Say I wanted to do a chiptune cover of a song. Do I have to license it? What would I need to do?
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California, USA
I do write originals but I also enjoy making covers and I'm considering releasing one.
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Legal cover song? You'll need a compulsory license.
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Brunswick, GA USA
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Texas
If you're releasing it for free (and you're in the US), and it's its own release (like a one track single), you should be fine without any kind of permission.
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Unless the number has been changed since 2008 the royalty rate is 9.1cents per song distributed for a recording under 5 minutes in length.
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Toronto, Canada
float.bridges wrote:
If you're releasing it for free (and you're in the US), and it's its own release (like a one track single), you should be fine without any kind of permission.
This is not true at all in any legal sense. In practice, though, most of the time it will be ignored, some of the time you will get a takedown notice. If you're very unlucky you can be sued.
w.r.t. YouTube, generally a cover will get flagged by the copyright holder but not taken down, and they will usually put ads on your video and collect the ad revenue. (This is a bum deal for the cover artist, but there is currently no way to get compulsory rights for a cover in a video.)
Last edited by rainwarrior (Jun 24, 2013 8:49 pm)
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Texas
rainwarrior wrote:
float.bridges wrote:If you're releasing it for free (and you're in the US), and it's its own release (like a one track single), you should be fine without any kind of permission.
This is not true at all in any legal sense. In practice, though, most of the time it will be ignored, some of the time you will get a takedown notice. If you're very unlucky you can be sued.
w.r.t. YouTube, generally a cover will get flagged by the copyright holder but not taken down, and they will usually put ads on your video and collect the ad revenue. (This is a bum deal for the cover artist, but there is currently no way to get compulsory rights for a cover in a video.)
I'm sorry. I guess I was just lucky.
It can be a real pain in the as finding the original publisher to seek permission as well, but it never hurts to email the label and ask
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San Diego, CA
well it's cool that my bandcamp release of cover songs is like 2 spots below this thread
admittedly, it's all covers of trance songs, and I'm kind of relying on my lack of popularity to get through it anyway
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California, USA
Is there a way where I would be able to not pay royalties if I am just giving it out for free?
Last edited by Dark Oyster (Jun 24, 2013 9:30 pm)
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Releasing it for free technically doesn't count. You'd still be required to pay royalties based on the copies given away.
Last edited by Ypmid (Jun 24, 2013 9:39 pm)