I'm a high school student and my film was chosen to be put in the AFI Dallas film festival. The only problem is I need to get permission from the people who hold the copyrights to the music I used. I have some Janis Joplin, some Beatles, some Yann Tiersen (the person who scored the movie Amélie), and maybe a few others. I don't even know where to start!

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You have to contact the holder of the rights to each song. It's a long, involved, complex and nearly impossible undertaking on your own. It's best to enlist the help of a professional. Try this: Http://www.clearance.com Choose "getting clearance" from the menu across the top of the page.

If you get invited to a film festival, then you can try and contact the musician to secure "festival rights" which most of the time is easy to secure. But the likelihood of the musician seeing or even hearing of the film screening is remote.