How to determine if a song is public domain

[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

Even if the SONG was PD, the PERFORMANCE (recording) would most likely be copyrighted.

Unless you’re using Edison wax cylinders or 78 rpm pressings, its likely you’d be breaking someone’s ownership of the performance and/or song.

If you want to stay SAFE, use a “music clearing service” to check these things.

https://www.google.com/search?q=music+clearing+service

I think you’ll find, however, that unless you have a very large budget, you will only be able to use specific CD of “production music” in most cases.

[Lee Mceachern]

Thanks, Thax for your thoughts. (Unintended alliteration.)
We’re not facing a problem of a copyrighted performance in this case, as the song would be covered. But the fundamental underlying issue of rights to the song, itself, is an issue for me. Thanks for the referral.

Lee

[Will Salley]

It’s also easier than you might think to get the performance and/or needle drop permissions for many compositions. It all depends on your usage and the market, as well as the publishing date.

System Info – G5/Dual 2 – 10.4.8 – QT v7.1.3 – 8GB ram – Radeon 9800Pro – External SATA Raid – Decklink Extreme – Wacom 6×8

[Bill Evelyn]

For most of our work, we use companies who sell you the rights to use their music, usually a catalog of discs in many genres of music. But for one program we did, I found some very old music and had some local musicians play their own arrangement of that sheet music; we recorded it here and it worked very well for that particular project. Benefits of living in a college town!

Bill

[Steve Wargo]

BZ Rights in New York is the consumate organization for getting the rights you need. A client of mine had just finished a project and I had stressed to him that he needed to get his music cleared. He explained that an entertainment attorney had advised him that everything was OK to use. After contacing BZ Rights, he found out that he needed rights for the Karoake recording of the music he used. It cost him a mere $350 and he is completely legal. Don’t listen to anyone who tries to gives you advice to the contrary. They won’t be the ones on the receiving end of a lawsuit.

Maybe Barbara Zimmrman (BZ) could join us for a comment here. I’ll ask her.

Steve Wargo
Tempe, Arizona

It’s a dry heat!

[Steve Wargo]

That address is http://www.bzrights.com in case someone missed it in the subject line. They have a ton of information on Public Domain that is free. Please check them out. And, I apologize for the misspell on Ms. Zimmerman’s name. It’s late.

Steve Wargo
Tempe, Arizona

It’s a dry heat!