This is like that deadmau5 track DJ Cutman did an edit thing of a while back - you have to pay per download/free purchase, and there are rules and restrictions that define how much you pay per unit (download/purchase/whatever). If I recall DJ Cutman followed the rules and nothing bad happened.
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thebitman wrote:
This is like that deadmau5 track DJ Cutman did an edit thing of a while back - you have to pay per download/free purchase, and there are rules and restrictions that define how much you pay per unit (download/purchase/whatever). If I recall DJ Cutman followed the rules and nothing bad happened.
Well other than the fact there is another deadmau5 track floating around in the world.
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How would you guys suggest I go about licensing?
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If you want to license for downloads (at ~9c a download), this site makes it easy, though they charge a significant overhead: https://www.songclearance.com/
If you want to do some more footwork, you can dig up the info you need and mail notices/cheques to the copyright holders yourself, and save that overhead.
If you want to license for video (e.g. YouTube), you need to actually talk to them and make a deal. In the majority of cases this is impossible.
As said already in this thread, though, in practice if you put up an unlicensed cover it will almost always be unnoticed/ignored/tolerated/accepted by the copyright holder. The cases where people do get sued usually involve a moneymaking situation. I'm saying these are tendencies, but if you're not going to license you will be taking a risk (they can still sue you even if you didn't charge for it, if they want).
In my own experience, I've covered some notable things, and I pay the mechanical licensing for downloads that I sell. I also put them on youtube, and all that happened was the owners flagged it as theirs and put ads on my video so they'd make revenue on it. (Either that or they've been ignored, or just flagged as theirs but not taken down.)
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If you do decide to go the legal route it would be a good idea to not release your album as a free download. Especially if it's all covers and not just one song. That way you're not paying out of pocket every time someone tries out your music.
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All of this just seems like such a pain. I wouldn't want to have to keep track of downloads and streams for forever in order to pay royalties.
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Rainwarrior's link (https://www.songclearance.com/) takes care of keeping track of royalty payouts so you don't have to micromanage.
Creative commons only covers new original works not existing ones. If you're taking somebody's song and using it for your own benefit (i.e. profit and promotion) then that artist will most likely want to be compensated for that (or his lawyer's will want their artist to be compensated).
But, yeah. It's a huge annoying hassle that just barely make any sense. It'd be nice to know other's experience with any problems after covering songs for a release.
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Yeah, I know about Creative Commons only being for new original works. I just like it because it makes things easier. I release my music under creative commons so make derivative works and share them for non-commercial purposes guys!
Last edited by Dark Oyster (Jun 25, 2013 2:29 am)
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Dark Oyster wrote:
Yeah, I know about Creative Commons only being for new original works. I just like it because it makes things easier. I release my music under creative commons so make derivative works and share them for non-commercial purposes guys!
On it! If only everyone did that! But after you hit it big and your old stuff becomes super popular you're going to be all, "Dang, I should have copyrighted all that and licensed it out via my publishing firm to collect royalties so I can afford to pay for booze 'n yacht ladies!"
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So wait, having a cover song here on cm.o with a CC license is actually illegal?
Crap...
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No my link doesn't keep track of anything. It's just a convenient place to pay royalties for your licenses. You need to keep track of how many downloads you get, and make sure you pay enough.
i.e. you might pay royalties for 250 downloads at songclearance.com, and then once you sell more than 250 downloads, you need to pay for more. Songclearance.com has no idea how many downloads you're selling, and doesn't keep track of any of that (your online store should track this for you, whether it's bandcamp or CDBaby or whatever).
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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.
True, and covers free for download are ignored more than covers that cost money.
Also goes for soundtracks of video clips for nonprofit organisations over profit organisations
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rainwarrior wrote:
No my link doesn't keep track of anything. It's just a convenient place to pay royalties for your licenses. You need to keep track of how many downloads you get, and make sure you pay enough.
Oops, that's what I get for barely reading what they offer. That is less convenient!