Recording covers for others / Licensing

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chuckie321

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Greetings,

A couple weekends a go, I recorded a couple of bands who did some covers. I was curious what I need to do before releasing the CD to them to cover my butt on the legal side of the licensing issue. The main purpose for this recording was for evaluation of their performance, but if they decided to make copies for all of their buddies, they'd obviously need licensing. Should I have them sign a form indicating that they understand that they need to get licensing for any non-original material? Thanks,

Brian
 
You don't need to do anything, but they'll need to pay mechanical royalties (usually through Harry Fox) if they press anything.
 
You have absolutely no responsibility. Also, they don't need to pay royalties unless it is sold or broadcast in a commercial establishment. Giving it out to their friends for free does not violate the license.
 
MXStudios said:
You have absolutely no responsibility. Also, they don't need to pay royalties unless it is sold or broadcast in a commercial establishment. Giving it out to their friends for free does not violate the license.
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Really? I always thought that was just one of those "gray area" things. I produced a fundraising CD a year or so ago for some friends and was told that offering CDs for "free" by suggested donation didn't count... So I went the licensing route which was a lot of hassle (I appreciate indie artists because I am one, but trying to get licensing from some of them is a gigantic hassle...).

Brian
 
Recording the stuff is different that releasing it. If you're going to press up copies, you need to pay mechanical royalties on it. And if you're using the sound recording from somebody else, you need to license that as well.

If you're doing a charity thing though, you'll likely be able to get a discounted rate.

Mechanical is $.09/copy/song, so it's not a lot of money. Maybe $1/CD if you've got an album full of covers. A lot less than getting into legal trouble...that's for sure.
 
David Hooper said:
Mechanical is $.09/copy/song, so it's not a lot of money.
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Well, $.085, but who's counting? :) http://www.harryfox.com/public/licenseeRateCurrent.jsp I must say that experiencing the licensing process did help me to learn a TON about it that I didn't know. There's just still some that I haven't got yet. I know that if one of these charity projects comes up again, I'll look over and review the songs they want to do BEFORE they decide to go to studio to be sure licenses can be obtained... I had to toss some songs out since I couldn't license them (sometimes b/c I could get permission from 2 out of 3 of the original writers, but the 3rd one's share was nowhere to be found!).

Brian
 
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