Fuzed Gospel

As I learn more and more about the Entertainment Industry and the Christian Entertainment submarket, I am beginning to learn more about doing things, such as covering songs, the legal way. The Christian market is beginning to have a huge boom in the record sales department of the industry. But due to the Christian submarket still being in an infantile state, and is not saturated yet. This is due to individuals not being knowledgeable of certain terminology because most aren’t in the industry to make money but solely as a form of worship. But that standpoint is beginning to elevate into individuals making a living at singing, entertaining, etc all in the name of Christianity.

The more people that come on board, the more things are going to have to be done legally. For instance, getting proper licensing to cover songs that national recording Christian artists have already produced and have rights to. From personal experience, covering someone else’s song that you sing amongst a local congregation and in a public form of worship without selling any type of copy material, you don’t think about getting a license. But as you begin to sell master material, and distribute you must have the correct licensing and permission to do so. Having God’s name on something, does not waive the right for you to not have to license material with intent sell. Getting verbal and written permission is always the safe route to go.

In my findings for licensing in general, I came a across a podcast that interviewed an entertainment lawyer that discussed the ins and outs of getting a mechanical license to legally cover songs. This is very informative for me, because I am interested in covering some songs from the Gospel genre. The entertainment lawyer’s name was Scott Sellwood, and works at a New York licensing company called Rights Flow. He specializes in the clearing process of mechanical licenses and pays royalties to the publisher of the song. Below are some highlights from the podcast:

1. What a cover song is?
a. When one person creates a recording of a composition that they do not own or right
i. They must get rights from song owner and pay a royalty to the rights owner
1. Obtaining that permission is considered a Mechanical license
a. Royalty rate of license is set by US copyright law

2. How does one pay Mechanical Royalties in the Digital Age?
a. If you are pressing a cd you are to pay 9.3 since each cd
b. If it is a download from itunes, the same rate applies as if you are pressing a cd
c. Streaming Content rates are different
i. Streaming needs to calculate royalties they are to pay with a complicating formula…fraction of a cent
ii. Considered interactive

3. Non-interactive content (Podcasts) mechanical royalty is not charged…only for interactive streaming.
a. When you don’t pick the song, and it is chosen for you
i. Pandora internet stream radio

4. How long does it take to secure a mechanical license?
a. Defined in Copyright Act
i. Request for mechanical license under regulation must go to musician within 30 days of manufacture and distribution of copy
ii. Recommended 45 days before distribution to guarantee completion of Licensing process in time for selling of your cd’s.

5. What are the options for artists, wanting to cover a song, to pay for digital download licenses, since they may not have a solid idea of record sales?
a. They guess and prepay mechanical royalties
i. If they guesstimate selling 100 copies
1. 100*9.1 cents (industry rate) and pays that to publisher
ii. if they go above that then they pay the difference later
iii. if they overshoot they can’t get that money back
iv. average $15 licensing fee for each licensing process
v. if buy licenses in bulk, and don’t use right away, in most cases the rights do not expire.

6. When you pay to license song on cd, it doesn’t include digital distribution license
a. You must get separate licenses for each configuration
i. Ringtone-24 cents
ii. Digital download- 9.1 cents
iii. Cd- 9.1 cents

7. Medley licensing? Is it possible?
a. Yes, but Complicated
b. Publishers say each different composition within medley is due 9.1 cents
c. Record labels say entire recording is 9.1 cents and then divided up between the connected parties

Learning the legal way to cover songs, on the occasion I am ready to do so, I have found to be very interesting, and not that hard to accomplish. Its all about just knowing who to talk to, and making sure they have experience in getting the right licensing for what I need.

Thanks for reading,

~Morris