Royalties on non-profit music CD

[DFDuck]

What is the name of your state? CA

I participate in a blues music web discussion forum. We are talking about creating a compilation CD of forum members music which would include some cover tunes, solely for the purpose of hearing what each other sounds like. Members are from all parts of the world. Our plan is to only distribute this CD to forum members only, and only charge for the media and shipping cost, so there is no profit. And would put "NOT FOR SALE" on each CD. And we are also considering posting the songs (mp3's) in a password protected web directory, and emailing the login name/password to forum members only.

To my understanding royalty fees are based on revenue generated from total sales. And since we are not selling anything there is no loss to any song writers.

So this is a two part question; 1. Are we required to pay royalty fees on the production of the CD if there is no profit being made from it. 2. Can we publish the mp3's on the web without infringing on the song writers intellectual propery rights?

.. I "tried" to be brief.
Thank you,
D.F. Duck

 

[hexeliebe]

BRIEFLY;

1.YES

2. NO!

 

[DFDuck]

Ok, we can scratch the web idea.

How do you calculate royalty fees due when there is $0.00 profit made and probably 100 or less total CD's produced? To my understanding royalty fees are somewhere around 8 cents per song per cd sold. Does media cost +shipping = "sold"? Maybe 15 cents for a blank CD + maybe $1 shipping cost (including mailer pouch).

Now I need to figure where to find the info to determine who owns songs that most of the song writers have been deceased many decades. And which of the songs are in the public domain. I expect many of them are not interested in collecting such a small amount of money; they are interested in thousands of dollars not penny amounts, and will give me permission. Most the musicians involved in this project are beginners and amature so it's not really a salable product (which isn't our intent anyway), or of much interest to anyone other than our select small group.

Thank you,
D.F. Duck

 

[hexeliebe]

first of all you're not dealing with royalty agreements here. If you licensed the music from ASCAP or BMI you would then pay a flat license fee THEN a royalty on top of that.

If you've ever gone to a club and listened to a live band doing covers you might think your idea is o.k. much like the band who doesn't make a profit from the song but does for their playing of it.

Well, most reputable bands won't play in clubs that are not members of ASCAP or BMI because if they did and they 'covered' another artist's music, they could be found in violation of the copyright.

That's why the two organizations have a sliding scale and it's based on the amount of time the song is played and how many repititions are played.

I would suggest not including any 'cover' songs in your compilation and sticking with those that are original (make sure that you have releases signed by all people who contribute original material to the cd). This way you don't have royalty or license fee problems.

 

[DFDuck]

hexeliebe,

Thank you for your advice. I guess we may have to scrap the whole idea or at least make some big alterations to our plans. Since most beginner musicians arn't accomplished song writers, and blues music basicly revolves around songs written in the 20's 30's and 40's. And none of us has a spare couple thousand
dollars to finance a small handfull of free cd's passed between friends.

Seems our only safe option is to stick with what is in the public domain. Which does include quite a lot of the old "standard" blues tunes. Now just to find a listing of which of the 60 to 80 year old songs are in fact PD.

Thank you for your time,
D.F. Duck

 

[hexeliebe]

"Crossroad Blues" was until about 18 years ago when Robert Johnson was re-discovered. But old standards such as his are no longer hidden from the public.

Why don't you get together and record a good jam. Start with a basic blues riff and just see where it goes?

 

[DFDuck]

hexeliebe,

Yes, I'm aware Robert Johnson isn't in the public domain. And that Eric Clapton was the very first to pay his estate, for recording "Crossroads" with Cream.

Nice idea to just get together and jam. But physicly impossible since very few of us live in the same town or area, let alone same state, or country.

D.F. Duck

 

[hexeliebe]

You've got to be kidding. I have an old buddy from college who I still 'Jam' with although I am now in Nashville and he lives in Kansas City.

Here's how we do it.

I write the chord progressions out and lay down the basic rythym track on my computer. Then I e-mail it to him. He lays down a separate lead track and e-mails it back. That's when I lay down the bass and refine the rythym, add vocals if necessary then one last trip to him where he sets up the drum line and any horns (sax is a killer).

Once I get the finished tracks back I separate them, re lay all, sync them and do my levels and scripting then lay out the master.

you see, with a computer, a modicum of knowledge, very cheap software and time, you can do just about anything you want.

 

[DFDuck]

hexeliebe,

Yes.. I've been slowly trying to educate some of these guys on computer recording. Most are old phartz (like me) and arn't very computer literate. Many of them were going to do their recordings on tape.

Still hard to be a blues musician without wanting to play some of the half century or older standards. I'm still going to search for a listing of public domain blues songs. There are still hundreds of them... just knowing which ones is the trick.

D.F. Duck

 

[hexeliebe]

well then, all I can say is good luck.

by the way, I'm almost 50 and I only learned computers 14 years ago ...so there's still hope for the old farts....

 

[DFDuck]

hexeliebe,

You're pretty quick on the replies for an old phart I'm looking at 50 myself and only been playing with these infernal machines 34 years now; practicly a newbie.

D.F. Duck

 

[DFDuck]

hexeliebe,

Thanks again for you suggestions and information.

I have emailed ASCAP on this matter hoping they can give me some advice.

Thank you,
D.F. Duck