I have recently asked a question about music in games like Guitar Hero.
I have found that that in Europe (at least) if I do want to use a track composed by a musician member of a royalty collecting society I need to pay a flat fee to the society and not only to the member.
So a "one-to-one" agreement is not valid and the society can come up to me and ask me for money for each download. Even if for FREE!
This is a fee sheet list of the UK agency: for fee, see "Permanent download services"
It is about 1,200 GBP for less than 22,000 copies and they DON'T specify anything more and they said me on the phone that I need to wait and see how many downloads I get before knowing the price.
This is kind of crazy as If I give away the App for free I will have to PAY 1,200 GBP!!
I am shocked and I feel very bad.
The other solution is to work only with non registered musicians.
The question here to you is:
Has anyone found a legal way to use music from registered authors in a game?