Copyrights   Royalties   Record Companies   Bar Codes
ASCAP & BMI    Licensing   Promotion   Cover Songs
Release Numbers   Royalty Rates   NMPA   Music Online

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EPIC RECORDS

 The recording industry is dominated by the Big Five (Universal, EMI, BMG, Warner and Sony)
who between them have controlling interests in the majority of the major labels.
However there are also successful record companies not associated with the Big Five
(often known as 'independent' labels) and some of these are listed in the links below.

Universal Music Group

EMI
BMG
Warner Music Group (AOL Time Warner)
Sony Music
Other labels
Label guides on the web
Reference works
 

 What is a release number, and do I need to have one?

 Record business professionals and anyone that inventories music (stores, etc.) don't refer to records by name,
but by release number. A release number, also known as matrix number or catalog number, is an identification number for
your CD or tape. The number generally consists of a combination of up to seven letters and numbers (such as CD1001),
which can be picked by you and based on any combination of letters or numbers - your band name, artist's name,
special dates or numbers, etc. Every project needs a release number since retailers keep their inventories that way.
If you do not indicate a release number on your order form, we will assign one to your project
 

 Do I need a barcode?

 A barcode, or UPC code, is essential if you're planning to sell your CDs or cassettes in stores, to make them
[retail-ready] products. As a special service to our customers, This link. will  save $700, and stores will be able to
scan and sell your merchandise. Please download or special SOUND SCAN form. (Adobe Acrobat Reader required)To get
your own barcode (recommended if you have regularly scheduled releases) assigned by the Uniform Code Council,
call 1 800-543-8137  for an application kit, or visit their site at http://www.uc-council.org/
 

 How can I get a resale certificate?

 If you take delivery of your product in California, and you don't have a resale certificate, you have to pay sales tax.
Resale certificates are issued by the state to legitimate businesses who resell their merchandise to distributors and retailers,
and exempt you from paying taxes for CD and cassette manufacturing. Instead, those taxes will be passed on to the consumer.
For more information and the necessary forms call 510-286 0347. Note: Unless you run a full time business that sells to
distributors and retailers, it is often difficult to get a resale certificate in California, and the Franchise Tax Board will want
annual payments of at least $1,800.00 even if you don't sell anything!

 I've written a number of original songs. How can I protect them?

 Although any song you write is officially your property, it can be very difficult to prove that in a court of law.
Therefore, we strongly advises you to copyright all of your original material. Once officially copyrighted, no one else will be able
to record your songs without your permission. (And if they do, this establishes your legal grounds for claiming damages due to
infringement of your copyright.) Call the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.(202-707-9100) to get the necessary forms.
You'll have to send them back the completed forms, the songs on a tape, and a lyric sheet, along with a $20 fee. We recommend
that you send these materials via certified mail to ensure that they arrive safely. You can send as many songs as you like for the
one-time fee, as long as all of the selections in the collection are by the same author. If they are by different authors, at least one
of the authors must have contributed copyrighted material to each selection. In a few weeks, you'll receive a clearance form,
confirming that your material has been copyrighted. After you've done this, you may want to become an affiliate of a
music licensing company. Companies like BMI and ASCAP offer licensing services which track radio play and television
usage to ensure that you are paid performance rights. For more information on these services, call: ASCAP:212-621-6000,
or BMI: 212-586-2000, SESAC: 212-586-3450. In audio duplication, the best surprise is no surprise, and the
Hot Tracks master reference is an extra step we take to ensure that you are completely satisfied with your finished CDs.

 What should I do if I have a cover song on my album?

   If you are using someone else's copyrighted composition(s), you need to get a mechanical license in writing.
A mechanical license is referred to by lawyers as a (compulsory) license, which means that it cannot be denied to you or
anybody that wants to use a cover song, but it can be a long and sometimes complicated process. Some studio's require
that you affirm that you have the proper licensing on hand, or have applied for it, before they will manufacture your work.
There are three ways to get mechanical licenses:

1) First, find out who owns the copyright on the composition by contacting BMI (212-586-2000 or www.bmi.com ),
ASCAP (212-621-6160 or www.ascap.com ), or SESAC (800-826-9966 or www.sesac.com ). Or, if you are Internet savvy,
you can Telnet into the Copyright Office's database and look up the official record. Armed with this info, you can contact
the publisher and negotiate your own rates. For a song that is not that well known or that is not in the current music scene,
this can often be easy to do. After all, more exposure is what most songwriters are looking for.

2) If you don't want to negotiate your own rates or if the song is currently or was popular, contact the Harry Fox Agency
(212-370-5330 or http://www.harryfox.com/). They are authorized to issue mechanical licenses at the statutory rate .

3) If you cannot afford the standard fees, contact a group like the Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts
(call 215-545-3385 for the chapter nearest you). They can often help negotiate reduced royalties for schools and nonprofit groups.
 

