Thread: Recording Haflas and Selling DVDs- cost

My troupe mate's husband has recorded a few haflas in the local area, and had a lot of interest in buying the dvds. He does a damn good job of filming, no silly camera angles or closeups of wobbly bits (unlike some 'professionals' I've known) and the feedback so far has been positive

However, he's wondering how much he should sell them for. They're quite low-key, informal events, so he doesn't want to charge mega bucks, but he also wants to cover his costs and the time taken to edit it all together.

What's the going rate in your area, folks?

Generally about £5 around here. That's for a basic DVD, paper case, nothing fancy. Have paid up to £10 for a more professionally put together one done to raise money for the charity the hafla was in aid of.

Thanks tezirah. His initial price was about £3, which I thought was grossly underestimating the labour costs. £5 for a basic dvd sounds a lot more reasonable.

I know I'people have paid anything up to £15 for a hafla video, but frankly I'd want it goldplated (or at least have myself slimmed down post production) for that sort of money!

i do suggest getting permission for this from everyone appearing In the dvd....

...music rights...

I wouldn't do it.

Originally Posted by SandraDances

...music rights...

I wouldn't do it.

As far as I can tell, the situation in the US is different, as I don't think you have any central organisation to administer these "mechanical royalties", but over here in the UK, there's an entirely legitimate and proper way to deal with music rights where videos & dvds are concerned, namely, to get a licence through the Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society, which is part of the larger PRS for Music.
http://www.prsformusic.com/Pages/default.aspx

Originally Posted by artemisia_danst

i do suggest getting permission for this from everyone appearing In the dvd....

Of course!

Bea Farhana- thanks for that link. I was wondering what the to-do was regarding music rights. It occurred to me the other day that some haflas might be in a sticky situation regarding charging for entry to see people dance to copyright music.

$10 (lousy quality) - $35 (good quality) is what we have paid here in the Ohio Valley in the US.

Originally Posted by beafarhana

As far as I can tell, the situation in the US is different, as I don't think you have any central organisation to administer these "mechanical royalties", but over here in the UK, there's an entirely legitimate and proper way to deal with music rights where videos & dvds are concerned, namely, to get a licence through the Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society, which is part of the larger PRS for Music.
http://www.prsformusic.com/Pages/default.aspx

Oooh - that sounds much easier, actually. In the US for production and distribution rights, you have to contact the individual rights-holders and contract with them to use their music in any video/dvd that will be sold/given away/anything but watched at home by the person who filmed it. It is a pain sometimes b/c the person who is holding the rights could be the artist, agent, record label, or other entity - so the first step if figuring out who to talk to on it. We have BMI/ASCAP for performances, but that doesn't include any video rights at all.

Originally Posted by mahsati

Oooh - that sounds much easier, actually. In the US for production and distribution rights, you have to contact the individual rights-holders and contract with them to use their music in any video/dvd that will be sold/given away/anything but watched at home by the person who filmed it. It is a pain sometimes b/c the person who is holding the rights could be the artist, agent, record label, or other entity - so the first step if figuring out who to talk to on it. We have BMI/ASCAP for performances, but that doesn't include any video rights at all.

indeed- that sounds SO much easier- this is why even big shows (like American Idol, America's Got Talent, etc.) have a certain catalog of songs you can use, rather than allowing anything to be used.

here, for performers but not available to the gen public, the local guy charges $20/DVD & they are nice. That's also the price we generally pay for a CD with the pictures from the show from the official photographers.