I know how powerful music is and while I would prefer to use a couple’s song, most of the time it is impossible for me to legally use it. It makes perfect sense to me that musicians want to be compensated for their work, however, most of the time for a small project like a wedding video most artists don’t want the hassle. This makes it difficult for businesses like ours that don’t want to steal music, and at the same time need music for our final product.
When I first started making wedding highlight videos a decade ago, Taylor Swift’s lawyers were on a rampage suing people left and right for using her music without permission. Even getting personal wedding videos pulled down from Youtube. So I knew, I needed to obtain permission from artists to use their music. I used to ask couples what their favorite love songs were. I would attempt to contact bands, even emailing their managers, who wouldn’t respond to me. One time I got a response, and for $75 I was able to purchase a one-time use license from a band to use on a newborn video. This was a time consuming process that led to only one successful outcome.
Fortunately, businesses found this gap in the market and created intermediary services. Most offer unpopular music from obscure artists I have never heard of, which I have even used on some of our videos. But ultimately, I needed music that was recognized and relevant to our clients. I have only been able to find one intermediary service that offers one time use licenses on popular music. However, the songs they offer seem random, for example they might have one song from an artist available that isn’t a love song, and none of the love songs by that same artist. So the likelihood of finding a couple’s song even through this service is very low. This isn’t ideal, I wish the situation was better, but there is little I can do about it.
So, Elise and I listen to music on that platform and choose songs that we think would work best for the couple’s video. I wish a couple could just choose their music for their wedding video. Every couple has a handful of songs they really relate too. And most of the time, I choose a song I can relate to when I am choosing a song for a video.
Long story short, we (Taylor’d Photography) use the website Fyrfly for the music in your highlight video. If you would prefer to choose the music yourself, you can by browsing their collection on their website and emailing us the song name and artist. The search functionality is clunky, so I recommend not only searching for the song title, but the artist as well, separately. Their playlists haven’t been updated since 2023, and seem to be driven towards the commercial business space. Also keep in mind, if you have arranged for any voice recording audio to be included in your video, I recommend an instrumental song over one with vocals. That said, I will be more than happy to find music I feel is appropriate to match the flow of your highlight video. You don’t need to find your own music. If you want to be semi-involved, I can let you know the songs I am considering before I cut your highlights to them. Don’t get me wrong, I am grateful Fyrfly exists, it is just difficult to find specific songs even through their service.
For example, mine and Elise’s song when we were married, was “Stolen” by Dashboard Confessional. Looking on the FyrFly website today (availability of songs changes from time to time), that song is not available. They do have three Dashboard Confessional songs available: “Be Alright” which is about chasing your dreams, “Heart Beat Here” is more appropriate for an anniversary video, and “Belong” which wouldn’t be bad for high school sweethearts, but doesn’t really fit my love story with Elise. Music is so personal, that for me, it has become the most stressful part of making a wedding video. If there was an easy way to contact customer service at Firefly I could let them know some blatantly obvious connections a wedding videographer like myself can make when looking for music. An anniversary song from a band that is less than fifty years old isn’t going to appeal to my golden anniversary clients. Most country music isn’t going to work on a wedding highlight video, maybe include the country songs that are more hopeful rather than resentful. Apparently, wedding videographers who have dealt with this frustration should be consulted or even hired to help with their song curation, or at least to make relevant playlists. Since they are not, I can only imagine we are not their primary target market. Hence this rant. I digress, my point is…
Marriage is like Scotch, it gains depth with age. I can relate to other music now that I couldn’t when I was young and in love. My love for my wife now has many more layers than it did back then. I am not saying my love now is more important, love has to start somewhere and I am grateful it did. My love for my wife and family we have created affects the photos and videos we create. As they are a much larger lens that every photographer shoots through. Ultimately, we want to help our couples fight the good fight called marriage, as love is the most important cause worth fighting for.
Bottom line, I care. I want the music on your wedding video to enhance the powerful feelings you get every time you watch your video back. I hope this clears up any confusion over the music rights challenges videographers have to work with in order to bring your video to life. I am open to suggestions, so if you have any please send them my way.
View and listen to some of the Wedding Highlight Videos we have made for our clients.