Re: CD Recording Copyright

Yes.

I've never done it myself, but what you're looking for is the Harry Fox 
Agency. They require a minimum of 500 copies. You can check out 
www.harryfox.com and www.songfile.com
I believe you have to be able to find the song in question on songfile 
(my understanding is that not ALL publishers affiliate with HFA). Also, 
I've heard that HFA can be rather slow at times, but again, I've never 
done it for myself.

One advantage to contacting publishers individually is that they might 
waive the mechanical license fee or lower it... I think they can do that 
at least. However, if you're ready to just pay up and get it over with, 
HFA is probably the best bet.

-Joachim Van Brandt

Choraltalk Gateway wrote:
> To anyone who might know,
>
> I'm going to record our high school choral concerts on CD. I'd like to
> sell them. I know there is a mechanical license to be paid for pieces
> already *distributed to the US public.* I also know the cost is 8 cents
> per piece 5 minutes or less and 1.55 cents/minute for pieces longer than
> 5 minutes.
>
> My question is - whom do I pay? Is there an easier way to do this than
> contact the publisher of every single song I record? Isn't there some
> *main office* somewhere that can provide the paperwork. I've had a
> company record and sell before, and they have taken care of mechanical
> license, but they've never requested a publisher name from me.