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This week, “licence to sample,” Let’s go -
In the DIY world of music sampling there are two ways to look at things, ask for permission or ask for forgiveness. Here’s what I mean. When sampling, you will need two permissions; one, the master use licence that comes from the owner of the sound recording (usually the label). It permits you to use a portion of a song. You need it regardless of how long the sample is. The other comes from the owner of the composition, that’s the songwriter or the publisher. To get the first you can contact HFA the Harry Fox Agency who does administration for over 100,000 publishers and labels. For the composition you need to contact the publisher or songwriter, usually via their PRO aka Performance Rights Organization. Here’s the other part of gaining permission, both parties usually want to know what's happening with their song. Does it take it too far away from the brand of the song, the songwriter or the label. Does it diminish the value of the song? In other words are you taking a precious love song and turning it into a trap song meant for the strip club? Or making a one sided political statement of an uplifting song? They may not want all that, regardless of the check, and since you are a DIY hip hop artist, you probably don’t have the check up front anyway. So how much does it cost? Depends on several factors; the success of the original song, how long is the sample, how successful do you plan to be with it, so you will need to negotiate. There are several things you can negotiate like a mechanical license flat fee, a share in the performance royalties, co-ownership, but really, this is where you call a good entertainment attorney. I know your uncle is a tax attorney that deals with insurance fraud, and invested a thousand dollars in the recording, but trust me, get an entertainment attorney.
Now, here’s what I meant earlier by asking forgiveness. Some DIY artists just make the recording without permission. If it does nothing, goes nowhere beside a couple hundred views on YouTube and Facebook, then you probably won’t hear from anyone. But if it blows up, well you will get that phone call and trust me paying upfront is going to be a lot cheaper than paying on the back end, no court costs, different type of lawyer fees etc etc. You make that call, but choose wisely my friends.
This week is Thanksgiving. Crazy year but still plenty to give Thanks for. We will keep Independent Artists of the Week as Indy artist with Christmas Music. Click on the name, scroll down the page to hear, buy and support.
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