Publishing Music-copyright Law, What to do if you want to protect your rights
ItsMe
Nov 23 2009, 10:03 AM
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From: Boston, MA
Hi guys,

Hope you are all well and practising hard.
I got a little question for the professionals and people with copyright law experience here.
I worked hard on my songwriting and singing skills (still bad) and recorded a little EP with acoustic songs (not really the kind of music people like on GMC so I rather don't upload here). I didn't really think of publishing it in any way but did send it out as a demo to get some small acoustic gigs in bars . Which actually worked. smile.gif Now, somebody working at a local, free radio station liked one of my songs and asked me if they can play it on some show they run for promoting local newcomers. Would be great. Only problem is that I need a label code (LC) on the CD because thats what they want to make shure that they don't play unlicensed material. But the stuff I recorded is def. too bad to get published by any real label. Means there will never be a CD with a LC on it unless I set up a label myself. So I gave up on that. But nevertheless I decided that I at least want to protect my rights .
I moved back to Germany so what I am looking for is some info about the steps you need to take to publish music here.
I definetly don't want to become a member of the GVL or GEMA since this doesn't make any sense from a financial point of view.
So the question is if I can publish my music on any of the internet platforms for musicians like Musik today.org to at least protect my rights. Or is it enough to seal my self burned CD in some envelope and send it to myself and store it somewhere (I heard that works). Another questions is if I can sell self burned CDs at gigs ?

Thanks for you help

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This post has been edited by ItsMe: Nov 23 2009, 10:08 AM
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Staffy
Nov 23 2009, 10:36 AM
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From: Genarp, Sweden
QUOTE (ItsMe @ Nov 23 2009, 10:03 AM) *
not really the kind of music people like on GMC so I rather don't upload here

Or is it enough to seal my self burned CD in some envelope and send it to myself and store it somewhere (I heard that works). Another questions is if I can sell self burned CDs at gigs ?


What music do we really like ??? biggrin.gif I think there is a lot of different tastes in music here, and it's always nice to hear some freash music, just upload it man!!!! smile.gif

Yeah, to seal it in an envelope will be good enough - or You can post it here....

If the radio station wants a label, just put ItsMe Records or whatever, in legal terms it doesn't have to be a registered company that puts out the record - eg. a record label is just a label. Since its You personally that owns the rights to the songs and also owns the record lable, its no conflict in here.

You are definitely allowed to sell Your own records, its just a matter of how honest You will be to the tax-government. In Sweden You have to declare the income of goods, and if You're a private person You're not supposed to charge any VAT on goods, so selling CD's will mean that You're selling them without VAT and have to declare the whole amount of each CD as an income. But on the other hand, if You're selling a couple of hundreds/year no one will bother anyway....

//Staffay

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audiopaal
Nov 23 2009, 10:42 AM
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I think you should upload it as well smile.gif
I like acoustic songs very much!

Staffy gave you some good tips! smile.gif

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ItsMe
Nov 23 2009, 10:43 AM
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Hmm, yes you could just declare your music being published by your own label. Unfortunately German radio station s agreed to only play music that has a registered label code (goes through GVL) which means you either publish under a real label or set up a label yourself. This means you have to start a business and that will get you in trouble with tax authorities easily.

BTW I will upload my stuff once I get a better mp3 converter smile.gif



QUOTE (Staffy @ Nov 23 2009, 10:36 AM) *
What music do we really like ??? biggrin.gif I think there is a lot of different tastes in music here, and it's always nice to hear some freash music, just upload it man!!!! smile.gif

Yeah, to seal it in an envelope will be good enough - or You can post it here....

If the radio station wants a label, just put ItsMe Records or whatever, in legal terms it doesn't have to be a registered company that puts out the record - eg. a record label is just a label. Since its You personally that owns the rights to the songs and also owns the record lable, its no conflict in here.

You are definitely allowed to sell Your own records, its just a matter of how honest You will be to the tax-government. In Sweden You have to declare the income of goods, and if You're a private person You're not supposed to charge any VAT on goods, so selling CD's will mean that You're selling them without VAT and have to declare the whole amount of each CD as an income. But on the other hand, if You're selling a couple of hundreds/year no one will bother anyway....

