A Writers First/Second release rights.

[JezJezJez]

I read through Donald Passman's excellent "All you need to know about the music biz" recently but it raised a question as the the US laws on covers.

Assuming I got it right, as a writer you ONLY have rights as to who records your song the FIRST time it is "Released". After that point, ANYONE can cover it so long as they give you the govt-specified %. You have no control over who/what/when after this.

So therefore potentially you could write a song which you release yourself via CDBaby, which then sells, say 10 copies. This would make the song effectively "Released" hence any other act (known or otherwise) could cover it and you wouldnt be able to influence this process at all.

I'm thinking about this with reference to "If I were a Boy". I read that Beyonce's father was desperate to get this song FIRST and as such the songwriters would have been able to negotiate a strong deal on this. However, if they had "released" this themselves first they would have been in a lot worse bargaining position.

Am I correct with this??

Thanks

Jez

 

[Racherik]

I read through Donald Passman's excellent "All you need to know about the music biz" recently but it raised a question as the the US laws on covers.

Assuming I got it right, as a writer you ONLY have rights as to who records your song the FIRST time it is "Released". After that point, ANYONE can cover it so long as they give you the govt-specified %. You have no control over who/what/when after this.

So therefore potentially you could write a song which you release yourself via CDBaby, which then sells, say 10 copies. This would make the song effectively "Released" hence any other act (known or otherwise) could cover it and you wouldnt be able to influence this process at all.

I'm thinking about this with reference to "If I were a Boy". I read that Beyonce's father was desperate to get this song FIRST and as such the songwriters would have been able to negotiate a strong deal on this. However, if they had "released" this themselves first they would have been in a lot worse bargaining position.

Am I correct with this??

Thanks

Jez

Yup, that's what I read in several books years ago. If I remember right, when doing a remake of a cover tune you have send in mechanical royalties for each copy of the song you sell. You also do not get any royalty payments for radio play. The original songwriters get those.

Racherik