Re: Royalties for Mechanical Music
By Stephen Kent Goodman
In the last Digest, Doug Rhodes wrote:
> The royalties that are _legally_ due on the songs we perform,
> all of which were written more than 65 years ago, will increase
> the raw production cost of the CD by nearly 30%.
I cannot understand this. In the three CDs I did for Stomp Off Records, the producer never paid one dime to the Harry Fox Agency. Do your Canadian equivalents _know_ the size of your market, or have you tapped onto a huge consumer base for vintage music that none of us know about?
For myself, I am simultaneously on both sides of the fence -- I own an ASCAP publishing company, I am an ASACP composer represented by 6 other publishers, yet I work with Stomp Off Records to make sure the cost of producing CDs containing vintage material doesn't get out of hand. As most of the numbers are pre-1922 (with the exception of my own), no royalty payments are owed! It doesn't take a "Ouija Board", merely follow the copyright laws. Evidently, our friends to the North must march to the beat of a different drummer, as do the English and Europeans.
I certainly do not advocate breaking the law here, but again, realizing the relatively limited market for this music, it has been my practice to go ahead and produce the recording first, and if it actually sells out 1,000 copies (well below the 5,000 unit "demo" limit set by law), consider another 1,000 unit run. These numbers are so small in the grand scheme of modern commercial music that it seems ridiculous to even call their issuance to the attention of the licensing agencies, and if someone gets lucky and indeed goes "big time" with a major label, the profits realized should more than cover the licensing fees involved.
Now live performance (by "human" musicians) surveys are entirely different. ASCAP will pay me a royalty if they find out about so much as a single number played by some obscure brass quintet in a back-woods opery house somewhere. And the producer of the event is responsible for the payment.
But as we are talking recordings here -- both analog and mechanical. The surveying agency (Harry Fox in the U.S.A.) must first obtain documentation that so many thousands of the song has actually sold _before_ they can legally hit anyone with the bill. At least that's my understanding. I would suggest consulting an entertainment-industry copyrights & recordings attorney for the final word on this matter.
Keep Recording the Good Ol' Stuff,
S. K. Goodman
P.S. My next CD is being planned for 1998 -- a real bombshell, full of "politically incorrect" titles for minstrel band, and not a cent need be paid to Harry Fox. Ha ha ha ha ha... ;-}
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(Message sent Mon 6 Jan 1997, 17:18:25 GMT, from time zone GMT-0500.) |
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