CAN I SEE YOUR LICENSE - MUSIC PUB SERIES

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When you finally get a call from a company wanting to use one of your sopngs, you'd better have your license forms ready to do business. Prepare all the license forms you expect you might need ahead of time, leaving particulars such as signatory names, song titles, dates, royalties and fees blank. They'll be fiolled in following negotiations.

A mechanical license is used to authorize phonorecords of a song to be recorded and distributed. You'll want to prepare a separate mechanical license for authorizing digital phono record delivery, also known as Internet Download.

You'll need two different forms of streaming licenses to authorize streaming songs on the Internet: one for fee-based streaming on demand, and the other fro promotional streaming such as that used by recording artists on MySpace. A master-use license permits all or some of a demo's recorded track to be used in a new recording or placed in a film or on TV. You'll also need to prepare separate synchronization licenses (permitting the song to be synchronized to picture) for placements in film, TV, and commercial advertisements. Additional licenses include those for use of your songs in video games and ring tones.

You could have a music-business attorney draw up these documents, but it'll likely cost you thousands of dollars, especially if license terms need to be tweaked during negotiations. A good entertainment lawyer typically charges between $150-$750 per hour. Anyone can learn to understand and write the legalese required to fashion their own licenses, by studying the right books. Remember in our last session "A Good Education" is my recommendation on required reading.

Once one of your songs is recorded, you'll need to register it with your PRO. If you don't they won't know who to pay performance royalties to when the song title appears in their sample surveys of radio broadcasts and the like. Go to the PRO's web site to download the proper registration form.

More on Monday....