Regarding cover songs...

[Whoopysnorp]

My band, Genital Hercules, does a lot of cover songs in concert. Most of these are obscure songs that we feel deserve the light of day or oddball things like the Price is Right theme or Madonna songs. We do this song called 'Tits' by Sparks, which is a great and unfortunately obscure band. Our singer is keen to record our version and put it on the album we are about to make. I was thinking of getting it pressed, but even so there probably wouldn't be more than a few hundred copies around. Should we worry about getting permission from Sparks to sell a disc with this song on it? If so, how do we go about it?

 

[David Hooper]

You need to pay a mechanical royalty on all copies pressed. That's $.08/copy.

You can do it through the Harry Fox Agency or directly through the copyright owner.

 

[dafduc]

Permission is only required if you make changes to the melody or lyrics. In the US, anyhow. I think Waldo intimated that that's not true everywhere.

I was working with a $.07 figure, but that may be obsolete. HFA's not the only game in town, either, I know my publisher uses The Nashville Company.

Daf