Q&A: Help publishing arrangement of Halo video game music for full orchestra…?

Question by Nadia: Help publishing arrangement of Halo video game music for full orchestra…?
Last school year while I was a high school senior, I heard the soundtracks for the video game Halo. I own the composition program Finale, and for fun I began to transcribe what I heard because i thought the music was phenomenal… my friend heard it and thought it was really good, so he suggested I transcribe/arrange a “medley” of the Halo music for our high school’s band, orchestra, and choir to perform at the end of the year. My director was pleased with the idea but he said I first needed to obtain the copyrights from the original publisher of the score in order to do so… (this would be me transcribing all of the music by ear, for one concert with free admission by our high school fine arts department- I have been told by many others that gaining the rights were not necessary for a situation like this but my director was persistant).
He suggested I go ahead and work on the arrangement anyway, while we waited to hear further from the publishers. We had trouble finding the *original* publishers, and when he had narrowed it down to one I had the feeling it was the wrong one… still we contacted them about the situation but they never responded and our performance of the score never happened…
I now have the score for full orchestra + choir, almost finished but definitely too far to throw away completely… I would definitely not like to get rid of it but I would like to have it published for high school music programs (we have score medleys for stuff like Pirates of the Caribbean, Star Wars, etc… I was thinking of this Halo score along the lines of those). What do I need to do in order to make this possible? Is it even possible? Do I contact the original publishers first, and who would those even be? And if I published my version through a company without first obtaining the rights what would happen? Would they charge me a fine or would they send me to jail? …

Best answer:

Answer by bearcat
Try contacting the video game department of Microsoft, Inc. or Bungie Software Products Corporation in Kirkland, Washington. One of them probably has the copyrights to the music or can direct you to who has the rights.

If you can’t get a response from either of them then you probably should not proceed with any plans to try for publication. Music publishers and copyright owners take a very dim view of others using their property to make money. They can be very aggressive in pursuing a legal solution – and it is not just a little fine – settlements can be huge!

Technically, having even made the arrangement without permission is a violation, but most composers and arrangers have at least one such piece in their files – something that looked exciting to arrange but with no permission available or so expensive to obtain that it would not be financially feasible. So it sits in your files as a piece you’ve done to hone your arranging skills.

Good luck in your pursuit of permission.

Musician, published composer, director.

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