//Staffay

You are at GuitarMasterClass.net


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Staffy
Nov 23 2009, 10:48 AM
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From: Genarp, Sweden
QUOTE (ItsMe @ Nov 23 2009, 10:43 AM) *
Hmm, yes you could just declare your music being published by your own label. Unfortunately German radio station s agreed to only play music that has a registered label code (goes through GVL) which means you either publish under a real label or set up a label yourself. This means you have to start a business and that will get you in trouble with tax authorities easily.

BTW I will upload my stuff once I get a better mp3 converter smile.gif


Hmmm, why do You have to start a business? In Sweden its enough just to register the label. (or the company as a private business, it costs nothing and a company can be "sleeping", eg. it don't do any commercial business)
But maybe the rules are different in Germany.....

//Staffay

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ItsMe
Nov 23 2009, 10:58 AM
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From: Boston, MA
QUOTE (Staffy @ Nov 23 2009, 10:48 AM) *
Hmmm, why do You have to start a business? In Sweden its enough just to register the label. (or the company as a private business, it costs nothing and a company can be "sleeping", eg. it don't do any commercial business)
But maybe the rules are different in Germany.....

//Staffay



You can do that but you will still have to file a tax declaration each year which is a lot of work. In addition you still have to apply for a LC with the GVL which costs money.

BTW i have the problem that I master my files rather hot. I made a real red book master for a friend who can print me CDs. The audio master sounds great. Problem is if I compress to mp3s you can here that I used allot of limiter. So for mp3s I go down to -0,3 dbs now and use a Power-3 dithering algorythm. Still I don't like the sound of the mo3 files. What converter do you use ?

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This post has been edited by ItsMe: Nov 23 2009, 10:59 AM
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Staffy
Nov 23 2009, 11:16 AM
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From: Genarp, Sweden
QUOTE (ItsMe @ Nov 23 2009, 10:58 AM) *
You can do that but you will still have to file a tax declaration each year which is a lot of work. In addition you still have to apply for a LC with the GVL which costs money.

BTW i have the problem that I master my files rather hot. I made a real red book master for a friend who can print me CDs. The audio master sounds great. Problem is if I compress to mp3s you can here that I used allot of limiter. So for mp3s I go down to -0,3 dbs now and use a Power-3 dithering algorythm. Still I don't like the sound of the mo3 files. What converter do you use ?


For MP3's I just go for the Fraunhofer original converter, maybe You have to expand the source sound upwards after the dithering ??? Or make a MP3 from the final mix before limiting would be even better and then put on the limiting on the MP3 itself....

//Staffay

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Daniel Realpe
Nov 23 2009, 04:15 PM
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For the code part I think CDBaby can do that for you and it's not expensive at all, check them out

CDBaby

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Bogdan Radovic
Nov 23 2009, 05:22 PM
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QUOTE (Daniel Realpe @ Nov 23 2009, 04:15 PM) *
For the code part I think CDBaby can do that for you and it's not expensive at all, check them out

CDBaby


+1 on that.

Check out CDbaby.com . Many independant artists publish their music there (and sell it). Check out the rules and everything. Here in Serbia you just need to register a song in a SOKOJ (organization that is guarding author rights) and there you can register any song you have rights on. It doesn't need to be published...

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Saoirse O'Shea
Nov 23 2009, 06:01 PM
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The station is probably referring to the EAN/GS1 code. These are the bar codes you see on commercial cds and the code includes things such as country of origin, record label. etc. Take a look here.

As you say you've burnt it as a CDA did you include the ISRC? If not the station may be after that aswell/instead.

For radio broadcast a 'hot' squashed mix is not good as the station will also compand the signal.

Selling your CDA - assuming the recording and mastering are ok then it depends on how well you can burn a cd. Domestic cd writers often are not good enough and may cause you problems with translation from one cd player to another. Also if you are burning multiple audio tracks to a cd then you also need to set the pq.

edit - added bit about burning a cd.

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This post has been edited by tonymiro: Nov 23 2009, 08:26 PM


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