Desire Inspires
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Mechanical Licensing
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Link: The Music Bridge :: Compulsory Mechanical License Information
Copyright law states in effect, that, as long as a song hasbeen commercially recorded and released by a music publisher(s), other parties/artistscan record and commercially release their own "audio-only" version ofthe song, as long as you account for payments of each copy to the publisher(s)at time of initial manufacture, plus every quarter thereafter for additionalunits. Because you can do this yourself in most cases, here is some freeinformation to get you going.
PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS DOES NOT APPLY TO ANY AUDIO-VISUALPROJECTS SUCH AS DVD'S,FILMS, HOME VIDEO, INTERNET, DOCUMENTARIES, DIGITALMEDIA USAGES, ETC. YOU MUSTOBTAIN PERMISSION FOR THESE USAGES DIRECTLY FROM THEPUBLISHERS AND LABELS!
1. You need to obtaina mechanical (aka compulsory) license to record and release your cover of asong. Mechanical licenses can be obtained from the Harry Fox Agency for mostsongs.
2. Go to songfile dotcom and follow their instructions. The Harry Fox Agency (HFA) maintains thissite, which is specifically set up for indie projects and now has a newlylowered initial 25 unit minimum (announced 1-15-08 and reduced from 500 units)and a2500 unit maximum. This is for audio only CD's as well as DPD's (digital downloads).You can always revisit the site and pay for more units/cd's later as youmanufacture them. They accept credit cards as well as a new electronic checkpayment option.
Simply visit the site, create an account, search HFA'scatalog of almost 1.9 million songs and complete their mechanical licensingtransaction easily and quickly. Royalties are calculated at the statutorymechanical rate, which is currently 9.1 cents per copy for songs 5 minutes orless. There is also a small processing fee on each song licensed. If a userjust wants to conduct research, there is a separate Song file public searchtool on the Web site free of charge.
3. If the song youare looking fordoes not show up on the Harry Fox website, or shows up with somepercentage less than 100% (which means that not all publishers arerepresented), then search the databases at ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC and contactthose publishers directly.
4. If you still are unable to find the information you need,please feel free to give us a call at The Music Bridge, and we can then discussproviding clearance services for you for those hard to find copyrights that youcannot complete mechanical licensing on yourself.
-----------------------
Link: The Music Bridge :: Compulsory Mechanical License Information
Copyright law states in effect, that, as long as a song hasbeen commercially recorded and released by a music publisher(s), other parties/artistscan record and commercially release their own "audio-only" version ofthe song, as long as you account for payments of each copy to the publisher(s)at time of initial manufacture, plus every quarter thereafter for additionalunits. Because you can do this yourself in most cases, here is some freeinformation to get you going.
PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS DOES NOT APPLY TO ANY AUDIO-VISUALPROJECTS SUCH AS DVD'S,FILMS, HOME VIDEO, INTERNET, DOCUMENTARIES, DIGITALMEDIA USAGES, ETC. YOU MUSTOBTAIN PERMISSION FOR THESE USAGES DIRECTLY FROM THEPUBLISHERS AND LABELS!
1. You need to obtaina mechanical (aka compulsory) license to record and release your cover of asong. Mechanical licenses can be obtained from the Harry Fox Agency for mostsongs.
2. Go to songfile dotcom and follow their instructions. The Harry Fox Agency (HFA) maintains thissite, which is specifically set up for indie projects and now has a newlylowered initial 25 unit minimum (announced 1-15-08 and reduced from 500 units)and a2500 unit maximum. This is for audio only CD's as well as DPD's (digital downloads).You can always revisit the site and pay for more units/cd's later as youmanufacture them. They accept credit cards as well as a new electronic checkpayment option.
Simply visit the site, create an account, search HFA'scatalog of almost 1.9 million songs and complete their mechanical licensingtransaction easily and quickly. Royalties are calculated at the statutorymechanical rate, which is currently 9.1 cents per copy for songs 5 minutes orless. There is also a small processing fee on each song licensed. If a userjust wants to conduct research, there is a separate Song file public searchtool on the Web site free of charge.
3. If the song youare looking fordoes not show up on the Harry Fox website, or shows up with somepercentage less than 100% (which means that not all publishers arerepresented), then search the databases at ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC and contactthose publishers directly.
4. If you still are unable to find the information you need,please feel free to give us a call at The Music Bridge, and we can then discussproviding clearance services for you for those hard to find copyrights that youcannot complete mechanical licensing on yourself.
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