Fair Use of Covers for Studio Site

[thundercage]

Ok, here's a legal question for someone to wrangle.

A band has recorded a demo CD of cover tunes to get gigs with and to include in promo packs.

I would like to post a 30 second clip of the music (each song) on the studio's web site to provide perspecive clients examples of the studio's mixing and mastering skills.

Is this covered as legitimate fair use, or can I expect the major labels to hassle me over this?

[Buck62]

I don't believe it would be a problem, as long as you have a disclaimer stating the reason for the use of the clips.

Record labels only care that you're not making $$$ on one of their artist's work. I would keep the clips at a :15 second maximum, though. Otherwise ASCAP and BMI might get ya!

[thundercage]

Originally posted by Buck62
I don't believe it would be a problem, as long as you have a disclaimer stating the reason for the use of the clips.

Would this also hold true for the band? If the band wanted to post 15 second clips to gain the interest of clubs on their own web site?

If it's a problem for the band, what if they posted a link to the studio site?

[glynb]

Regardless of the rights and wrongs what's the chances of being sued anyway?

So you have a few 30 second clips on your site, even if it is not allowed someone from the industry would have to right to you first to tell you to stop doing it, only if you refused and persisted would you be in trouble I would have thought? Though I guess you are concerned not to break the law in the first place right?

Either way, unlikely that you'd end up in court unless you were making a lot of money out of doing it?

[ChristopherM]

Originally posted by glynb
Either way, unlikely that you'd end up in court unless you were making a lot of money out of doing it?

Some might say that by getting gigs, you are making money from it.

That being said, I know tons of people who've done it. Every cover band I've ever played in did it. I did when I first started solo gigging, because I didn't have much original stuff and wanted to show how Hendrix's "Purple Haze" and Queen's "Spread Your Wings" work just fine on solo acoustic.

Cheers.
Chr...uh...some guy using ChristopherM's account who is going to remain
nameless because Queen has a history of lawsuits (remember Vanilla Ice?).