Due to the arrival of Don Emerson, on the local music scene, nearly every local band and performer is going to have a live recording of one of their gigs. This CD can prove very useful as a demo-disc, and to fine tune performances and arrangements, but both Don and I hoped that these CDs would give local musicians the opportunity to sell copies of these recordings, to add to their income.

My preliminary research started with How Music Royalties Work. This overview indicated that the issue at hand was paying a Mechanical Royalty to the songwriter.

From there I went to www.BMI.com, www.RIAA.com, www.ASCAP.com, www.SESAC.com, www.MPA.org, and others.

The simple answer seems to be that you can go to The Harry Fox Agency, www.HarryFox.com, fill out a short form, and pay the royalties on-line!

The current statutory rate is 8.5 cents per song, per copy, for songs of five minutes or less. This means that a CD, with 15 Cover songs of five minutes or less, each, would require a royalty of $0.085 x 15 = $1.28 per copy. Not too bad!

Unfortunately, Harry Fox requires a minimum payment for 500 copies or 500 x $1.28 = $637.50, for the example CD, which is probably too much for many, but not all local bands.

I'm sure that these cover CDs would sell to local fans, but the real potential may lie with tourists. When tourists are out at our clubs, Rockin' with the local bands, after three or four martinis, they are prime customers to make an impulse purchase of the CD made by the band that they are partying with. Such a CD becomes a memento of their trip to Galveston; a way to "save the fun" from that evening.

If a band could sell about 10 CDs per week, the Harry Fox deal might make sense, and they could gross an additional $5,000/year; if they are sold at $10 each.

The alternative to Harry Fox is to find the publisher for each song, and contact them separately. The maximum rate is still $0.085/song, but you can negotiate your own price and quantity deal. Unfortunately, the first publisher I contacted, Experience Hendrix, LLC (they own the Jimi Hendrix catalog), also requires a minimum payment for 500 copies! In addition, when you deal directly with the publisher, most require the submission of two copies of your recordings, for approval. More red tape!

Don and I continue to look for other possibilities, but for now, these are the choices! There may be some way to pay for smaller quantities through someone with and established account with Harry Fox, such as a record company or distributer. I have made inquires, but have received no responses, yet.

I am not a music lawyer; I just play one on TV, so check out these sources yourself before acting.

Dale Turner of Guitar One Magazine describes his research and licensing process on Getsigned.com. Click Here to Read The Article

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