I am part of a musical group...we are new...all college students...and broke...so we are looking for a rather inexpensive way to make and produce a cd of our music...we a lot of covers...a lot of folk songs...and some original work...so can anyone help me out on copyright laws...making the cd...production...ect...thanks~
Happy to share what little knowledge I may have. Please keep in mind these are my experiences only and there will be many ways to accomplish your goal. Hopefully others will share as well (I wouldn't mind learning another trick or two!)
You mention you are college students. Any chance your university has a recording facility? Or local college? A project like this would be ideal for a student producer to sink his or her teeth into. Our group uses a regular recording studio but I know many who use basements, garages...
As too legalities, if a song is "public domain" and you are absolutely sure it is "public domain" there are no licensing fees associated with recording. There is a website www.harryfox.com where authors can register their songs. By doing a search you may find an author to whom you will pay, through this agency, what is called a "Mechanical License". Current rate is about $100 for I think 2,500 copies (I haven't been out to the site in a while if someone knows the current rates please feel free to correct). Be careful when using this service. In addition to listing actual authors many listings for arrangements will come up. Unless you are doing someone Else's arrangement, and I think there is some kind of % used to determine this, you do not need to pay these individuals. Only the actual author of the piece. Now many of the songs we share in this community can sometimes seem like they have been around forever and therefore we think they are public domain. It is always better to ere on the side of caution than to make that assumption. Ask around, post on boards like this, anything you can do to make sure the person whose creative property you may be using gets the payment, and recognition on any liner notes, they deserve. It is not a perfect process, so mistakes do happen. We try to make it known that if we do make a mistake we are more than happy to make up for it. We have traced people who no longer have modern communication means (ie. they live in communities without modern facilities) and have made payments.
I wish you much success and don't let the first one stop you from making the second. I swore after CD #1 there would never be a CD#2 and we are now up to CD #5.
Dracconia,
How much of your 'cover' songs are note for note, word for word, phrase for phrase identical to the original performer? With your group's folk songs, how many are public domain and how many are from the 1960's folk movement (Mama & Papas, Joan Baez, Peter, Paul & Mary; Simon and Garfunkel, etc)? If your songs are not public domain, you will need to contact the owner/agent of EACH person who's song you are performing to obtain permission to sell the work and to find out how much royalties will cost your group. After all, your group is NOT giving away their CD's - they are selling them for profit. I see you are out of Texas, do check with the Texas Copywrite office (unsure what the exact name of office is) - do a websearch for "Texas Copywrite Laws" and see what comes up. Also, do another search for "public domain" to get a complete list of regulations on what constitutes public domain.
Most importantly, before you guys ever cut a CD - know the law and do your research. It may delay your CD release but, it will be much better to have the money to produce your CD and not be sitting in jail.
Once you guys have your knowledge and have found someone to make a master of your CD - I suggest DiskFactory (http://www.diskfaktory.com/) to have your CD's pressed. They do wonderful work and have a quick turnaround - this is the company I use for my own troupe's CDs.
I hope I've been able to assist you in your quest. Do let me know how you progress and when your finished CD is available, aye?
Fair Winds and Following Seas,
Emerald
Well first off if your in Colorado my "studio" is very humble and I'm still learning and growing but I would record it for free as I'm always up for practice (I'm a music major with hopes of working with recording/producing). On the other hand, there are cheap programs and microphones out so you could get away with spending a couple hundred bucks and it sounding decent. I would also reccomend www.discmakers.com because they offer a bunch of options for cd reproduction and merch/promo. Keep in mind that if you use cd copying services they may require proof that you have a right to use that song. Just have fun with it.
I'd like ot add a recommendation for Oasis - they have been an amazing company, great prices, everything always arrives on time, and they are super helpful and nice - there's a person who is assigned to my account, remembers my name, and knows what I want.
Both diskfactory and Oasis do "short runs" where you can order 100-500 cds and see if what you wanted is working before committing to 1000 disks.
Also - you will look online and find places that appear to be cheaper than Oasis and Diskfactory. They are not, because the two companies mentioned here have prices that include masters, packaging, etc, whereas the super-cheap prices you find online have a bunch of hidden additional costs and they don't guarantee your turnaround time.
Copyright laws state that copyright holds for the author's life plus 70 years.
Works created after 1/1/1978 - life of the longest surviving author plus 70 years
Works registered before 1/1/1978 - 95 years from the date copyright was secured.
Works registered before 1/1/1923 - Copyright protection for 75 years has expired and these works are in the public domain.
Some authors have specifically placed their work in the public domain.
For making short run disks I suggest http://www.createspace.com (http://www.createspace.com) because they are relatively inexpensive, they provide free UPC codes, free proof copies, a free public sale page on their site, and they can make you available on http://amazon.com (http://amazon.com)
Last time I copyrighted some music (admittedly, it was years and years ago), it went something like this:
1) First, just placing a copyright notice (as in "Copyright, 2009, by so-and-so") on a representation of the piece (sheet music, plus you can include a CD) WILL copyright the piece. Unfortunately, this isn't that useful. What you need is to "register" your copyright -- otherwise you can get into hassles trying to prove that you are the copyright owner rather than someone else who might steal your piece. The registrant is pretty much always assumed to be the owner -- so, if you don't register it and someone else does, they'd be considered the owner and you'd have to prove otherwise.
2) Registering is pretty easy. You want a federal copyright, not a state one. Go to the US Copyright office at http://www.copyright.gov/ (http://www.copyright.gov/) and you'll find the forms (including online) and fee structure. It looks like it's $35 to register a work -- but you used to be able to register your copyright of a batch of pieces at the same time. Don't recall the limitations, but it's possible you could register all the original tunes on your CD for one $35 fee.
3) When I did it, I printed out sheet music for my tunes (You could probably get by with chords over standard notation melody and distinctive riffs, plus lyrics) and also included a cassette of the tune (like I said, this was several years ago!). The FAQ's at the US Copyright site should give you the current requirements.
I agree with Arial Angels, Oasis is a great company based out of Virginia. They work primarily with acoustic to acoustic-electric sounds, and support many great acoustic radio shows, etc. I have been more than pleased with my experiences with them. They will help you with your art-work so your project has a more "professional" look, and recently, their prices on ecologically friendly boxes have been coming down.
If you are planning on recording copyrighted material, be sure to look up the owner and ask permissission.
Most respectable venues are sticklers about this, as they should be.
Suggestions:
- Do use professionals for recording and reproduction. You want your product to look & sound professional. I have had friends who tried to "self-produce", some of whom have been the business for awhile, and their product appeared cheap & unprofessional, and there were many problems with poor quality cd's. Ask for recommendations from fellow musicians (you respect) in own your area.
- Go for a short-run first & see how sales go. You probably don't need to invest in 1,000 copies or more, it can be a real bummer to have invested all that money then be handing out freebees to your family, girlfriend's family, doctors, mechanics, friends, enemies, use them for frisbies, to put your drinks on, etc., and still have to climb over boxes of cd's in your room. It happens more than you think . . .
GOOD LUCK!!!