Mechanical rights
 

Have you found a way to buy mechanical rights (i.e. pay songwriter's royalties) when recording covers? How pricey was it?

D.H.

You can obtain mechanical licenses through an agency:
Harry Fox Agency
Easy Song Licensing

Loudr was another place to do that. They were acquired by Spotify some time ago. There may be a link on the Spotify site.

But if this is simply for YouTube, you may not even need the license. If you see other covers of the song you're going to post, chances are the artist is fine with covers being done and they may simply claim the royalties rather than having YouTube take the song down.

Thanks, Jim, I'll check these out. I plan to use Soundcloud, which is fussier about rights issues.

D.H.

Just a clarification (I do know what it is you are actually asking) But there is an important distinction which is:
You do not need a mechanical or any license to legally "record" a cover
You do need a license to legally "publish" -release to the public a cover (as in uploading to SoundCloud)

As Jim mentioned either
the Easy Song Licensing site
or for Harry Fox their Songfile web site is probably the one you are looking for

http://www.songfile.com/

Affordable Song Licensing (affordablesonglicensing.com) is another one. They were cheapest of the 3 last time I used them. Easy Song Licensing regularly runs sales (current 15% off code is FIFTEENOFF).

The streaming fees are cheap, like $.01/stream, so $10 will pay for 1000 streams. Note, these are only for audio. The overhead/processing fees are what add up...

Right, publish - I come from a science background, and a project isn't done until it's shared with the (scientific) community.

D.H.

Thanks, Keith!

D.H.

I am curious - why would someone pay to upload cover versions of songs to Soundcloud?
I understand mechanical license for physical copies (CDs, etc).

It's legally/ethically the right thing to do?

The copyright owner of a song has *all* rights, including the publication of covers. If you don't pay for the right to "put it out there," regardless of form (i.e., physical or not), you're violating the copyright. The mechanical license puts you right with the legal requirements.

Unlike YouTube, SoundCloud does not, AFAIK, have any kind of "copyright claim" status where the real copyright owner can simply "tag" your cover and collect ad revenue, as is the case with probably most covers on YouTube.

As Soundcloud says (https://soundcloud.com/pages/copyright):

"SoundCloud is a platform for creators and we expect all SoundCloud users to respect other people’s copyright...
Because the rights afforded by copyright law are exclusive to the copyright owner(s), you will infringe copyright if you do any of those things without the permission of the copyright owner(s) - for example, if you copy or adapt a copyright work, or make it available on the Internet...
If you do use someone else's work, make sure you have the necessary permissions – this will usually take the form of a license from the copyright owner(s), which you may have to pay for."

https://help.soundcloud.com/hc/en-us...t-infringement
"If a track gets flagged by our automated system or gets reported manually for containing copyright protected material, that track is removed from your profile until the dispute can be resolved. The process is exactly the same whether you’re a bedroom DJ or an A-list artist."

Actually now digital streaming and digital downloads fall under the Mechanical license category.
From the Harry Fox Agency "Songfile" web page

I understand that licensing of a cover song is necessary on Soundcloud. I am asking why someone would record a cover song to post on Soundcloud - and hence have to pay to do so? I can't see why! The SC community is a very closed one - I've never met anyone who is not a musician use it or even mention it. If you are looking to spread your music out publicly, just make a video and post it on youtube.

I don't have equipment to make a video, and I'm not planning to invest. Also, I'd rather have the option for multiple takes, comping, etc. I don't always get something usable in one go.

D.H.

You are aware that there are a very large number of "videos" on YouTube that are simply a placard, title card, or "record cover picture" with audio?

That doesn't dictate what you want or should do, but....

Oh sure, but I'd rather work on music than fiddle around with a video, too.

D.H.