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  #1  
Old 04-04-2009, 07:40 PM
BobbyG BobbyG is offline
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Default Copywriting a song

I have 2 questions.

1. COPYWRITING.
I know I have seen others posting the same question from time to time, but untill now I didnt have a need to know. I have seen a few websites ranging from $ 35 to $ 150. I have also read and heard from a few "oldtimers" that I should just mail myself a copy and not open it..??.. Being here for several years I know some of my fellow members are " published " and want to know the best way to go.

2. COVER SONGS ON MY WEBSITE.
What if any are the ramifications of posting someone elses music on a website..?? There are alot of covers here on AGF. Do you need permission? Does anyone have covers on thier band sites?

Thanks for the help. Eagerly awaiting your wisdom
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  #2  
Old 04-04-2009, 08:04 PM
mud4feet mud4feet is offline
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I can't help at all with the copyright question. Interested in the responses myself. But as far as posting covers, if you're not making any money off of them, I don't see what the danger would be. What would the "original artist" sue for?? 100% of zero is still zero. Maybe I'm wrong.............someone please enlighten me (before I get into trouble!!).
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  #3  
Old 04-04-2009, 08:10 PM
BobbyG BobbyG is offline
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Valid point Mud..... but you never know. I have heard that Jimmy Buffett lets NO ONE play his stuff. Urban ledgend ? I agree 0+0 always = 0. Its the hassle and consumption of time that worries me... Thanks for the input.
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  #4  
Old 04-04-2009, 08:53 PM
weatherford weatherford is offline
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Technically, the song is copyrighted as soon as you write it. Make sure you have it documented.

You can register it with the Library of Congress for a smallish fee, if you want.

Best, however, especially if you are posting your songs for sale on the web or have self-published a CD, is to create your own "publishing company" and register it with/join ASCAP, BMI, SEASAC (if you are American - IMRO for Irish, etc). Most of them will allow you to become a member and/or publisher member with proof of performance (radio, gigs, etc) and/or proof of CD for sale. You might even get royalties that way.

You can send it to yourself, but, that's really not considered necessary anymore.
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Old 04-04-2009, 08:58 PM
BobbyG BobbyG is offline
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Thank you weatherford. Great start
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  #6  
Old 04-05-2009, 09:35 AM
Buc McMaster Buc McMaster is offline
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The way I understand these things.....

Technically, by law, a work is copyrighted by it's author when it is "fixed" with in a sound recording. It's yours. However, registering the work(s) with the Library of Congress for $30 or so makes it much easier to prove your claim in a court of law if it come to that.

Recording works by another author for public distribution requires that you pay the holder of the copyright a mechanical royalty through an agency like Harry Fox. Last I knew, the mechanical royalty was .09 cents per copy to be produced for sale. So if you press a thousand copes of a Hank Williams song, you must get a license through Harry Fox, paying $90.00 mechanical royalty plus the agencies fee. I think I paid $115.00 for recording the old Jim Reeves tune, He'll Have To Go on the last CD I did. I cannot recall how much performance royalties are, but there is a similar fee payable to the copyright holder for every public performance of a song, be it by a live band or a jukebox in the corner bar. Yes, bars must and do pay royalties for the songs in their jukebox!

Songs are registered with BMI, ASCAP, etc. so royalties can be collected and distributed to all the various parties involved.....writer, publisher, label, etc. These organizations track sales and performances of songs and collect the money. You can sign up with anyone of them for free and register as many songs as you like, but nothing happens until someone records them.

Publishing companies hold song copyrights. Your song(s) must be published before you can make any money from recordings. When you sign up with a publishing outfit, you sign the copyrights on your songs over to them and negotiate your cut as writer of the proceeds from mechanical, performance and sales royalties. Creating your own publishing company allows you to keep all of those royalties, but part of the reason for signing with a publisher is for his/her contacts in the business. If a publisher believes in you and your writing, he/she will push them to A&R people at labels, management of recording artists, etc. to get them recorded......generating money for all parties involved. If you don't have the contacts to get your songs to the right places, having your own publishing company is pretty much an exercise in vanity and futility. There is such a thing as having your own publishing company that is administered by another publishing company, usually a larger company with contacts. This splits the pie into smaller pieces, your publishing company being another mouth to feed, so to speak, but you would retain your copyrights in exchange for surrendering more of your share of the pie to the administering company. It can get quite complicated.....that's why there are entertainment and copyright lawyers.

