Oh Pepsi. . . why would you make such a bone headed mistake like using music that you haven’t secured the rights to use? Especially when there are plenty of options for music that isn’t tied down by any of these problems. Pepsi used the song “Why Can’t We Be Friends” by the band “War” in this commercial spot:

The guys from War claim Pepsi stole their “signature song” for a national ad campaign … and now the band is opening a $10 million can of whoop ass to make things right. -TMZ

As of now on Jamendo alone has 1552 albums (each containing several pieces of music) available, licensed under an attribution only Creative Commons License. Which means you can use this music in any of your productions for the cost of a line in the rolling credits!

Kevin MacLeod has skads of royalty free music available to use as you like as long as you give him credit and even has options for applying for a Sans Attribution License in those cases where you cannot credit him (such as in a commercial).

There are many other royalty free / creative commons music sources including Free Play Music and places like RoyaltyFreeMusic.com (which offers royalty free music at a low cost).

With all of the options for royalty free music. . . don’t be like Pepsi. Don’t use music that you don’t have a license for in your productions, especially since there are plenty of pieces of great music readily available.

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