Hello David,
As you have probably discovered, the recorded use of music in combination
with visual images in a presentation, known as "synchronization," does not
come within the scope of the compulsory license provisions of the U.S.
Copyright Act. Licenses for use of music in presentations must therefore be
negotiated on an individual basis between the copyright owner and the
prospective user.
The official agency for negotiating these licenses is the Harry Fox Agency:
http://www.harryfox.com/
However, a very cool option in PowerPoint 97 is the Custom Soundtrack
add-in which generates music on the fly. The PowerPoint Custom Soundtrack
Add-in allows you to add electronically-generated background music to your
slide shows. And since it's not recorded music you don't have to worry
about any copyright. You can install this add-in from the following folder
on the Office 97 compact disc:
<drive>:\ValuPack\MusicTrk
Unfortunately, PowerPoint 2003 no longer supports the playing of custom
soundtracks that have been inserted using this add-in in previous versions
of PowerPoint.
If you (or anyone else reading this message) have think that future
versions of PowerPoint provide a capability similar to what the custom
soundtrack add-in provided, don't forget to send your feedback to Microsoft
at:
http://register.microsoft.com/mswish/suggestion.asp
As with all product suggestions, it's important that you not just state
your wish but also why it is important to you that your product suggestion
be implemented by Microsoft. Microsoft receives thousands of product
suggestions every day and we read each one but, in any given product
development cycle, there are only sufficient resources to address the ones
that are most important to our customers so take the extra time to state
your case as clearly and completely as possible.
IMPORTANT: Each submission should be a single suggestion (not a list of
suggestions)
John Langhans
Microsoft Corporation
Supportability Program Manager
Microsoft Office PowerPoint for Windows
Microsoft Office Picture Manager for Windows
For FAQ's, highlights and top issues, visit the Microsoft PowerPoint
support center at:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=ppt
Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base at:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=kbhowto
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
Use of any included script samples are subject to the terms specified at
http://www.microsoft.com/info/cpyright.htm