cover songs

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Modern_Talking

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Good day to everyone . . .

Just a quick question . . .

I usually record more cover songs in my studio as opposed to originals. These cover songs are not being sold or made any kind of money off or anything, but they are being used for personal use only. . . like in home parties, talent shows or karaoke stuff like that . . .

Some of these people want to put up some of those tracks that I've done for them onto websites so that friends and families can download them and listen to them on their computers . . . .

Question is. can these songs be put up so that so that individuals can download them without violating any copyright laws or copyrights have to be obtained.

I myself have a couple of covers songs that I've done and want to put them up on sites like acidplanet or Myspace etc for people to listen, but don't know if its ok to do so or not . . .
I forget which site it was that I saw bands recording cover songs and posting them up for people to listen too . . . don't know if they all obtained copyright permissions or not but . . . and now I forget whcih site that was too . . . bummer !!! :confused:

thanks
 
I would think legally that ... no you can't do that... but I just don't know. I'd like to know an answer to this too.
 
I can't offer any legal advice on this, but I can show you at least 10 cover songs in the MP3 forum on this site. I can probably point you to a few dozen covers on myspace too, not to mention, we just did a show with a AC/DC cover band, and they were selling CD's

Is it legal? probaby not, but does it really matter? probably not.
 
A lot of hosting sites like nowhwereradio, recordingproject etc. will insist you get permission from the owners before posting covers, as thay can get hit for their part should things get litigous
 
You should put out your own karaoke versions of those songs on cd... of course pay the required licenses... and then start selling them! There's a market out there for that stuff, especially if they are well done, or feature songs that are hard to get that people want. Or you can contact a karaoke company to see if they will buy your karaoke versions of them so they can put them out themselves.
 
Cover songs

Nandoram said:
You should put out your own karaoke versions of those songs on cd... of course pay the required licenses... and then start selling them! There's a market out there for that stuff, especially if they are well done, or feature songs that are hard to get that people want. Or you can contact a karaoke company to see if they will buy your karaoke versions of them so they can put them out themselves.
Click to expand...

hi and thanks for all the suggestions . . .

I don't mind paying any required licences or anything, but these karaoke tracks that I do are not being sold or being profitted of or anything. I do them for people that have talent localy here and there are no bands to back them up . Since I myself play in a band and I do alot of sequencing, I though I'd made karaoke cd for their personal use and let them enjoy music this way .
Yes some of the tracks that I do you can get the karaoke tracks at local music stores, but they prefer something done more like improvised version as opposed to as original cover version.

The main reason why I had posted the first message was not actually to ask about selling or anything, but just wanted to know if I could put some of the tracks up on a web site so that all around the globe family and friends can download the song and listen to the performance instead of me sending them the cd . . . . :D
And yes, I've myself have see many cover songs on sites being posted for review, but I honestly don't know if they got the rights or not. . . .

how about this . . .
Instead of posting the full cover song, I just put up a sample of the track or I just put up half of the song for people to download. . . Would it still be considered Illegal or still no matter what, copyright permission must be obtained, even if the song is available to download in full or half or sample mode.
I've also seen on webs sites posting original commerical cover songs as sample version for you to decide if you like the song, you can purchase the full song online . . . . They give you like 1 min of the original audio to listen and then decide if you like to buy it or not. . .
I guess if big companies do that then I must think it's not Illegal to put up sample songs for people to download . . . . .
I don't know . . . . I'm still trying to understand all this copyright thing and how far one can go with this . . . .
 
Well, technically, it's a no-no to put up other people's songs (even if they are karaoke versions). Some bands are known for being litigious, like Ozzy Osbourne for example. And Metallica. If someone from one of those bands take notice, you will get a cease-and-desist from the band's management, or record company.

A lot of folks either don't know or don't care and they'll do it anyway. It's your call!

My suggestion was to take your tracks and legally try to make some money from them... don't give them away on the web. I guess I'm always the entrepreneur....
 
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