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Author: musiclaw

Recording a Cover Version

“Compulsory Mechanical Licenses”: The Facts and the Fictions Q: “Please review this document. Do you know what a fax is?” A: “Yeah, I do, man. It’s when you tell the truth, man, tell it like it is. That is what the facts is.” —Excerpt from a trial transcript, from Uncle John’s Great Big Reader When it comes to compulsory licenses, here’s “what the facts is.” Before you put out a record containing your cover versions of songs written by somebody else, you’re required by the federal copyright statute to first obtain a “mechanical license,” which typically comes in the form of a two or three page...

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Music Placement Companies

One of the many developments in the music business recently is the increasing presence of so-called “Music Placement Companies,” aka “Pitching Companies.” The sole focus of these companies is to represent indie artists, songwriters, and small indie labels for purposes of getting their music used in movies, TV shows, commercials, computer games, and elsewhere. [mkd_separator class_name="" type="normal" position="center" color="" border_style="" width="" thickness="" top_margin="" bottom_margin=""] Until the mid to late 1990s, most submissions for films, TV shows, etc. were done by the TV/Film departments of record companies and music publishing companies. But starting in the 1990s, record companies and publishing companies started downsizing significantly, and many of the people who...

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