| Home recording and general music post from the archived Yabb Recording Website Message Board. Some of the info here may be outdated but many of the audio recording and home studio tips are still good. Note: The only tags I made and attempt to convert are italics, bold, center and underline. So if you see some gibberish surrounded by brackets, just ignore it.
Recording Website Archived Yabb board Post
Febuary 2001 Yabb Message Board Archive
Subject: royalty payments
by Glen | 03/12/01 at 12:34:27
Could someone please tell me the specifics of making royalty payments when, for example, you record a high school band and sell those cds to the students and parents. I read the excellent article by "Big D" on this site (http://www.recordingwebsite.com/articles/makingitpay.html) and would like to pursue this further but I want to be certain I am doing it legally. I have tried contacting both BMI and ASCAP and was frustrated with their vague answers on this subject.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Glen
Rodgers Sound
roso@swbell.net
<Reposted from the old music board>
Subject: Re: royalty payments
by Jon_B | 03/12/01 at 12:36:18
Man,are you ever conscientious! First of all,really old music,Sousa,Mozart,etc.are public domain works,I don't think you have to worry about their distant relatives coming after you.Secondly,I believe the statutory mechanical royalty is set at seven and a half cents per song per copy(cd or tape) and only 3/4 of that is customarily paid(for the newer material).So the huge international P.R.O.s you mentioned have other fish to fry,your phone call to them was probably analogous to calling a huge exterminating firm and telling them that you might have a housefly in your kitchen.If you really want to be on the safe side, contact the Harry Fox Agency.They represent 75% of the publishers in the U.S., or was that the world?They will give you a licence, I think.Might cost,like,$35.
Subject: Re: royalty payments
by Jack | 03/12/01 at 12:37:41
A list I'm on recently had a discussion of this same thing. A few people said that instead of Harry Fox, they contacted BMI and ASCAP and got the names of the actual publishers of the songs, and then contacted those publishers directly. One woman related that she had a Brubeck cover, and it turned out that his lawyer was his publisher, and that he was very easygoing about the whole thing. Another suggested that you check out BMI and ASCAP's website and see if you can't get the publishers info that way.
Subject: Re: royalty payments
by old_dan | 03/12/01 at 12:39:21
I think there is an exemption for educational institutions, but not sure. Like Jon B said, the best thing to do is to contact Harry Fox.
Take care,
Dan
Subject: Re: royalty payments
by BananaHead | 03/12/01 at 12:41:17
I don't really know what BMI and whatnot has to do with it. That’s songwriting stuff… performance/radio stuff. We’re talking about record sales right? From what I could tell you are talking about yourself selling cd copies and wanting to know what royalty you are to pay the artist.
It goes like this: a record label sells records, takes in all the money, then pays the artist a percentage (royalty), based on what was agreed upon in the contract, although generally recoup costs before they start paying out. In this case you are the record label (if you paid for production/recording and manufacturing and are selling it). So you pay what was agreed upon in the contract. If nothing was agreed upon because there was no contract then that is the problem. You could pay 15% or be nice and make it 30% to the artist’s central representative. How they split it up is their business.
-BH