I hope the web pages turned out to your satisfaction. They are receiving about 2,500 viewers a day.
One of our bands would like to release a cover version of Steve Miller's "Fly Like an Eagle." Do you have any idea who owns the publishing rights to this song? Or, how I could reach Mr. Miller's representatives?
I checked out your web page; cool stuff.
As far as the Steve Miller Band clearance, you don't need to get rights to re-record and release the song unless you've massively changed the original copyright. Once a song is recorded and commercially release, it becomes available to anyone to re-record without the artist's clearance. If you've changed the song substantially so that the copyright is altered, the best way to get rights cleared is to deal with the owner of the copyright (ie. the song's music publisher). If that's the case, the best way to find out the relevant info is to call ASCAP or BMI.
Good luck.
Thanks.
Hmmm ... I've been thinking about what you said ... does that mean you are not obligated to pay royalties?
It has nothing to do with not paying royalties. Songwriters get paid for exploitation of their copyrights; you just don't need to get their formal permission to do a faithful cover of a previously commercially released song.
Your assistance is greatly appreciated. I've taken your advice and contacted ASCAP. After trying the old fashioned ways of finding an organization, it hit me ... find them on the 'net -- http://www.visualradio.com/ascap/.
Unfortunately, they did not offer membership application, nor information on publishing rights, on-line. That must still be done through snailmail.
So, as far as I can tell: the original publisher and writer of the song will obtain monies through ASCAP, and the new performer and publisher of the cover version will receive monies from ASCAP. The amount of money will be dependent on the public samplings taken by ASCAP. True?