Copyright for Arrangers - Do I need to get permission to cover a song? 

Thanks Trevor!

You are very welcome!

Thank you. I am glad you’re getting so much from it!… also, my wife thinks so too.

Good call. If you are only making adjustments to fit your instrumentation, you are technically just reorchestrating rather than arranging.

Good advise. My video was meant to encourage young composers to write arrangements if their favorite songs and not to worry about the red tape.

Yes. You are spot on.

I think this was humorous…back in the 90s, I played in a septet where we were all composing and arranging. Many originals, many not. Our sax player was prolofic and arranged tons of classic tunes, but then Horace Silver’s Hard Bop Grandpop came out. He borrowed a tune from it :-). We’d self-produced three CDs, and the third one had Horace’s tune on it…my arrangement of Abdullah Ibrahim’s The Wedding was on it too. The sax player did the right thing and contacted them for permission to release the recordings (even though it was just a self-produced run of about 200 CDs). Abdullah didn’t seem to mind, and I think we sent him a small check. Horace was the interesting one. Our sax player had a fairly long conversation with Horace directly. Horace showed much interest in our septet, the instrumentation, the gigs we did, prior recordings, etc. Then he asked about the current production run. Then charged us, to the penny, exactly what we owed him.

You already know my answer!

Perhaps. But judging by the VAST array of cover versions of popular songs that fill RU-vid, I don’t think the risk is high. The reward is HUGE. Arrangers need to be arranging. This is how we get our skills together, our chops strong. Don’t be discouraged.

@@PandemoniumBigBand yes, arrangers need to write. No doubt. But there are risks involved per Tresona and it is reasonable to let folks know (1) that these risks exist and (2) how to not draw attention to yourself in a way that could get you in hot water. This does not at all mean that you should fear arranging - we just need to be smart about it.

If the source material is from the classical or medieval periods, you should be safe.

I think you’re pretty safe

If you aren’t directing a division 1 college band you’ll probably fly under the radar. But if you want to do it legit (and you really should) there are some writers that know much better than me how to get permission.

If you are going to release it as part of an album, you should definitely pay for the rights. Things are MUCH easier if you aren’t selling sheet music.

That is not legal. Chet's solo is considered his own composition. That said, a publishing company (Hal Leonard, Alfred, etc.) could negotiate and help you sell a book of transcriptions. BUT, if it's for your personal use/enrichment, transcribe to your heart's content.

Yes, probably.

Yep. Music, unfortunately, is a huge money-losing scheme. But if you intend to build a career as a performer, educator, arranger (choral or otherwise), producer, etc. then you need to put yourself out there. Everything you release becomes part of your body of work and your musical identity. You might lose money releasing profitless multitrack, but someone might watch it and decide to hire you for their paying project, take lessons with you, etc.

If you publish using arrangeme, they care of copyright with no hassle for you, but you only get 10% of sales.

If you are releasing your recording on RU-vid, it will get “demonetized”, but should remain watchable. If you are releasing the recording to Spotify, etc. you will need to pay for the rights. But services like Distrokid and TubeCore make the process very easy.

@@PandemoniumBigBand thanks 👍🏼

The venues are supposed to pay money to either BMI or ASCAP to cover the performing right. They are supposed to submit playlists, but most venues don’t. As an artist you only need to think about copyright when you record.

@@PandemoniumBigBand Thank you so much

Honestly, if you are in the position of arranging music for a movie you should do everything above board.

I don’t have any experience, but in my research, I think the music supervisor of the film would have to pay the composer/publisher of Autumnleaves, and then the music supervisor would pay you a separate fee for used of your recording. Perhaps they would even pay for your studio session It’s all negotiable. However, the Autumnleaves composer could simply say no, or have such a huge fee that the movie could not budget for it. I guess that wouldn’t be a problem with autumn leaves, but could be a problem with Michael Jackson song, for instance, if you were to cover it. How has your experience gone this far?