tookatooka
3505 posts
Sep 23, 2013
6:01 AM
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Hi Guys, what with all the discussion about PFOS and copyright etc. I thought I'd just bring up the question of using backing tracks whilst there are so many legal heads contributing to the discussions.
As far as I'm aware if I buy Backing Tracks I'm entitled to use them for practice purposes and to accompany with harp, in front of other people (audience?) just so long as I don't make any money from any performance and the resulting music is not used in a money making form. Is that right?
So I can't busk with them?
It's all getting a bit murky because there are musicians offering free BT's via websites and YouTube who say the tracks are free to do whatever you want, with just a proviso saying, mention the BT artist in any subsequent YouTube videos etc, that you may make.
I've used BT's in the past and posted them on here but I've always credited the BT originator. I think.
I need to know what the legal position on all this is as I'm thinking about making and using my own backing tracks in future, but there are some that I'd really like to use. Not for profit, but if someone tosses me a pound because they like what I do, I'm not going to reject it.
Also, a lot of the backing tracks are rather long and I find they are more usable if they were only half the length. What would be the legal position on editing a BT to shorten it? eg. Interfering with another persons work.
Ideas please anyone or do you know a site which can answer these types of legal questions?
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Frank
2801 posts
Sep 23, 2013
8:57 AM
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Here is one allowed...
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LSC
502 posts
Sep 23, 2013
10:22 AM
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I'm no lawyer but recently I was asked to get copyright permissions for a friend of mine who was doing a vanity CD of covers and learned some things I wasn't aware of concerning mechanical royalties. One thing was that according to law, as sent to me by a publisher, if you press less than I think 1,000 copies you do not even need formal permission from the copyright holder. You just send a check for 9.1 cents per copy per track to the publisher telling them what you did. If you ask for formal permission the publisher will charge anywhere from $15 to $50 "administration" fee per song.
As to your question specifically about using backing tracks, I would say don't worry about it. First of all the creator you mentioned has pretty much implied carte blanch to do what you want. Besides, what are the chances of someone walking down the street, recognizing a track and asking if you have permission to use it and then raising a fuss if you don't? Then of course we are talking a performance royalty which is based on audience size. How would one calculate the number of people who actually stopped and listened in a given period and how much, if anything, they put in the tip jar which is not a set price but a contribution? I think the whole issue on the scale being discussed is being made way too complicated. And I say this as a published songwriter who is quite protective of my work. I once turned down an offer to record and press 10,000 copies of a song I wrote for a documentary film because the guy wanted me to waive the mechanicals. I would have received many times that amount in publicity alone but it pissed me off on principle. Sometime later my agent told me the guy was a notorious rip off artist.
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LSC
Last Edited by LSC on Sep 23, 2013 10:23 AM
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garry
440 posts
Sep 23, 2013
5:44 PM
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minor correction: the cost per track for cd covers varies according to the length of the track. i don't recall the details, but the 9.1 cents/copy/track is valid only up to a certain length. some of the tracks on jason's Down That Road cost more due to their length (lots of jamming).
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nacoran
7156 posts
Sep 24, 2013
9:49 AM
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Also, be careful that the person doing the backing track actually has the right to the song. If it's something they made up, they have the right to set the deal how they want, but if you have someone playing a backing track for a song someone else wrote, you may owe royalties to the original artist. (Of course, lots of backing tracks are more vague riffs on chords, so a lot of them should be fine.)
Also, think about Creative Commons. It's a good way to produce things that other people can use.
http://creativecommons.org/
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Nate
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tookatooka
3507 posts
Sep 24, 2013
10:07 AM
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"but if you have someone playing a backing track for a song someone else wrote". This is a problem because one may not know that someone else wrote it. How would you know?
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Frank
2817 posts
Sep 24, 2013
10:46 AM
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My uneducated, not worth a dime advice is...
To the best of your ability - let the maker of the track/s know what you're up to...
A hobbyist, average joe type of player is the least of their worries - There are MUCH BIGGER fish to fry who would actually have some flesh to throw in the frying pan.
Reality is - is, it is honorable you're concerned - but I doubt that you personally are what is conceived as a legitimate threat to someone's livelihood :)
Last Edited by Frank on Sep 24, 2013 10:46 AM
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tookatooka
3508 posts
Sep 24, 2013
11:05 AM
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"I doubt that you personally are what is conceived as a legitimate threat to someone's livelihood". What, you mean Little Walters and SBW's estates can rest easy in the fact I may be playing their tunes - rather badly? :) :) :)
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