Not Really Looking For Promotion

brother rat

brother rat

All mics sound the same.
I'm not interested in being a rock star. I just want to publish some songs I've recorded and I want to do it properly. Got a few questions:

1. Should I join BMI or ASCAP?
2. How can I copyright arrangements of public domain works?
3. I have a song which is public domain lyrics set to a copyrighted arrangement (of a public domain/traditional song). How can I go about publishing that legally? How can a contact a copyright holder and ask permission?
4. When recording a copyrighted song that is, for example: (c) Some Guy's Name 1927, (c) renewed 1954. How can I possibly contact that "person" if that's all the info I have?

5. Are these dumb questions? Should I have used the search button?

Thanks for your help.
 
brother rat said:
I'm not interested in being a rock star. I just want to publish some songs I've recorded and I want to do it properly. Got a few questions:

1. Should I join BMI or ASCAP?
BOTH
2. How can I copyright arrangements of public domain works?
YOU CANNOT
3. I have a song which is public domain lyrics set to a copyrighted arrangement (of a public domain/traditional song). How can I go about publishing that legally? How can a contact a copyright holder and ask permission?
YOU CANNOT
4. When recording a copyrighted song that is, for example: (c) Some Guy's Name 1927, (c) renewed 1954. How can I possibly contact that "person" if that's all the info I have?
YOU CANNOT
5. Are these dumb questions? Should I have used the search button?
YOU ANSWERED YOUR OWN QUESTION - USE GOOGLE
Thanks for your help.
NP
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brother rat said:
I'm not interested in being a rock star. I just want to publish some songs I've recorded and I want to do it properly. Got a few questions:

1. Should I join BMI or ASCAP?
You cannot join both, you must choose one by researching which seems to fit you best. You only need to join if you can count on generating public performance revenues from live performance or broadcast - if this is unlikely, you might not need to join at this point in time. You may also join Sound Exchange in addition to one of the above groups to collect internet and satellite radio royalties if you are expecting plays on these mediums.
2. How can I copyright arrangements of public domain works?
The SONG would remain public domain as you mentioned, but you can copyright a sound recording of your performance and arrangement of the song. Best place to go for your copyright questions is straight to copyright.gov and read their FAQ's.
3. I have a song which is public domain lyrics set to a copyrighted arrangement (of a public domain/traditional song). How can I go about publishing that legally? How can a contact a copyright holder and ask permission?
If you publish this legally, you will have to pay mechanical performance royalties on a per copy basis, which means if you won't be making money, you will actually be loosing it. None the less, look at limelight.com and you can obtain these licenses there.
4. When recording a copyrighted song that is, for example: (c) Some Guy's Name 1927, (c) renewed 1954. How can I possibly contact that "person" if that's all the info I have?
Use the BMI or ASCAP search functions to search for that song and find out who the publisher is - that is you can contact regarding the song.

5. Are these dumb questions? Should I have used the search button?
Copyright can be confusing, but like I said, copyright.gov does a pretty good job of answering these questions and providing tutorials.
Thanks for your help.
Click to expand...

Hope it is helpful!
 
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