I have previously mentioned my ambitions of creating anime music videos and as such, I have had many half-baked and a few full-baked ideas for projects but have barely acted on them due to software and time. (The former might change since Vegas 9 just came out and it’s relatively cheap for $55 online.) One anime and music combination that I had on my mind for a while – since May 2006, in fact – is BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad paired with Foreigner’s “Jukebox Hero”. It seems so obvious to anyone who has seen the series and it was inevitable that an editor would actually create such an AMV once the DVD’s had finished coming out stateside.

Meredith “Meri” Cantoni was that person and so far her video entitled “One Guitar” has won 2nd Place in the Dramatic/Serious category at Otakon ‘08 and won that same category plus Judges Best Overall at Anime Evolution last weekend. I think she did a great job in editing and while I had some of the same scenes in mind, her effort turned better than mine likely would have and I am thankful for that. This wishful project has been fulfilled but the next ones should be done by myself so I can feel more satisfied with my abilities and with using artists like Josh Rouse.

Problem 1: Legal Rights
This first roadblock is obvious to anyone familiar with copyright law. The steps involved creating an AMV from non-hardsubbed source material usually involve bypassing a copy-protection scheme on DVDs. Also creators most likely did not ask the music artists for permission to use their tunes in such a fashion. Since making an AMV is a legal gray area akin to creating a mashup, selling them is also not definitively legal. You could argue that once you buy a CD or DVD, you have the right to manipulate that data how you please but the content owners will point to the DMCA and say that technically you only bought the right to view or listen to that content in that particular format. Many anime licensors look the other way on this issue but some record labels are more vocal in discouraging such behavior.

Problem 2: Making Sure It’s Not Already Out There
Fans of particular AMVs have posted them on YouTube even though they did not make themselves. The honest ones, though, explicitly state in the descriptions that they did not create the video and often include a link to an information page on AMV.org. Submitting other people’s AMVs to video-sharing site can be good promotion for the creators and I don’t see anything wrong with trying to share with others stuff you enjoy watching. The problem comes when attempting to make money off it: if the material is freely available, then why would people pay for it? The issue of creators wanting to be compensated for what they made, if they desire something like that, could be solved by the creators posting their own material on Revver or similar services and/or adding a donation button on their websites if they have one.

Problem 3: Implicit Moral Code?
The idea of selling AMVs seems to go against some kind of unwritten rule that I’m not sure even exists but it would be a good one if it holds within the fan community. The same principle that states fansubs should not be sold looks like it. Charging for access for content created using someone else’s copyright could not only paint you in a different light among fans but also attract unfriendly industry attention if they think you are distributing their music for free via videos with the song playing throughout.

Although the following example does not actually involve money changing hands, I still think it’s apt to mention it. Animemusicvideos.org was told in October 2006 by Wind-Up Records to remove videos that used music from Evanescence, Creed, and Seether; a quick check of the list of most used musical artists shows that Evanescence is second behind overwhelming frontrunner Linkin Park (“In The End” + DBZ = inside joke!) while Creed is about 24th. The issue came up because someone asked if the videos hosted on the site were created by the bands. The label sent a cease-and-desist since that was not the case and Phade agreed to remove links on the site to videos using those artists’ music because, according to Phade, the “concern was about the online availability by streaming or downloads of [the artists'] songs”.

Problem 4: Lack of Replay Value
Some AMVs simply don’t have that much replay value. You watch ‘em once and forget about it and/or delete it. If you buy a movie on DVD, only watch it once, and let it sit on the shelf, you don’t seem to get as much utility out of it than if you watched it again while listening to commentaries or watching “making-of” documentaries. Same goes for AMVs, which obviously don’t come with extras. It is also short-form media with durations usually less than 6 minutes. Multi-editor projects might be worth chipping in a couple bucks to the group of editors but maybe only ones more than 8 or 10 minutes long.

Now that I have torn my own little idea to shreds, I would like to present a couple of instances of anime music videos appearing on commercial DVD releases. The first one I can think of at the moment is the fourth disc of the FLCL Ultimate Collection that recently came out. TEST-TYPE features five music videos of FLCL footage cut to Pillows songs from the series as well as the original PV for “Ride on shooting star”.

The only other examples I can recall both are easter eggs on two different volumes of Noir. Specifically, the fifth volume has a Kirika-centered one while the seventh volume has four different videos made to “Canta Per Me”. Details on how to access these and many others can be found on AnimeOnDVD’s Digital Omake List.