Obtaining permission to record a song

G

gascap

New member
Hi All,

The combo I'm in is mulling over the notion of recording a Christmas CD - possibly to sell. I know that hymns and more sacred material is generally fair game, but does anyone know of a website or an otherwise relatively quick way to determine how much it would cost to record...say...."The Christmas Song"?

Admittedly, I haven't done much searching myself yet, but I thought someone here might no a swell way right off the bat how to find what "the man" might want.

Thanks!
 
Just an initial thought, with Christmas music, a majority of the classics are in Public Domain, so you should be right recording and selling it without paying any royalities!

Porter
 
I think the public domain time line just changed from 50 to 75 years...so I'm not so sure about the 'newer classics' like White Christmas and such being good to go. I just have no idea what the fee might be...too much I fear for our small project.

I'm not really worried about the traditional religious songs.

Thanks!
 
I'm not too sure about the 50/705 years thing (different in OZ), but I believe that duration is after the writers death (I think!).

Porter
 
I'm no expert, but I thought the amount was fixed by statute. Do a search on mechanical licenses and you should find some info.
 
The way I undertstand the revised copyright law as of 1977 is that a copyright is protected for the lifetime of the author PLUS 75 years after the authors death.Before that the life of a copyright was 36 years.I think 18 years before that.Anything written before 1938 should be in the public domain.

Here's a pretty straight forward explanantion of the copyright law.
http://www.hsga.org/newsarchive/pubdomain.html
 
I feel like I at least have a place to start now. (good links, Kramer!)

I'll let you know how it all works out.

Thanks everyone!
 
It's been extended to 95 years now, but some items lost their protection when they hit 75 before the rule change - so Pietro Yon's Gesu Bambino (you'd know it if you heard it) is public domain, even though it's only 80 years old.

1938 would only have been 65 years anyhow - so I think you meant 1928. And UK has different rules (related to the life of the author) so theoretically some tunes could have longer protection there.

Generally, in the US, you may record a copyrighted work (that's already in general release) without permission as long as you don't materially modify the copyrighted work - i.e., melody and text. That may be a US-only rule though - if you're planning to release in Canada or UK, you may need permission.

It's usually 7 cents a copy, but some licensing agencies (notably Harry Fox - I think they're the biggest, too) have a minimum fee that can make small-run licenses unfeasible.

I'm admittedly no expert either, but I've been down this road a couple of times...

HTH,

Daf
u
c
 
As long as a song has been previously published, you can record and release it. What you need is called a "Mechanical License." You need one for each copyrighted song you release. The current fee is 8 cents per song, per CD distributed (this will be going up on Jan. 1 2004)

You pay this fee to the song's publisher. Most publishers use the Harry Fox Agency to administrate mechanical license agreements. For short run releases (certainly anything less than 10,000 copies), you can just pay up front for all copies produced.

Call them and tell them what you are doing. They'll tell you which songs they handle and how to arrange for the licenses.

If you are releasing a song that is not administrated by the FOX Agency, you need to contact the publisher directly and ask for a mechanical license agreement.
 
Thanks DC,

I'll get in touch with Harry Fox and see what happens.

Once again, this board is an awesome resource.

Cheers!
 
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