12. 09. 2026

Music for your film

This post is for anyone who makes movies or videos.

Movies and videos require music. Music in film is a complex topic because, aside from choosing the right tracks, it involves a whole range of rights. It’s important to be aware of these rights so you don’t suddenly and unexpectedly receive a cease-and-desist letter. It doesn’t matter whether you’re producing a feature film or posting footage from a dance class on YouTube. As soon as a moving image is combined with music and this is linked in any way to a commercial purpose or activity, you need the rights to use the music recordings.

Here, you’ll learn how to easily acquire the rights to music recordings.

This is because these rights are NOT granted by GEMA or the copyright agency responsible for your country, but solely by the rights holders themselves. First and foremost, these are the parties that hold the rights to the recordings—usually the record labels. And since every musical work was composed by someone, you also need the consent of the composers and, if applicable, the lyricists. These are usually represented by one or more music publishers. So, if you’re lucky, you’ll have only two points of contact with whom you can negotiate a price. Most of the time, however, there are more than two, since, for example, each participating copyright holder is represented by a different publisher. The process is complicated, time-consuming, and expensive.

There’s also an easier way…

I’ve been dealing with the complex subject of film music for several decades. During this time, Danza y Movimiento has signed many contracts that allow us to grant you music rights from a single source. This model is called “One Stop,” because you negotiate the price for using the music with just a single point of contact. This saves a lot of hassle and, as a bonus, makes it significantly more cost-effective for you. Since we work extensively with low-budget producers, we’re happy to take the production’s available budget into account when setting prices.

We have a lot of tango music, but also quite a bit more. In addition to about 800 classic tango recordings, there are several hundred recordings by contemporary tango orchestras. Our catalog also includes piano music, contemporary works, Brazilian rhythms, and jazz. These works are now being released step by step in a new series:

One Stop Music – Music for your film

The first albums have been online for a few days now. “One Stop Music – Music for your film” features recordings for which we can offer you an attractive deal for use in your audiovisual production. And you don’t need to ask anyone else.

You can get an overview of the current status of the series at any time on our “For Films” page.

The album covers are linked to Spotify.

For downloads, we recommend the Qobuz platform. Here you can purchase music without any loss of quality due to compression.