Portfolio Post 18 (Week 6): Music

Update on Musical Score

    As previously discussed in our other blog posts we have struggled with what music we can are going to use. Music is such a large part of our project that this crucial step cannot be foregone. We had to pick a song that would play during the entirety of our opening and so, already, the pressure was on. Once we decided on a song we were abruptly reminded of the requirements surrounding the music. Immediately, we were burdened with the responsibility of using copyright free music, creating our own music, or securing the rights to use someone else's music. We had imagined a poppy, catchy song so the natural choice was the third option. Due to our hearts being set on the idea of using an ABBA song we spent class period's of time trying to figure out who to contact in order to obtain permission. This process led us to multiple Swedish companies who's websites we could not even navigate due to the language barrier. Feeling defeated, we decided to let this marinate in our heads for a few days and return to brainstorming later.

    Eventually, it was brought to our attention that it would be smart to find a song by a smaller artist so it would be much easier to contact them. I began the hunt through Tiktok and blog posts that reported on upcoming musicians. Through Instagram a direct messaged a handful of artists the same generic message that read, "Hi! My classmate and I are apart of the Cambridge AICE program and our final for our Media-studies class is to create a film opening, however any music we use we must have obtained permission to use. So I was hoping you could give us your consent to us using your song ___ in our project! Once again this is a school project and no profit will be made! Thank you!". Thankfully this message warranted a few responses! Everyone who got back to me said pretty much the same thing: yes you have permission but I would like to see the final project in return. Though this didn't work out exactly as I had hoped, I am very grateful to now have a few options as music for our opening!