Karaoke Scenes Without the Copyright Hangover
Dream a little dream on a micro-budget: Songs you can actually film
Karaoke is romantic, embarrassing, revealing, and occasionally catastrophic. It’s one of cinema’s most economical ways to turn private emotions into very public spectacles. Memorable songbird moments range from Lost in Translation (2003) to When Harry Met Sally… (1989), where a microphone becomes a vehicle for everything from seduction to humiliation. Perhaps one reason filmmakers don’t use the device more often is the complicated and potentially costly business of securing music rights.
Songs Indie Filmmakers Can Use
From torch songs to drunken lounge acts, a surprising number of recognizable classics are now in the U.S. public domain. Here’s how to bring them into your next script without paying to license the underlying composition.
But for independent filmmakers, there’s a catch: music licensing.
A character belting out a famous song may seem like a harmless bit of atmosphere, but incorporating that song into a film can require expensive permissions. And the fact that someone is singing it themselves doesn’t automatically make it free.
Fortunately, the public domain has become a lot more interesting.
Public Domain Songs
On the Sunny Side of the Street
Livin’ in the Sunlight, Lovin’ in the Moonlight
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What Is This Thing Called Love?
I’ve Got a Feeling I’m Falling
Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out
On January 1, 2026, musical compositions copyrighted in 1930 entered the U.S. public domain, joining earlier classics. That includes songs later made famous by artists such as Nina Simone, Ray Charles, Cass Elliot, and Marlene Dietrich.
These aren’t obscure nineteenth-century parlor songs. They’re recognizable, funny, sexy, and often perfect for a karaoke scene.
First, the important distinction: the song versus the recording
A song has two potentially separate copyrights.
The composition covers the underlying music and lyrics.
The sound recording covers a particular recorded performance.
When the underlying composition is in the public domain, filmmakers can generally create a new recording of that composition for a U.S. production without obtaining permission from the former composition copyright owner.
That doesn’t mean they can automatically use Nina Simone’s recording of “My Baby Just Cares for Me” or Cass Elliot’s recording of “Dream a Little Dream of Me.”
Those performances have their own rights.
The practical solution is to hire musicians, create your own arrangement from the original public-domain composition, record your own backing track, and have your actors sing over it.
That gives you creative control as well as a much cleaner music-rights situation.
Sources and further reading
- Duke Center for the Study of the Public Domain — Public Domain Day 2026
- U.S. Copyright Office — What Musicians Should Know About Copyright
- Library of Congress — 1929 Works in the Public Domain
- Smithsonian National Museum of American History — Happy Days Are Here Again, 1929 sheet music
This article addresses U.S. public-domain status and general production considerations, not legal advice. Rights should be verified for the exact version and territories of distribution.
