Klarinet Archive - Posting 000536.txt from 1996/03

From: Jonathan Cohler <cohler@-----.NET>
Subj: Re: copyright clearance questions
Date: Wed, 20 Mar 1996 23:30:59 -0500

At 2:54 PM 3/20/96, Fred Jacobowitz wrote:
>Eric,
> My Klezmer band has released two CD's now. In both cases, it was
>a relatively easy task to track down the status of the works in question.
>Calling ASCAP and BMI helped nail down which company handled the licensing
>And in all cases it turned out to be Harry Fox agency in New York City.
>However, it should be even easier in the case of classical music because
>everyone knows when pieces were written, by whom and where published.
>Anyway, Harry Fox sent me a schedule of payment which varied by length of
>song, number of units produced (e.g. 1000 cd's), the particular use (such
>as for a CD, radio broadcase, etc.), and other particulars. I assume the
>same principle holds true for classical music (except maybe for the
>length category). You are on your honor to report how many units you made
>and for what purpose. Then they bill you for that much. For example, for
>our recording, each tune under 5 minutes cost $.065 per unit. So when we
>made 1,000 CD's and 500 cassettes we payed 1,500 x $.065 for each song.
>Hope this helps.
>
>Fred Jacobowitz
>Machaya Klezmer Band in the Baltimore/Washington area
>
>On Tue, 19 Mar 1996, eric nelson wrote:
>
>> Has anyone out there had experience in obtaining permission to include
>> copyrighted materials on a CD to be issued for commercial distribution? If
>> so I would appreciate any contacts, shortcuts, or tricks you may have
>> discovered along the way.
>>
>> thanks - eric nelson [the lightwood duo]
>>

Fred,

My understanding (and please correct me if this is wrong), is that you only
have to pay royalties on copies sold, not on copies manufactured.

-----------------
Jonathan Cohler
cohler@-----.net