HI. I'm in totally uncharted territory here and need advice. My song "TRY" was released about a month ago by Mia Kylie Ditta. Today I get an email from another artist who wants to also put that song on her coming EP. So would the second artist being doing a cover of Mia's release???? Mia got a mechanical license and sync license from me. She did not get an exclusive. The only way I would give an exclusive license is to someone like Carrie Underwood. I know this is a position any songwriter would love to be in. But its still new to me. I fired my publisher,(another story) so I can't ask him. Advice, please??

Hi Donna,

Good question for Marc Barnette. I would say if it's a non-exclusive license, you can license it to as many artists you want. Good luck with it.

Best, John

Well,
If you have your own Mechanical License you can issue a license to the second Artist. Songs are covered from time to time. It is allowed in copyright law. I have my own permission letter if an artist wants to record one of my songs and the mechanical license. My permission letter and the mechanical license has a place for all the information required for issuing the license. Number of copies, artists name, contact info, record label, License cost, Approximate release date. If your Publisher did all this stuff you may want to get back with him. Good luck.

Once a song is released, anyone can record it. If you want to go the licence route, you would just issue one to each version of the song. You are your own publisher, so you can do it as formal or informal as you would like. Most artists not on major labels (and even some on major labels) sell so few copies, it is usually not worth much except adding to paperwork. It's a personal decision. If you want to fill out paperwork, you could probably google "Licencing agreements" or contact your PRO for this suggestion.

It more or less just depends on how many copies you think they will sell.

MAB

Thank you all for your advice. I've decided not to issue any more licenses on this song for one year in order to give the current artist a chance with the song. UNLESS of course, if someone major wants it......

Hi Donna,

I doubt the majors would be interested after it's been licensed to someone else. I hope you find success with Mia. Who knows, maybe she'll end up being the next Carrie Underwood.

Best, John

Yes, the second recording of the artist wanting to record your tune would be considered as a "cover". Under compulsory license law, you cannot stop her from doing it. You can demand the stat rate for an initial run of 1000 CDs ( about $90 or so ) for that compulsory license.
Congrats, by the way.

As I understand it, exclusives only limit you to licensing to one publisher or agent, or producer, but it doesn't prevent compulsory licenses by artists ( after the first release ). Therefore, exclusives are never made to artists, ( afaik, it's impossible because of compulsory licensing law ) Exclusives usually include transferring the copyright to the publisher. Unless that publisher is a major publisher I wouldn't do it, but it's rather a moot point since publishers rarely sign single song contracts to unknowns these days, they are interested in buying out catalogs from other publishers of well-established songwriters. There a lot of music libraries, so I'd only do non-exclusives with those, but more and more of them want exclusives ( they are tired of several non-exclusive publishers pitching them the same song) so a kind of dilemma is emerging.

In fact, Im more inclined just to do vinyl LPs, and sell them directlly from a website of my own. Not there yet, but that's the direction I'm leaning. I'm really sick of the shenanigans going on in the digital realm.

I hate to tell you this, but you can't stop a compulsory license, once it's officially "released" ( for sale, with a bar code, etc ). you can express to them your displeasure, and hope they comply, but that's about it.