This is all true and correct to the best of my knowledge and recollection (legal disclaimer!).
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Old 04-05-2009, 07:47 PM
BobbyG BobbyG is offline
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Wow Buc. Thank you so much. Quite informative. What do you know about posting covers on your own website. While you are not selling a pressed copy of the material, you are selling yourself performing said material ???? Or is it more like taping the superbowl without expressed written consent..??..
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  #8  
Old 04-06-2009, 08:03 AM
Buc McMaster Buc McMaster is offline
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By the law, posting your recordings of another artist's work is infringement. The author is entitled to be compensated for his work, and internet postings are considered public performance. The copyright holder should be paid performance royalties for such use of his/her work. That said, at this point in time the performance rights organizations (BMI, ASCAP, SEASAC, etc) seem to be focused on bigger fish. They have been after sites like YouTube to remove performance videos of copyrighted material posted by every Joe Blow across the world, and they have been trying to get the royalty rate increased for internet radio stations like Pandora, threatening internet radio's continued operation. And for years they have been after file sharing sites, distributing copyrighted works without paying anybody anything. An artist is entitled to be paid for his/her work and internet file sharing is theft of intellectual property. As time goes by, the people that keep track of such things are casting a wider net and looking deeper into who's doing what with copyrighted material, and rightly so. Yes, you are depriving the copyright holder of performance royalties by posting your covers of his/her works in a public forum, but I don't think you're on their radar - yet.
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  #9  
Old 04-06-2009, 08:11 AM
Buck62 Buck62 is offline
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All the info so far has been accurate, but let me add something here. If you choose to go with an established publishing company, they can hold the rights to your music and you can't shop your songs around on your own to get a deal. In other words, if they "catalog" your songs and they don't aggressively shop them in Nashville or through other means, your songs are stuck in limbo and there's absolutely nothing you can do about it.

This is why many people choose to publish their own music. It's not hard to do, you can do it by joining ASCAP or BMI and registering yourself as a publisher. There are advantages and disadvantages to both doing your own publishing or going with an established publisher. As an unknown writer, you usually have to sign away a lot of royalties and rights at first to get yourself established in the business if you go with a known publisher. But if you choose to publish them yourself, you can hire someone in Nashville (by fee or percentage or both) who has connections to the major labels so they can shop your songs around for you. Either way, you probably have a better chance of buying a winning lottery ticket than writing a few hit songs and getting them into the right hands. There's a lot of great writers out there that have paid their dues for years and years before they were given a chance on some of their songs. Just remember, if you publish your songs on your own, you own 100% of the rights to them. You can still contract your songs to a bigger publisher down the line if you choose to do so.

As a person who has written, copyrighted, and published over 20 songs (and received a publishing offer on one of them), and also played and rubbed elbows with some well-known writers in Nashville, here's the best advice I can give you from one "unknown" to another...

Join some songwriting forums on the internet for critiques and advice on how to write great songs and market your music. Here are two of the best out there...

http://www.tunesmith.net/forums/

http://www.jpfolks.com/home.html

Join ASCAP and register yourself as a publisher with them. Once you get a handle on how to "fine tune" your songs to the point where you feel you're writing pro-caliber songs, register them with the Library of Congress. It's much cheaper to register your songs as an "album" with the LOC than it is to do each one on an individual basis. At that point, you can decide if you want to move your songs through an established publisher, a song peddler, or join a service like "Taxi" and have them critique and market your songs.
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  #10  
Old 04-06-2009, 08:43 AM
Buc McMaster Buc McMaster is offline
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You are correct, Buck. An unknown writer has a snowball's chance in hell of getting something to the right hands. I am registered with BMI as a writer with about 16 songs in my catalog and none yet published, which isn't really a concern until someone wants the song. I have one that Sheryl Crow has shown interest in, so I have buddied up with a Nashville-based publisher that will execute a single song contract if Crow decides to pull the trigger. At that point I will have to decide if I want my own publishing company and have it administered by the Nashville guy, or sign over the copyright and remain just a writer, not a publisher. Without an established publisher handling things I would at least have to hire an entertainment lawyer to draw up contracts, negotiate royalty rates, etc. For the little guy, an established publisher earns his keep on this part of the deal. Sure, I would surrender my copyright and publisher royalty share for that one song, but not knowing the lay of the land, so to speak, requires the guidance of a veteran to get it right the first time.
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