# Recording someone else's song



## mcgriff420 (Sep 30, 2008)

My band is thinking of recording a cover song for an upcoming album. Has anybody gone through this. The song in question is out of print but I'm sure there is still a copyright.

Any ballpark cost to doing this?

Thanks.


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## Guest (Oct 19, 2009)

You don't have to ask to record it. You don't owe them any money to record it.

Edit: I'm wrong here. You negotiate with the copyright holder what they'll get per-sale. The fixed rate is for public performances.

They also are owed money every time it's broadcast but the broadcaster pays that and SOCAN collects that. If you're putting it on a website or YouTube and streaming it you have to pay the per-stream royalty out of pocket since you're the broadcaster in that case.

SOCAN has a database you can search that'll tell you copyright information for songs.

That's the quick and dirty of it all.


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## jimihendrix (Jun 27, 2009)

hey there...read this...

http://www.cleverjoe.com/articles/music_copyright_law.html


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## zontar (Oct 25, 2007)

jimihendrix said:


> hey there...read this...
> 
> http://www.cleverjoe.com/articles/music_copyright_law.html


I'd always heard this from others--which is i that article-


> 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.


Of course there are catches to it--like you have to pay/track/etc the proper fees--that's some extra work.

And if you try to make it good later--it can get you into trouble.

So if I ever release any my old demos--it will be the originals...


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## mrmatt1972 (Apr 3, 2008)

So, if I understand this, You can record it without any issues, but any performance or sale of the recording needs to pay royalties. This, in theory, includes steaming. Radio and live are covered by SOCAN fees which bars and radio stations have to pay...

Right?


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