Cover bands: putting audio clips on your site, is it legal?

[Badside]

I'm about to put some live audio clips of my band on our website and I want to make sure it is legal.

 

I wouldn't be making money directly off of it, and it's not a copy of the original recording, but rather my band playing it. Is it legal?

[Body Bomb]

I'm pretty sure it's not illegal.

 

Even if it was, lawyers usually don't get involved in these sorts of things unless there's a few bucks in it for them. Believe me, they got bigger fish to fry. Suing a cover band over an MP3 is pretty low on their list of priorities.

 

The absolute worst that will happen is that you'll get an email politely asking you to take it down.

[jabney]

A way to keep it legal (or at least ethical*) would be to post covers of songs that are in the public domain. Of course, unless your band likes to rock songs like, "Barbara Allen" "Matty Groves" and "Hard Times Come Again No More," that does sort of limit your selection :-)

 

best,

 

John

 

* I have heard stories of the performing rights groups going after bands that covered music hundreds of years old, based on the fact that one of their member bands had already recorded the same thing - even though the arrangement was totally different.

[Brian Krashpad]

 

Originally posted by Hardtailed I'm about to put some live audio clips of my band on our website and I want to make sure it is legal. I wouldn't be making money directly off of it, and it's not a copy of the original recording, but rather my band playing it. Is it legal?

 

 

Technically, it's probably a copyright violation. However, if your band is playing clubs with a SESAC/ASCAP/BMI type license, you might have some sort of implied permission to post your recordings in order to advertise playing at such places, since the venue has already paid for the right to have you play copyrighted songs.

 

I'd highly doubt you'd be bothered about it, at most you might get a cease and desist type letter asking you to take them down.

 

BK

[worthyjoe]

Just about every cover band I know of does this. Not a problem at all. Unless you try selling CD's with cover material or something like that, you are fine.

[JBJ]

It's copyright infringement but as has been said, worst case scenario you'll get an email asking you to take it down.

 

just say it's some live recordings don't mention anything about fishing for gigs or anything in relation to the sounds and it'll be alright.

[Lee Flier]

Yeah bands do this all the time. I've yet to hear of anyone being bothered about copyright. If you really want to be on the safe side just make them 30 second clips, those should be completely legal.

[fastplant]

I don't think it's an issue. Unless you're selling those mp3s or saying they're your own. You're not technically making any money by having them on your site. You can make money by having gigs booked from your site. But it could be argued that it's not the mp3s that got you booked.

[zookie]

 

Originally posted by jabney * I have heard stories of the performing rights groups going after bands that covered music hundreds of years old, based on the fact that one of their member bands had already recorded the same thing - even though the arrangement was totally different.

 

 

You're right about that, but the real issue is it's up to the performer to prove that a song or tune really is either traditional or in the public domain. Frequently, pieces of music that we all assume to be trad were written well within the last 50 years. Musicians in the 50's and 60's folk explosion had a tendency to overlook copyright and listed everything on their albums as "Traditional", when, in fact, they just weren't aware of the author.

 

A performer can copyright their arrangement of a traditional song. Changing a few words here and there or modifying the tune somewhat does qualify for copyright.

 

I'm in the midst of researching songs for a traditional folk album and running into all sorts of roadblocks with this. It's best to locate sheet music for songs published before 1923 and either copy or modify that original arrangement.

[ratthedd]

Hardtailed,

 

If you only include 15-20 second clips and not the whole song, I think it would provide you with an added buffer in case the licensing companies decided to get really stupid mean.

[RupertB]

Interesting topic. I know that making money directly off of the recording of someone else's material (through DL charges or selling a disc) is illegal.

 

I wonder about demo discs that are distributed by some of the more successful "tribute" bands. Some of these outfits are making a good deal of money, not just performing an artist's material but in many cases putting on a theatrical re-enactment of a band's live show complete with costumes, etc. It may be chump change to the owners of the material but you could argue that they are making a lot more money selling the performance than they could selling a disc of cover tunes.

[JBJ]

 

Originally posted by RupertB Interesting topic. I know that making money directly off of the recording of someone else's material (through DL charges or selling a disc) is illegal. I wonder about demo discs that are distributed by some of the more successful "tribute" bands. Some of these outfits are making a good deal of money, not just performing an artist's material but in many cases putting on a theatrical re-enactment of a band's live show complete with costumes, etc. It may be chump change to the owners of the material but you could argue that they are making a lot more money selling the performance than they could selling a disc of cover tunes.

 

 

meat loaf issued a cease and desist to a scottish tribute guy called peat loaf who spent so much money on his bands shows and set up that he pretty much always broke even....

 

it can be done even if the person isn;t making any scratch off of it perosnally.

 

This might have been possible because he was solely using meatloafs material and probably not a union member or the clubs he was playing weren;t payign the PRS... just a theory on my part.