC_S

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/27370#Comment_27370

Thanks kindly for the reply, that's really clear! I'll pass on the info and if they are still keen to use that content I can recommend them to hire a musician to actually work with the material.

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