Is using a song for a skate/unicycle video illegal?

Is using a song for a skate/unicycle video illegal?

To get around this, if you want someone elses music in your movie and you wish to publish your movie, you have to ask permission. Once you have the authors email allowing you to use it, everything should be ok.

Or just use the music that is royalty free. Then you have the permission by default.

You still have to be careful with ‘royalty free’ music, sometimes there is hidden catches. For example, Moby releases a lot of his music for use in films, the catch is the film must be non profit.