Re: CD Recording Copyright

Dear Listers,

Just to second Joachim's recommendation re: a one stop place for clearing
mechanical royalties:

In a message dated 12/2/03 10:38:32 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:

>Yes.
>
>I've never done it myself, but what you're looking for is the Harry Fox
>Agency.

Yes. HFA represents the U.S. Music Publishers Association for just this
purpose.

>They require a minimum of 500 copies.

That is correct. And they require payment *in advance*, whether you sell or
give away that many or not (or even if you don't press that many). But the
copyright law states that for mechanical royalties you only have to pay royalties
on those copies that you have *publicly distributed* after the fact (that
means sold or given away or otherwise parted with). If you do not go through HFA,
you do not have to pay in advance of sales on the number of CDs you press, as
you do with HFA.

 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).

That is correct. But most major publishers do. If you do not find a specific
piece, you will need to contact the copyright holder of that piece yourself.

 Also,
>I've heard that HFA can be rather slow at times, but again, I've never
>done it for myself.

Depends what you mean by slow. They will respond usually within a few days to
a week unless it's an astoundingly busy time (like now?).
>
>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.

Yes. That is correct. You may negotiate a lower royalty payment or no royalty
at all if you contact the permissions department of the publishers in
question yourself and ask. Or they may say that you must pay the statutory rate, even
if you ask. If you go through HFA, you will always pay the statutory rate.
And that rate is set to go up on January 1, 2004.

 However, if you're ready to just pay up and get it over with,
>HFA is probably the best bet.
>
Yep. If you don't want to deal with monthly statements of sales with checks
to each publisher (which is the legal requirement, although most pay
mechanicals quarterly or bi-yearly) and keep meticulous books on CD sales, HFA is the
way to go.

Best wishes,
Steve

Steve Barnett
Composer/Arranger/Producer
Barnett Music Productions
[EMAIL PROTECTED]