Obtaining Permissions and You! [v2]

Step One - Be accurate.

Before you even begin to try to get a permission you have to make sure that all of your information is accurate and correct. Make sure that you have the right author / song title / album title (where applicable). Make sure it's not a remix or something like that which could get FFR in trouble with the original author who never gave permission for the remix in the first place.

The other reason for accuracy is so that you show the recipient of the email that you know what you are talking about.

Depending on what you are going for you will need to follow a different step. If:

- You are asking an independent artist / group for their permission then go to step 2.

- You are asking a signed artist / group for their permission or a record label for any artist at all then go to step 3


Step Two: Independent Artists / Groups

The beauty about independent artists is that they have no record company or label (or they own the label themselves) and so you only need to send one email.

Make sure to be absolutely certain that they don't have a label. Once you are certain try to find a contact address for them. This could either be an email or a letter. Some good places to check for contact points for independent artists are wikipedia, their official website, or myspace (or similar musical outlets such as last.fm).

Once you have an email address you can send the email to them. I prepared a template email that can be used:

Here's one of the more formal templates available and widely used for independent artists and/or groups:


Step Three: Artists / Groups that are signed to a record label

This does vary from label to label but ultimately your final email will be around the same. The first thing to do is find out which label the artist or group is with. This can most likely be found on wikipedia.

Secondly, you need to go to the labels website and make sure if you can find any "terms of service" or "artist / license request" forms or information on either. (Usually located at the bottom of these sites, are links for the ToS and artist/license requests.) These will usually give you information on how a label feels about distributing the music of their artists. It can also tell you if the label will expect royalties for anything to do with any of their artists.

If you can't find anything like this then you can move on. If you do find a form, and it doesn't mention royalties, then you should use that form to apply for request for music to be put into FFR.

If none of the above is applicable then you'll need to move on to emails.

The ideal route is to send two emails. One to the artist / group and one to the record label. If a band is linked with multiple labels and you aren't sure which label is the right one for what you are asking permission for, then you may have to email every single label and explain the situation.

The following emails are what I suggest as templates for your two emails:

TO THE BAND / ARTIST:



TO THE RECORD LABEL:

Step Four: Results

This is the most important part, how will everything turn out. There are various possibilities and I'll cover as many as I can.

1. An independent artist / band says yes to your request.

If this is the case, well done. You've got a permission! Now, to verify your permission, you should post a screenshot of your emails (sent to and from), along with a URL to the artist's website in this thread. Following that, if you wish to send an email thanking the artist/group, feel free to use this example:


2. An independent artist / band says no to your request.

No worries, it happens. Still send them another email. Again a template for you:



3. An independent artist / band doesn't reply.

Give it at least a week. If you hear no reply then just send another email. Something along the lines of:



4. A record label replies saying yes.

Again, congratulations, but still be polite and send another email to the record label, something like:


5. A record label replies saying no.


6. A record label doesn't reply.

This is probably the most likely case as most record labels are gay like that. If anything, you should still try to send a follow-up email:



And there you have it. When asking for permissions, always, ALWAYS remember the most important parts:

- Be polite.
- Be accurate in what you want.
- Email everyone involved with the song / artist to increase your chances of a reply and also out of politeness.