Interview with Jon Rawlinson

Hey all! Decided to take a break from posting the third section of the Artwork’s copyright blog Part 1 and Part 2 to show you the interview I had with Jon Rawlinson. He’s the owner and creator of Jon Rawlinson Productions. I planned on using his video (above) as one of my case studies on the beneficial effects of file-sharing and it was through a fated conversation I discovered one of my professors was a friend of Jon’s. He was able to get me in touch with him and things went from there.

Rawlinson shot the video of the main tank, called the “Kuroshio Sea”, at the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium in Okinawa, Japan. After it was shot, Jon added in a music track by a band called Barcelona. His video was then posted on his personal blog and YouTube and before long it was taken by admirers and posted on other video sharing sites such as Vimeo. In another act of fate the band found out about the video and instead of demanding the removal of the video, they posted their own response thanking Rawlinson for choosing their music to be the audio track for it and for bringing their music to a new audience.

Below is a transcription of the interview:
Q: How did you first come across the song?
A: “Originally I was listening to an iTunes radio station, one of the chilled out radio stations, and I heard the song while I was editing some footage of the aquarium. I went,”Wow, that really works with this aquarium footage!”. I downloaded the song and put it to the video, uploaded the video for friends and my brother to see and it became crazy popular.”

Q: Did you pay for the song through iTunes?
A: Originally, I did buy the song since I liked the whole album. So I bought it on iTunes since it’s easy and works well. After I bought it, I converted the file and just starting editing with it.

Q: When the Video was first posted, did you give credit to Barcelona for the song?
A: When the video was originally posted, I posted a link that went directly to the iTunes store so people would hopefully try and buy the song if they liked it. A woman who works for Facebook, who is the girl friend of the band’s drummer came across the video. Barcelona then contacted me through a video response. I was fearful of them demanding me to take down the video for using their song without permission, but they were happy with it being used.

Q: How do you go about picking the music for your videos?
A: I usually try to pick music that isn’t super popular…I want to pick something that is little bit different. And I always try to give credit to the band through a link to their site or to their iTunes so that way we can both benefit.

Q: Do you believe that this format of sharing video and audio between artists is the future and beneficial to all parties involved?
A: The whole idea of copyright is dated now. Things have changed so much. If the band is okay with me using their music and then I create something, it works out so much better that way. The band benefits through increased iTunes sales and I also get recognition for my work on the video through interview about it.

The key is to not use it in a negative way. If the band is cool with your using their music that is the way forward. The problem is that lawyers get involved, companies get involved, copyright issues get involved and it’s usually the band that all right with it. But it’s usually the record companies that are worried about their bottom line; about making money.

Q: Do you also let others use your work?
A: All my photos are creative commons. Many people use my photos in magazines and newspapers. Anyone can use them as long as they give me credit. Link to my website and give me credit, then everyone wins. You don’t have to go through this whole licensing procedure or try to license the photo. Just use the photo and give me credit.

A: What’s interesting that happened with Barcelona was that originally the band contacted me and said sure it’s fine to use the music,  but the record company hasn’t actually approved it yet, so the band was cool, but they were concerned that the record company would shut it down. Then band talked to the record company and they said hey this video is increasing our sales and getting exposure, then the record company was fine with it, but I believe it wasn’t doing that they[the record company] would have had it taken down.

Q: Have you ever had someone use your work for their own project or just to post in another place?
A: What’s bizarre to me now is that a lot of people have download my video, the Kuroshio sea video, and remixed it and reused it. If you look on YouTube there are a bunch of them that went up and it was so bizarre to me that now people were now remixing my videos, without returning the credit.

You just need to educate some of these people. I always email the people and say it’s perfectly fine for you to use the video and do what you will with it, but just give me credit and label the song as “Please Don’t Go” by Barcelona.
I want to thank Jon for the amazing interview and wish him all the best in his future projects.