Demo CD for Cover Band - Copyright question

Hi all,

My cover band is recording a demo and I'm not sure if I need to do anything about copyrights for the songs we're doing. Our intent is to give copies to agents and prospective clients to promote the band. We also have a streaming player on our website. We do not have any intent on selling CDs.

What's the legal-ese? Thanks!

I wouldn't worry about it.

yeah, the reality of the business is that when you are nobody, nobody cares. When you are somebody, EVERYBODY cares.

I'd worry about copyrights after you are famous.. even then, how much they gonna take you for on 50 or so CD's? you might have to pay $0.23 for all of it.

Only the band members that wrote/co-wrote the songs should be listed on the copyright registration.

John:cool:

OK - I'll set aside the money from the first few gigs! Thanks everyone.

it shouldn't be a major concern right now. Copyright registration in the united states is retroactive in a sense - if you make a recording of a song in december 2010, but register it with the office sometime in 2011, as long as you can prove you created it on the date you claim it doesnt matter when you register it, and you dont even have to register it to protect your rights in court. registration is mostly for record keeping and evidencing purposes, in the event you will be going to court it makes things much neater.

I registered some work with the copyright office about 6 months after recording it upon the split of my former band, as I wanted to use my ownership as leverage to get some debts repaid by the other band members. I did this more to show certain parties that I held the certificate, as I never went to court and didn't foresee a likelihood of doing so. There is a fee associated with registration, and its probably more money than you will honestly make selling your recordings in the near future so dont worry about it.

I'm pretty sure he isn't talking about registering his own copyrights, he's talking about paying mechanical royalties for recording cover songs on a demo. Though the original post is a bit vague, but that's how I took it.

OP: If you're using the demo strictly for promo and you aren't selling it, I wouldn't be concerned. I'd be a bit more concerned if you're going to stream it online, as technically you're mass distributing someone else's intellectual property without compensating them. it's a convoluted law, but it does exist, and an overzealous artist rep could make an example out of you if they chose to. Not likely, but possible nonetheless.

If in fact you are talking about your own material, disregard.

Mechanical royalties are 9.1 cents per cover song per CD, with a 500 CD minimum, so a CD with 10 covers on it would cost the artist $455 dollars.

I guess I read that wrong bluestrat, you are right. disregard then!

YEah, I would suggest the OP pull the streaming unless it is password protected. It would amount to the equivalent of a jukebox, and then you really have some issues....