licensing a cover tune

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supathrive

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here it is- my first post... let me just say that this forum rocks and i have already learned a lot just from surfing around on it.

so my band is planning on making 500 copies of a 2-song cd in order to promote our upcoming album. we're going to give them out for free and put them in as many head-shops and music stores we can to be taken for free.

my question is this... the 2nd song is a rock-style cover of marley's 'get up, stand up'. do we run the risk of getting in serious trouble for this? (even if we don't make any profit off it?)

i looked on harry fox to see about licensing it, but it says that the song's not available for licensing.

any ideas?
 
If it's not available for licensing, then that's pretty much it then, isn't it!

So the technical answer is.... yes, you could get into trouble from a legal perspective.

Question is.... would anyone bother? Answer - not unless there's some potential money to be had - either by winning a lawsuit, or by confiscating sales revenue.

It's your gamble.......................
 
Bear's right.

Personally, I wouldn't risk it. You might not get nailed, but you could.

Have you tried researching any of the other licensing info? Maybe there's a route alternate to the Harry Fox Agency. It might be cost-prohibitive for a free CD demo though.
 
that's kind of what i was wondering.. is there anyplace else that can license the cover?

it'd probably be worth it cost-wise because we plan to have the cover on our full lenth album too.
 
supathrive said:
that's kind of what i was wondering.. is there anyplace else that can license the cover?

it'd probably be worth it cost-wise because we plan to have the cover on our full lenth album too.
Click to expand...
Try contacting the publisher?

Dunno...never done anything other than Harry Fox Agency...that's why I said "research" instead of pointing you in any particular direction :D
 
As Don said, if you're doing a cover, they have to give you a license. It's currently $.08/copy, so if you do a run of 1000 discs, it will run you $80.

When they say it's not available for licensing, they're talking about the sound recording of Bob's version...not a cover.

And Harry Fox is the agency to go through.

Hope this helps.

David Hooper
Kathode Ray Music
www.indiebiz.com
 
suprathrive,

David Hooper and ChristopherM both gave you sound advice.

1) Contact the publisher direct ... either get a license or avoid the problem by using another song that IS available. There's only a few million to choose from.

2) Compulsories can be problems if you'd sued for damaging either the artist or the album project.

Been there.

Bear is right! And this is the kind of thing he's talking about. Doubtful anyone would sue on "use", but damage is another matter.

TDA
 
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