Licensing

Do you have questions regarding any of these subjects?  If So visit The Harry Fox Link below.
Mechanical Licensing | Digital Licensing | International Monitoring | Royalty Compliance | Royalty Collections & Distributions

   The Harry Fox Agency, Inc. (HFA)
 

Statutory Royalty Rates

Current Statutory & Historical Royalty Rates

National Music Publishers' Association (NMPA)

For the period January 1, 2002 to December 31, 2003 the statutory mechanical royalty rate is as follows:

8.00 Cents
for songs 5 minutes or less
 - or -
 1.55 Cents per minute or fraction thereof
for all songs over 5 minutes.*

* For example:
  5:01 to 6:00 = $.093 (6 X $.0155 = $.093)
  6:01 to 7:00 = $.1085 (7 X $.0155 = $.1085)
  7:01 to 8:00 = $.124 (8 X $.0155 = $.124)
 

CONTROLLED COMPOSITION CLAUSES
ASCAP

It should be mentioned that the per-song statutory mechanical royalty can be reduced under certain circumstances
(for example, if the writer is the recording artist or if the record is sold as a mid line, record club, TV-only, special-products
compilation, or budget album), in which case the royalty figures may be less than those mentioned above. However, such
reduced rates are voluntary and occur only if the publisher agrees or if the songwriter is a recording artist and has to
accept such lower royalties in the record company contract.

Here’s where things get complicated, so bear with us, and read carefully. Many agreements the majority, in fact contain
language which provides that if the recording artist or producer has written or courtier a song, has ownership or control of a song,
or has any interest in any composition on the album or single, the mechanical royalty rate payable by the record company for
that composition is reduced. Such compositions are referred to as controlled compositions. Most contracts attempt to establish
a 75% rate (specifically, 6¢, which is three quarters of the 8¢ full statutory rate) for all controlled compositions.
The figures are computed at the mechanical rate in effect at either (a) the time the recording is produced,
(b) the date of the recording contract with the artist, (c) the date that a particular album commenced recording
(or should have commenced recording per the contract), or (d) the date the recording is originally released
(regardless of whether the same recording is released again at a later date in another album).

In other cases, the record company will establish a maximum aggregate mechanical penny royalty limit for an album
(for example, 10 songs x 6¢ = 60¢ per album). In a sense, a cap on royalties. Under these clauses, the artist or producer
guarantees that he/she will secure reduced mechanical rates on all songs on the album so that the maximum
penny rate (e.g., 60¢) payable by the record company to music publishers and songwriters for all songs is not exceeded.
If this maximum aggregate album royalty rate is surpassed for example, if the writer/artist wants to put 12 songs rather than
10 on the album- the difference is normally deducted from the artists or producers record, songwriter, and publishing
royalties, or, the per-song royalty rates for the writer/artist or writer/producer will be reduced proportionately.

Now, lets take a look at how this arithmetic affects a specific situation: Lets say that the writer/ performer has
a 10 song x 6¢ maximum royalty rate on his/her album (in other words, 60¢ total) and, instead of writing all 10 songs,
writes only eight and records two songs from outside writers who demand the 8¢ statutory 2002-2003 rate per song.
In this case, the mechanical royalties would look like this:

60¢
 album royalty maximum payable by record company

- 16¢
 two outside songs at 8 ¢ each

44¢

       / 8
 the number of artist written songs

5.5¢
 per-song royalty to artist/writer and publisher
 
 

As you can see, the writer/artist’s mechanical royalty has been reduced to 5.5¢ per song from 6¢ per song due to
the inclusion of two outside written songs on the album. By the same token, as the writer/artist records more outside
written songs, the artists per-song royalties for his/her own works will be further reduced. Sometimes, in fact, when a
writer/artist has recorded a substantial number of songs by other writers, he/she has been put in a position of receiving
no royalties for his/her own songs, since the aggregate album royalty maximum has been paid out to outside songwriters
and publishers. Ouch! But it can get even worse. There have actually been instances in which the writer/artist’s mechanical
royalties have been in the minus column for every album sold because of the operation of these controlled composition clauses.
Additionally, the era of multiple remixes has given rise to a clause which provides that the writer/artist will only receive a
mechanical royalty for one use of his/her song regardless of the number of versions contained on the single or album.
 

Writers Application writerapp              Publishers Application  publisherapp
 

COPYRIGHT ACT

Copyright is a legal device that protects the music itself -- not the paper on which it is printed nor
the recording on which it is performed.

It is copyright alone that makes music publishing feasible, for without it there is no protection against the
unrestricted and uncompensated use of the property of a composer/lyricist and their publisher.
 

ALWAYS COPYRIGHT YOUR ORIGINAL MATERIAL WITH LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
DOWNLOAD SOUND RECORDING FORM HERE copyright formsr
 

Cover Songs

If you have recorded a cover version of someone else's song, and you plan
to sell that recording over the internet, the following information
applies to you.
Selling downloads of cover songs is easy an inexpensive.
 

If you have recorded a cover version of someone else's song, and you plan to sell that recording  over the Internet,
the following information applies to you.

You Should follow these steps before you make your recording available for distribution to the public!

If you record a cover version of a song, (meaning your performance of a song that has been released in the U.S.
with consent of the copyright owner), you are entitled by law to release your recording commercially,
and the owner of the copyright to the song cannot prevent you from doing so.

The Copyright Act provides for what is called a “Compulsory License” for downloads and CD sales,
which means that if you follow the steps set forth by statute, you can distribute your recording of that song on a CD or over the internet.
This Compulsory License is only available for sales in the United States. Other uses of masters, such as streaming,
conditional downloads, and the like, are not subject to a Compulsory License. A separate license from the publisher is needed in those cases.

The following details the procedure for individuals to obtain a compulsory license to digitally distribute cover
songs over the Internet to end users in the United States.

Identify the Copyright Owner - the publisher
The first step is to identify the owner(s) of the copyright to the song. The publisher.

The easiest way to do this is to search the song writer/publisher databases, on the links below.
We recommend Harry Fox.

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