{"id":6565,"date":"2012-07-23T09:12:25","date_gmt":"2012-07-23T09:12:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/whisnews21.com\/?p=6565"},"modified":"2012-07-23T09:12:25","modified_gmt":"2012-07-23T09:12:25","slug":"thoughts-from-a-songwriter-mechanical-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/2012\/07\/23\/thoughts-from-a-songwriter-mechanical-rights\/","title":{"rendered":"Thoughts From A Songwriter: Mechanical Rights"},"content":{"rendered":"

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If Someone Wants To Cut My Song What Will You Say ?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Seneca<\/a>,<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0a first-century Roman philosopher, allegedly said, “Luck is where the crossroads of opportunity and preparation meet.”This could not be more true when it comes to songwriters who tend to be dream chasers.\u00a0 If you want to be lucky and get some of your songs recorded then you have to start getting prepared for that\u00a0good luck. Visualize the best possible outcome and have your house in order.\u00a0 Know the answers to the questions you are gonna be asked.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\"\"Let’s say you pitch your song through the mail or an mp3 emailed to independent country artist\u00a0Susie Wannabe<\/strong>\u00a0and a week later\u00a0your phone rings and it is Susie.\u00a0 She says she loves your song and wants to put it on her new CD so she asks YOU the one question you better have the answer to\u00a0\u00a0“What do I need to do to legally record your song”<\/em>\u00a0?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Oh, “crap” I have no idea is NOT THE RIGHT ANSWER.\u00a0Keep in mind that it is NOT little Susie Wannabe’s responsibility to know what to do. She didn’t pitch\u00a0a song to you.\u00a0 You pitched to her and she wants to cut your song so the ball is in your court.\u00a0 I have gotten these phone calls and a lot of the time the artist will be going in the studio within the next 72 hours so there is no time for you to educate yourself.\u00a0 If you don’t know what to do then don’t blame Susie\u00a0for “Passing” on your song and not risking being able to get her CD pressed because you know less than she does about the process.\u00a0 If she is very smart she is not going to gamble that you figure out the answer in time.\u00a0 After all you have had years to figure it out and “oh, “crap” I have no idea is the best you can come up with so far.\u00a0If you want to be treated as a professional you have to do what professional songwriters do.\u00a0 Otherwise you are just clogging up the system for everyone.<\/div>\n
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If you don’t understand what you need to know about the music business go buy you a cheap music business book on\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0you can even\u00a0buy them used<\/strong>\u00a0and learn.\u00a0 There is absolutely\u00a0NO WAY TO GET AROUND THIS<\/strong>\u00a0you gotta learn.\u00a0 If you don’t want to learn your other option is to give away 1\/2 of your earnings to a publisher.\u00a0 Good luck finding one. See there’s no way.\u00a0 If you are pitching your songs to Alan Jackson, Carrie Underwood and Movie Producers then you already know how to issue a Mechanical License etc!\u00a0 If you only have the contacts to pitch to bands in your area or Independent artists you find on FaceBook, MySpace, Reverb Nation etc! these artists\u00a0are not gonna know how to guide you through the process so YOU HAVE TO KNOW.\u00a0 You probably can’t find a small time music publisher who will even issue a Mechanical License for you even if you have someone wanting to cut your song because there is normally not enough money involved for them to mess with the paperwork or risk getting sued if you have inadvertently used someone else’s melody.\u00a0You can’t even tell the artist they can cut your song for FREE and skip the Mechanical License.<\/strong>\u00a0 \"\"Here is how the law is enforced.\u00a0 When Susie Wannabe shows up at the Pressing Plant to get her thousand copies pressed the first thing they ask Susie for is a Mechanical License\u00a0for every single song on the CD.<\/em>\u00a0 No license then they don’t press, simple as that.\u00a0 You may have gotten a CD pressed before without a license but are you willing to bet you can do it again ?\u00a0 Even some of the duplicators who burn a few CD’s are now demanding to see a License first.\u00a0 No one wants to pay the fines.\u00a0 Even Artists who write their own songs have to issue themselves a Mechanical License.\u00a0 It is possible you could figure out a way around the law but it is a whole lot easier to figure out how to come up with a blank Mechanical License form and how to fill it out don’t you think.\u00a0 Then when you get that phone call from an artist who wants to cut your song you can just ask them the 3 or 4 questions you need to fill out the Mechanical License, tell them how much it costs because you will know and they send you a check or Paypal you the payment and you mail them their Mechanical License.\u00a0Figure out how to get your hands on a blank copy of a Mechanical License, learn what the statutory Royalty Rate is so you know what to charge the artist and how to explain that to the artist.\u00a0 Get your ducks in a row so when you get that phone call wanting to cut your song the artist will think they are talking to Warner-Chappell or Sony Music Publishing.\u00a0 You may not want to deal with this but it is like the guy who says he just wants to drive the truck and ain’t interested in learning how to read a roadmap.\u00a0 Well we all know no\u00a0trucking company\u00a0is gonna let him out there on the highway no matter how good he drives.<\/div>\n
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Lonnie C. Ratliff<\/strong><\/a><\/h2>\n

Used with kind permission from Lonnie Ratliff\u00a0\u00a0nashvilleshowcase@comcast.net<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If Someone Wants To Cut My Song What Will You Say ? Seneca,\u00a0\u00a0a first-century Roman philosopher, allegedly said, “Luck is where the crossroads of opportunity and preparation meet.”This could not be more true when it comes to songwriters who tend to be dream chasers.\u00a0 If you want to be lucky and get some of your songs recorded then you have to start getting prepared for that\u00a0good luck. Visualize the best possible outcome and have your house in order.\u00a0 Know the answers to the questions you are gonna be asked. Let’s<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4793,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6565"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}