MECHANICAL LICENSES

The following discussion is intended as an informal introduction to the mechanical licensing process. It is not meant to convey legal advice about copyright law. For legal questions you should consult an attorney who specializes in this area of the law.

    A Mechanical License is a permission document from the holder of a music copyright authorizing you to create copies of the music on CD, tape, record, or other audio recording medium (hence, the “mechanical” term) in return for a royalty fee. Anytime you make a CD or tape containing copyrighted music, it falls under the provisions of the copyright law. For music that has been previously recorded, the royalty rates are set by Federal statute. Here is a quote from the Code of Federal Regulations, Title 37, Part 255 for the statutory rates currently in effect:

For every phonorecord made and distributed on or after January 1, 2006, the royalty rate payable with respect to each work embodied in the phonorecord shall be either 9.1 cents, or 1.75 cents per minute of playing time or fraction thereof, whichever amount is larger.

    (This means that if a song is 5 minutes or less in length, the rate is 9.1 cents per copy. If the song is longer than 5 minutes, you round up to the next whole minute and the rate is 1.75 cents per minute.)

    If a copyrighted musical composition has never been recorded, then you must contact its publisher to negotiate the terms of the license to publish a recording.

     Notice that the Federal statute above says “made or distributed” not “sold.” This means that even if a recording is given away, it still falls under the above license requirements.

     A Mechanical License for a piece of copyrighted music is obtained from the copyright holder/administrator, usually a music publisher. This information is found at the bottom of the first page of the printed music and is correct for when the sheet music was printed, BUT publishing companies and the music copyrights they hold are often bought by other companies, so that sometimes a bit of detective work may be required to determine the current holder of the music’s copyright.

     Many publishing companies delegate the job of collecting the mechanical license fees to a central clearinghouse called the Harry Fox Agency (HFA). If the song is listed by a publisher with the HFA, you can obtain a mechanical license for this music by visiting the HFA website at www.songfile.com. A license can usually be obtained there within a day by using a credit card for payment. The HFA requires you to buy a license for a minimum of 25 copies plus a $13 to $15 service fee for each license.

     Sometimes, you cannot find a particular piece of music listed on the HFA website even though the music publisher uses the HFA. In that case you must contact the publisher directly to request a license, at the publisher website, or by email, letter, phone or fax. More and more publishers that handle their own mechanical licenses are making the request process available at their websites. In addition, you can often request licenses for fewer copies than what the HFA requires. Unfortunately, if a publisher does have a song listed with the HFA, they often require you to go through the HFA rather than getting it directly from them.

     Take care in assuming that an old piece of music is in the public domain and not subject to copyright. If an old public domain piece has been arranged or even edited in modern times, that can send the public domain music back under the copyright law. Pay attention to any notation on the sheet music about “arranged by” or “edited by.”

     Two other aspects of copyright law customers should be aware of are:

1. Publication of copyrighted song lyrics with programs or printed inserts that accompany recordings requires permission from the publisher.

2. Public performances of copyrighted music, whether admission is charged or not, fall under the realm of Performance Licensing. Please consult the websites of the three US performance rights organizations (www.ascap.com, www.bmi.com, www.sesac.com) for further information.

     For a fee, VoChor can obtain the required mechanical licenses for you, however, organizations often elect to pursue the licenses themselves, since there are frequent occasions when time-consuming “detective work” is required to determine the current copyright holder for the music and VoChor must charge for its time expended in doing this task. For a fee to cover time expended, VoChor can also apply for lyrics printing rights from publishers on behalf of a customer. Performance licensing is the responsibility of the organization or individual who performs.