Hello everyone,
I'm a musician based in Milan, I'm recording some covers of Prince and I'd like to know your opinions. Please visit my site: www.palatium-italy.it and look for the page: Mp3.
It's free Download.
Thank you
Simon(e)

Ps i already put this topic in another forum here, sorry.
[This message was edited Mon Jan 13 15:44:46 PST 2003 by simonttx]

simonttx said:

If I were you I would not post free prince music here. Please do not get me wrong, I love to hear Prince covers but for some reason Prince dont. When I released my version of Purple Rain up on here, I recieved a strongly worded email from Prince's lawyers telling me I had to have copyright permissions or had to take my track down & they threatened legal action if I didnt comply. So I agreed with them that I would use only the introductory chords of Purple Rain on my site for the moment untill I have obtained legal permission.

Its really great that you have made these tracks & I & the rest of the people here would love to hear em (which Im gonna do right now) but Id hate for you to get sued for it lol. Just some heartfelt advice.

I am currently persuing the copyright & will let you know what to do if you would like to do the same.

Seriously though, copyright law is no joke & Prince seems to see even a heartfelt tribute as copyright breachment.

God bless

Lewis

Just listened, great tunes

I really thank you.

I will look for your e.mail so I can give you more details about my work and talking to you directly.

You are absolutely right, honestly, I have to tell that I wrote to Npg to know how to have the rights to play his music, but nobody answered to me.

Copyright law is not a joke and we have to pay attention about it.

Thank you again for your post, it's usefull.

simonttx said:

I had the same response from NPGMC. They are so rude there anyway, if they dont know the answer or do not want to answer they dont even have the decency to email back telling you who to contact lol.

I wouldnt keep the tracks there much longer if possible untill you have permission, take them down now if you can & check out:

http://fairuse.stanford.edu/

This gives details on how the law works. I cant give you an email address for covering Prince songs cos there aint one but you will need to find out who owns the copyright for the songs your covering (remember most of Prince's music is owned by Warner Brothers Records, not Prince or the NPG.) & contact them. Its different for every song. I had to ask warners for Purple Rain & EMI for some of the emancipation stuff. Look around

Lewis

Hello everyone,
my mp3 page has been deleted.
If you still want to listen to my music, please contact directly me at simone@palatium-italy.it
And more...
I will write in a new topic inside musician forum in prince.org about all newest songs of Prince I will record.

So contact me directly to know more about my work.

Thanks purple people listened to my mp3s.
It was my highest point.
And thanks to Prince that wrote so beautiful songs

FUCK NPGMC.

If Prince himself can;t look me in the eye and if he can say free the music while sueing ppl, well he can kiss my black ass and :I: don't give a shit if he's reading this 'caues what is it he says?

"Real Music By Real Musicians"

well, this MF is about 2 prove it on a GRANDER scale.

here's a word 2 all talented Prince musicians... COVER AGAINST ALL ODDS!!! IF U STRONGLY BELIEVE IN WHAT U DO THEN DO IT.

:I: can't stand covers myself but if :I: must in the name of rebellion, :I:'ll do it.

later

'dre

:STFU: NPGMC

DreZone said:

Im with on the unfairness but as he threatened me with legal action against me & my site, Im kinda put off. I figure I'll wait untill most of the tunes are actually his again (2006 when the warners contract expires) & then obtaining a copyright will be much easier as all the songs I need a licence for are from the same source

Lewis

You don't need Warner Bros or Prince. You go to the Harry Fox Agency. http://www.nmpa.org/hfa/mechanical.html

I have NO IDEA why or how this one agency controls any and all copyrights, but that's how it's done.

Current Mechanical Licensing costs are 8 cents per copy for songs under 5 minutes, and US$1.55 per copy for songs over 5 minutes. (say WHAH?).

http://www.nmpa.org/hfa/r...rrent.html

At least, that's what I know about it. Now, whether this Harry Fox Agency has a list of songs you CANT cover - I doubt that's the case. Look at the horrific Prince tribute CD that came out last year. Prince don't know any of those folks, but they put out the CD. The covers were, (for the most part) FAR from something Prince would get behind, and they included curse words, so you KNOW Prince WOULD have said "NO!" but the CD came out.

And additionally, there's the Foo Fighters version of Nikki that came out earlier this year - well, late last year, I mean.

So, no, you're not going to Prince or Warner Bros.

I don't know HOW this is handled in the UK or worldwide, but I imagine it's a similar setup.

thecloud9mission said:

otan said:

I tried Harry Fox but they dont deal with Prince apparently

Lewis

Please visit my site to listen to "Sometimes it snows in April".

And answer to my poll on my site.

Just question:
who would be prince now , if he couldn't try to play some Hendrix tunes ?

I'm not Prince, I'm not Hendrix.
I'm just someone from Milan that loves music and wants to share good feelings with someone else.

simonttx said:

Well said. Good luck man, we need more ppl with attitudes like yours. It's dying breed.

'dre

I just checked the Harry Fox webiste and THEY DO have numerous PRINCE songs listed for licensing...

As far as i know ANYONE can cover a PRINCE song as Warner Bros own the copyright - PRINCE has even said himself that 'anyone' can cover his songs regardless of what he wants...

SO GET THE RIGHT AND COVER AWAY i say...

Hello everyone,
feel free to fill the form inside my page to receive a free cd from me.

http://www.palatium-italy.it/mp_3.htm

Simone

i think its good

Hi Sandra,
thank you, I've just received your info, I will contact you as soon as possible.

Sandra said:

hi guys. It's cool that u like someone's music enough to want to do a tribute to it. But it's very important that if you are going to share your work publicly, to know about copyright laws. It's not about Prince or his lawyers or the NPGMC here. They are not the "bad guys." Truth is, it's the law, and you'd need permission to copy ANYONE's copyrighted work, period. Many cover bands do not realize this stuff because it's the bars that pay ASCAP fees for the permission to have live music playing in their joint. It's one thing if you just mess around with a song at home and don't play it out in any way. But if you play someone else's music in a place that hasn't paid the licensing fees (such as the internet,) there's a copyright situation. It's the same with using literature too, and poems, and speeches. Search the internet and you will be hard-pressed to find any copyrighted works of merit. Even speeches are copyrighted (MLK's speeches and letters come to mind) and you will find very few of them online for long. Or poetry by famous poets. It's easy to forget that the same laws apply online as out in the non-digital world. But anybody that does their homework on it would be smart, because who knows, someday it may be your work getting copied.

Hey !
Thanks to everyone answered to my post.
I agree with each one of you.
Copyrights issue is an important thing.

I didn't want to make music without giving to Prince what he deserves.

but Life ain't easy, there is a rent to pay and if GWB will bomb that place, gas will be more xpensive.

so I ask to everyone of you to forgive me, if i don't pay the fees , for now.

anyway i stopped to upload music on my site, because im a little bit worried about this issue.

you can give me your address and i will send to you a cd full of music, who will be the writer of the songs, well you will see. maybe it's me or not.

just today I record a good version of "muse of the pharoah" too bad that you can hear this version...

I love you all
simo

just for April 2nd 2003, you can download "The everlasting now" right here:
http://www.palatium-italy...eyq21a.htm

see you there

thecloud9mission said:

i thought you said they gave permission to post the covers, but you actually got in trouble for posting the 'days of wild' montreal single...

maybe i misunderstood your posts before, but i was pretty sure that's what you said you got the letter about...

rio said:

No they told me the covers wernt allowed either. I wish he'd given me permission to do the covers but nope. They agreed I could do short clips untill I had permission