Mechanical License Headache

[Iamthesky]

So, we have one cover song on our forthcoming EP. It's a good song and we all think we play it well. It plays very well at shows, people remember it, and we want it on the EP. It's our first CD, and a cover gives a reference point to relate us in the music spectrum (or whatever reason everyone else puts a cover on their first CD too). But it needs a mechanical license, and the process has held up the release for about six weeks and counting.

 

Normally this is easy. Go to the Harry Fox Agency website and hammer out a few clicks and give them money. But not in this case. In this case, HFA doesn't represent the song -- someone I will call Major Record Company does their own license issuing.

 

Issuing a mechanical license is mandatory. The fee is specified by Federal law. But is it mandated that it has to be issued in a timely manner?

 

To their credit, the guy at Major Record Company has been polite and helpful and nice. We had a very pleasant dialog to ensure Major Record Company had all the information they needed for the process. But now he's silent and we're getting more than a little frustrated that our EP has been completely finished and absolutely ready to go for a significant time except for the one piece of paperwork that prevents us starting the replication -- and selling -- process. I know our license fee is a pittance to Major Record Company, but we really want to give it to them and get our music on the street.

 

Even the US Copyright Office has beaten Major Record Company in getting all the paperwork done. I didn't think anyone could lag behind the Government, and that's what worries me personally the most -- it's failing my reality check.

 

Yes, there are lessons to be learned. The most obvious lesson is that if you must put a cover song on your CD, check first that it's covered by HFA. Perhaps another lesson is don't do a version of a non-HFA song which your fans really like, so you never get tempted to put it on a CD.

 

But given we're in this situation, is there anything we can do? Is this a reasonable and normal delay for a non-HFA mechanical license, and we're just being unrealistic? Or is there some slight chance we could push this along rather than just sit here getting more frustrated every day?

[scarecrowbob]

Have you serve a Notice of Intention to Obtain a Compulsory License on the copyright owner or authorized agent of the owner?

 

If so, I believe you are good to go WRT this... you then file an annual report and monthly payments, as per this document: http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ73.pdf

[Iamthesky]

Not as such. I've submitted all the information and a statement that we were applying for a license, but not in the formal way that the copyright document suggests. I was still thinking along the HFA lines of "do it all with a few clicks online", even though I'm sure I read that in my research (I read *everything*, just obviously didn't absorb it all).

 

Would our email constitute a Notice of Intention to Obtain a Compulsory License, or should we start that process on old fashioned pen and paper?

 

I really appreciate the pointer to that document, and the advice, thanks!

[scarecrowbob]

They don't have a form per se. I bet you could find an appropriate form online somewhere.

 

It basically has to just do all this stuff:

http://www.loc.gov/cgi-bin/formprocessor/copyright/cfr.pl?&urlmiddle=1.0.2.6.1.0.173.18∂=201&section=18&prev=17&next=19

 

Maybe this would work:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/17464676/Notice-of-Intention-to-Obtain-Compulsory-License-for-Making-and-Distributing-Sound-Recordings