Unfortunately, you just pay the fee on songs that are publicly licenced. i.e., Prince (or WB) has okayed only a small number of his hits to be licensed on their site (the Harry Fox site). For the rest of his catalog, you DO have to have some crazy ass kind of approval from Warner Bros. I seriously wonder if Prince's people put the whole damn WB catalog on hold to spite WB.

I can't just release the record and "oops!" pay him on the flipside. You have to have legal documents okaying your copy of the song before you can print CDs of it. The Verve put out a song with a Rolling Stones sample on it, planning to comp them on the flipside.

And now, thanks to some ass-kicking lawsuits from the Stones, the Stones get every dime that song and album will ever make for the Verve (Vervepipe? I forget which). No thanks.
[Edited 2/20/06 14:37pm]

I want to put my cover of IWD4U on my next record.

I've checked Harry Fox Agency and CALLED Warner Brothers and left messages. is there ANYBODY on this site who has connections or KNOWS somebody who has connections to get me some kind of clearance on this song?

Surely it can be done, I think there's already two covers of it floating around. My version is way better, but, you know, art is blind or something.

Unfortunately, you just pay the fee on songs that are publicly licenced. i.e., Prince (or WB) has okayed only a small number of his hits to be licensed on their site (the Harry Fox site). For the rest of his catalog, you DO have to have some crazy ass kind of approval from Warner Bros. I seriously wonder if Prince's people put the whole damn WB catalog on hold to spite WB.

I can't just release the record and "oops!" pay him on the flipside. You have to have legal documents okaying your copy of the song before you can print CDs of it. The Verve put out a song with a Rolling Stones sample on it, planning to comp them on the flipside.

And now, thanks to some ass-kicking lawsuits from the Stones, the Stones get every dime that song and album will ever make for the Verve (Vervepipe? I forget which). No thanks.
[Edited 2/20/06 14:37pm]

beauhall said:

you make it sound like the Rolling Stones were wrong for defending their rights.
the song by the Verve was a rewrite of the Stones song no question about it.
Same thing happened to George Harrison in the late 70's..the judge deemed "my sweet lord" to be an unconsious rewrite of "He's so fine" and lost $$$..Artists have a right to decide who does what with their music

how can i hear your version, sounds cool

http://www.beaurocks.com/beau/ click on LISTEN

beauhall said:

you make it sound like the Rolling Stones were wrong for defending their rights.
the song by the Verve was a rewrite of the Stones song no question about it.
Same thing happened to George Harrison in the late 70's..the judge deemed "my sweet lord" to be an unconsious rewrite of "He's so fine" and lost $$$..Artists have a right to decide who does what with their music

The Verve put out a song with a Rolling Stones sample on it, planning to comp them on the flipside.

And now, thanks to some ass-kicking lawsuits from the Stones, the Stones get every dime that song and album will ever make for the Verve (Vervepipe? I forget which). No thanks.
[Edited 2/20/06 14:37pm]

Thank you very much!

I just registered for the rights at warnerchappel.com! Hey hey! I'll finally get to add the song to my CD!

Well. Gotta wait to hear from the suits, but MAN! I'm excited. I tried to get permission in time for the release of my CD, but I couldn't pull it off, but now... I think I'm just going to re-release the CD with this song on there as well.

But then I discovered an interesting legal fact: Once a song has been commercially released by an artist, that artist's song may be re-recorded and released by anyone who chooses to do so. This holds true, provided that the melody/lyric isn't substantially altered in the "cover" version, and that they pay proper fees/royalties directly to the song's copyright holder. (On the flip side, if you release a disc with cover songs on it, then try to obtain proper licensing after the fact, you're no longer eligible—and possibly subject to penalties/prosecution for copyright infringement!) All I needed to do was investigate who owned the publishing rights to those Jimi Hendrix and Billy Joel songs. This information (including each publisher's address) was readily available through the following Performance Rights organizations:

BMI (www.bmi.com)
ASCAP (www.ascap.com)
SESAC (www.sesac.com)

Later, I found that the above "publisher's search" process could be sped up considerably by going through the Music Publishers' Association's web site (www.mpa.org).

After obtaining both publishers' contact info, I was left with that resounding "Now what?" feeling. Again, the ol' internet paid off. I found I needed to send to each publisher what's referred to as a Notice of Intention to Obtain Compulsory License for Making and Distributing Sound Recordings. After more cyber searching, I finally found out what the heck that was—at the overwhelmingly incomprehensible (to my neophyte self) U.S. Copyright Office web site. Reading that document was almost enough to make me toss in the towel (and my cookies). But then, much to my satisfaction, I came across this totally "pre-fab" (RTF) letter, designed by a friendly webmaster—"fill-in-the-blanks" style—for submission to artists' publishers. This letter appeared to adhere to the specifications (PDF) prescribed by the US Copyright Office.

Look, [Name calling snip - luv4u], don't talk about stuff you don't know, okay? The Stones got ZILCH because they don't own the rights to that song.

BartVanHemelen said:

Goddammit Bart... you're STILL an asshole aren't you?

MartyMcFly said:

So? Save your anger for those who spread lies, bullshit and hype.

That's the Bart I remember! Haven't seen him post in this forum in a while.

I want to put my cover of IWD4U on my next record.

buncha informative, although, historically oh-so-nasty stuff

beauhall said:

Hey, Mr. Hall!

When's the next record comin'?!!

I still have 'Unh!' in my car!

Easy, kid!



my edit is this:

I really like the cover of "Life Can Be So Nice" much better.
That shit's rockin' my phones for the third time tonight!

another->

my edit is over
[Edited 2/21/06 11:41am]