Legal Or Not? Options

[JusClownin]

Hi guys. Wasn't sure if this was the best forum for this, but here goes.

As a hobby, a friend and I record vocals on random instrumentals of recordings that we usually find on CD singles at the record store or on the net.

They are pretty humorous and have little or nothing to do with the artist who created the instrumental. We want to create site where we can share our renditions with the public for free. We both have full time careers and have absolutely no interest in selling these songs, not that anyone would buy them, or making profit off the site. It would be fully funded by out of our own pocket and we wouldn't have any advertisers. Just a personal site.

Does anyone know if we'd run into any legal problems by doing this? Like I said, it's just a hobby. Basically, we're just two old friends from high school that get together maybe 3 times a year, drink and have some fun jamming on these recordings. They are by far from "great" quality, but they're actually not so bad, for what it's worth.

Anyway, any input or advice would be great. I just fear having some big-wig artist or label sue us for something so trivial.

[coldharbour]

But anyway they had to change their music, because of legal stuff. The funny thing is that sampling was ok for a while, but then someone made a heap of money from sueing sampling artists, and everyone wanted in. Who was it? De La Soul sampling som Turtles track no one ever heard?

PE used sampling very creatively, but the companies started getting interested as sampling became mainstream and some artists and producers started ripping off tracks straight, like sampling the whole chorus of a track and rapping over it, etc. That kind of stuff just couldn't be overlooked.

Stealing is taking something away from another, sampling is playing around with something, while not in any way hampering the original, its creator or its use. You can't do that with a car. Apples and oranges here.

Depends on the case, but if someone wanted to sample my track I sure wanted that person to ask permission first and I'd like to hear the music and the context before giving it the green light. Not so that I just read somewhere that my track has been sampled in a track for the election campaign of George W. Bush, if you catch my drift.

The wrong thing with the wild west of sample clearences, is that we can't afford to make the music we like. Even PE couldn't afford it.

There's a lot of things people can't afford. I'd like to record in Tokyo with Trent Reznor producing - I think that would effect my music much more than sampling some old track - but I can't afford it. PE probably could. I don't think sampling is the only way being creative or evolving music.

Coldharbour, hahaworld and others: What do you think of the situation? Have you got any ideas on solving copyright issues, both with respect to sampling and file-sharing? Or is everything ok as it is? Not trying to beef, i'm just curious 

I think sampling things should be the way they are - if someone wants to sample your track they should ask your permission. It's up to you if you want a pint of beer beer or USD 10.000 for it, really. Unless of course your material is administred by some big company, but then again it has been your choice to do so.

Do any of you consider what DJ's do, that is mix and remix songs and play them at various clubs and events, to be illegal or wrong?  I know several DJ's at legit clubs that download music all day and then they do mash-ups, remixes, etc.

Personally, I think it's cool because they're still highlighting the original artist but also showing their own creativity as well. But for those of you who are anti-downloading, doesn't this fall under the "using someone else's music for financial gain" as most of the DJ's do not create the music themselves.  Or is this okay because the DJ is getting your music out there to the masses, so it's a fair trade-off?

It's definitely not legal do download music from p2p and then play it on a club. If you get caught you'll have to pay fines, depending on how many tunes you have with you. Worst case scenario : there was this case about a year ago where an Italian DJ was fined 1.4 million euros (USD 1.8 million) for having a couple of thousand pirate music files in his computer and playing them in a nightclub.

Like "kaboombahchuck" wrote, the clubs and venues have deals with copyright bureaus and part of the ticket sales go to the copyright fees. I think this depends on the country, but in Europe all venues must have these kind of deals.

However, this covers only playing records that have been bought on CD, Vinyl, etc. If you buy music from for instance iTunes Music Store the license of the music you buy covers only your private use. You have to pay extra license fees in order to play those tracks for the public. If you don't have the license you'll be fined if you get caught.

But mash-ups, remixes, edits - I do them all the time, but I use original material that I have either bought or obtained from the record company or producer / artist to put them together. I'm not certain how it goes legal-wise, but if someone should ask I say "this is my work" or show a blank-CD telling that "I just got this from someone".

Writers receive royalties from public performance (through ASCAP, BMI or SESAC) and mechanical reproduction (record sales). If your song is published, you receive 50% of public performance royalties, and a designated percentage of mechanical reproduction royalties (at the very least what is called the "statutory rate"). Publish your own stuff, you get it all.

Publishing companies' royalty shares differ. In Europe the most common share is 1/3 for the publishing company and 2/3 for the songwriters, this is true even with the big houses I've worked with.

It's true that you can publish your own stuff (or just leave it unpublished, makes no difference if you're working for instance for a small domestic market) but then you'll be missing the extra effort that comes with the publishing houses. They're very eager to get your music heard as their income depends straight from the income you're making.

As "prrcomm" wrote, there are also good people working for the companies. If you're starting out you do best offering your stuff to some small indie company who has maybe one or two full time people working, but if they really like your stuff they work hard and don't abandon you. They usually even answer the phone and mail. In big companies people change constantly and when the nice A&R guy who signed you leaves, the new A&R guy might hate your stuff and put you on a sidetrack.

I wish everyone luck with his or her music, no matter what your viewpoint. It's all about the music.

Right on.

This post has been edited by coldharbour: Wed 5 Apr 2006, 12:12