Back Stage Indie Report

Mechanical Royalties The COMPULSORY MECHANICAL LICENSE provisions of the Copyright Act are the bread and butter for songwriters. Once a songwriters’ composition has been recorded and distributed to the public, copyright registration entitles the songwriter to statutory MECHANICAL ROYALTIES whenever that songwriter’s composition is further recorded. The company putting out the record is required to pay the songwriter a mechanical royalty for each record manufactured. Effective January 1, 2006 the statutory mechanical rate is $.091 for songs 5 minutes or less, or $.0175 per minute or fraction thereof per copy for songs over 5 minutes. Mechanical royalties can add up to a lot of money. For example, at the current statutory mechanical royalty rate, if your song is less than five minutes and is on a CD which sells one million copies you would be entitled to NINETY ONE THOUSAND ($91,000) DOLLARS. Because the statutory mechanical rate is increased periodically, it is best to seek p...

Copyright in Sound Recordings Musicians who produce their own compact discs, tapes and/or vinyl albums also should obtain copyright registration in the actual sound recording i.e., the performance contained on the compact disc, tape and/or vinyl album itself, as compared to the copyright in the musical composition. These are distinct property rights which need to be protected. Form SR (with instructions) is used to obtain copyright in sound recordings. Form SR can also be used to obtain the copyright in the underlying musical compositions, in addition to the copyright in the sound recording itself, if certain conditions are met. Additional information about obtaining copyright in sound recordings, and use of Form SR , may be found in Circular 56 – Copyright for Sound Recordings. See Circular 56a – Copyright Registration of Musical Compositions for an explanation of the differences between copyright in compositions and in sound recordings. As noted above, an Adobe Acrobat Re...