Musician Forum - Band Discussion Board - BandMix

The scenerio is: I would like to make an Xmas CD and would like to sell them in my little town or on the web. There will be original material plus some songs that aren't. Willing to pay for the use of copy material, I want to do this honestly and legally and pay for the use. Wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of the Industry that I love. Can anyone tell me what the fee is they charge for using copywritten material or were I can get an answer.
Any help would be appreciated.....
Thanks
Bobby Alan

As I understand it, fees range from small to large, depending upon who owns the song, & its popularity.

You can get away with using some "traditional" songs that have no ownership anymore, or are looked at as owned by us all.

Look up o/l the songs you want to use. Check the copyrights & writers for them there. Many times, the owner of the copyright is NOT the songwriter, as he or she may have sold the rights to those songs, as in the case of a lot of Beatles tunes written by Lennon/McCartney are now owned by Michael (cough) Jackson.

For example, I believe "White Christmas" still has an active copyright, & you would need permission to record & sell it, & send the owner of said copyright his share of the proceeds.

In some cases, recording rights are sold outright for a set fee, or are set in addition to proceeds from air time & such. In the case of W-Xmas, you'd need to find out who owns the copyright, contact them & get their written permission, & set up whatever fee schedule they require.

"Good King Wenceslas" (or however the hell you spell it) is a traditional song, & you may record & sell your own version without paying anyone.

Tks Phil.
Have a Happy Holiday Season. Time for VodkaThirty.
Bobby

There's a service where you can pay one fee and record a bunch copywritten tunes. I forgot the name of the service (some guy's name but it escapes me). I think the fee is under $400. The guy who runs the studio where I do my recording told me about it. You probably can find the name of this service by calling the pro studios in your area and asking. Good luck

Hey Fishermsn Bob, thanks for the input. Didn't remember that I posted this. After all, it was holiday time......
Bobby

Thanks Phil, sorry it took so long to respond. Christmas and all.........

There's a site called; "CD Baby". Not only can they copyright your original songs, post your CD online and retail it, they have an area to pay royalities for cover songs.

It is cheap, I signed up just for that alone. I think it all comes in under $50. less the royalties which are like .007 cents, (7/10 cent), per song.

I know of several people that have used them, but no real feedback yet.

It is free to sign-up/in but it is not a well laid out site. Kinda confusing to surf around or find what your looking for.

Hope this helps a little. Maybe next christmas, heehee........