Happy New Year and warmest congratulations to all brides and grooms who are having weddings in 2010! Here’s to a wonderful year ahead of weddings, joy, love and excellent wedding planning tips to see you through your big day as a lovely bride (not a Bridezilla!)! 
Romantic sappy songs are often the de rigueur at all weddings. Its played while the guests are waiting for the couple’s entrance, during the walk-in, throughout the reception and most importantly, during the wedding montage slides shown. After all, what is a montage of sweet loving pictures without a powerful romantic tune accompanying it?
Unfortunately in Singapore, wedding couples might just have to do without their beautiful love songs if they don’t want to cough up additional fees! Read on below.
SINGAPORE – Wedding couples planning to show video or photo montages accompanied by popular love songs – the de rigueur for wedding celebrations these days – should think twice: Either they cough up between $100 and $200 for each song or risk getting hit in the pocket for copyright infringement.
MediaCorp has learnt that the Composers and Authors Society of Singapore (Compass) – which represents over 1,000 composers and lyricists in Singapore, including JJ Lin and Taufik Batisah, and at least one million more members worldwide – is clamping down on the illegal use of copyrighted music for weddings.
Compass’ actions have left industry players in a limbo, with some even advising their customers against using copyrighted songs in their own amateur montages.
As a result, some couples are actually opting for “silent movies” during your wedding.
Engineer Benjamin Koh (not his real name), for one, has decided to do away with music completely on his photo montage, to be shown during his wedding reception next month.
His three-week effort would show pictures of their growing-up years and courtship days in silence, without the romantic love song he and his wife had chosen.
“It’s a bummer because it’s less touching without the music, but I’m not willing to pay for the licence,” said Mr Koh, 29, who learned about this from his wedding photographer.
Although most hotels pay an annual fee for the rights to play a list of copyrighted songs in their premises, the spokesman said wedding couples still need to pay to play copyrighted songs at their reception.
The effect will definitely be less powerful but if couples are on a strict wedding budget, they really don’t have much other choice.
Will you pay more for your wedding montage or reception songlist? Will this be the end of the memorable first dance between the new husband and wife? Tell us what you think!
With Love,
Elle
