Producing a cover - any issues?

cornbb

Not *strictly* to do with songwriting but maybe someone in here can help nonetheless... I'm thinking of producing a cover tune with electronic instrumentation. It might end up on my MySpace or I could play it as part of a live performance or something. Do I need to worry about copyright issues? There's no way I'll ever look to make money out of it, just something for fun. But I don't want to worry about any hassle in case it ends up in the public domain. Cheers!

frobisher

Is it by any chance called Love Will Tear Us Apart?!:D

Songs are covered by other artists all the time for live, even then, there should technically be a royalty payment. I had a few songs covered by an amateur orchestra for a few gigs and did lyrics for a band, both in Denmark, and I got royalties for every show. The same applies legally. The everyday reality is of course quite different. Myspace is plastered in bands doing cover versions and I don't think the poublishers regard it as too much of an infringement to do anything about. In fact, they might see it as publicity. Even some of the club oriented mash ups are tolerated to a point I reckon. The moment you start trying to distibute it through the orthodox routes you're going to hit trouble.

spooydermot

Your question reminded me of an article I read on the web a few years back, I googled it and here it is:

http://www.cleverjoe.com/articles/music_copyright_law.html

obviously its not exactly legal advice, its mostly anecdotal and I know your not planning on releasing your cover commercially but theres some interesting stuff about mechanical licensing etc.

cornbb

frobisher wrote:

Is it by any chance called Love Will Tear Us Apart?!:D

Haha no, although I might give that one a crack too. I'm thinking of covering Steve Reich's Electric Counterpoint, in case ye're interested. There are some brief samples here. Its arranged for a small orchestra of electric, acoustic and bass guitars but i think it might be fun to arrange it for synths/sampled instruments and mangle it a bit.

Cheers for the advice, I guess worrying about it too much would be overkill as I don't plan to actually distribute it but there's no harm in being careful, I don't wanna be perceived as ripping anyone off. I read an article about recording contracts and royalties in Sound on Sound this month and it scared the bejaysus out of me...

Frankiestylee

I think it's grand on myspace once you make it clear that you aren't the original composer. If myspace had to pay out royalties etc then you'd be getting them for anybody just playing your own material, though there is the issue of alot of sites not allowing you post up files you don't have the copyright to. Playing it live, well, I think in a licensed venue imro are meant to payout the royalties from the license fee the venue has paid, or something like that. So if you're a member of imro just list the song you played and the performer should get their royalty.