00:00:00
how to do cover songs legally and this
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includes posting those cover songs on
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YouTube the myths and what people get
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confused on cuz I've just done this for
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so long you got to do it the right way
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and the way that I'm going to walk you
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through how to do cover songs legally in
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2025 this is so important because
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sometimes cover songs get confused with
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sampling with interpolation and I've
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done this for a long time I'm a lawyer
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of 10 years now but I've been doing
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music and making music myself since my
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teens I started learning classical music
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when I was four I love all of this and
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what I can tell you is that cover songs
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are very powerful marketing tools it is
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something to incorporate with what you
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do as a music Creator so with that being
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said today I'm going to walk you through
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how to do cover songs legally and this
00:00:49
includes posting those cover songs on
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YouTube now if you do need more help by
00:00:54
the end of this video you can go over to
00:00:56
topmusic attorney.com I have resources
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free resources I have a music business
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program you can go through and if you
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want to be directed to hire an actual
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attorney I got you there as well we do
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know that doing cover songs it's really
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powerful for marketing because here's
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the thing as original artists of
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original songs we have to sell people on
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so many things it's not just that
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hopefully they like the song which is a
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whole separate creative piece it's they
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have to like the song and then they have
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to like the genre of music and then the
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fan needs to fall in love with the
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singer's voice and they need to fall in
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love with the production the mixing and
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the mastering and so there's so many
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places that you can lose people and so
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one way to kind of bridge the gap for
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purposes of marketing to do a cover song
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so cover songs awesome really great for
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the general algorithm and the way I like
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to treat them is I use them as the Gap
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fillers between the original songs that
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I do I am also an independent artist and
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so between the releases of my original
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songs I'm going to do covers because
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it's a way to get a lot of Engagement
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from people who are in love with B BS
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right other bands other artists and then
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now you're playing someone's favorite
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song and it just gives a new potential
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fan the opportunity to hear your voice
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hear your production hear your good
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stuff for the first time so what I'm
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going to talk about through this segment
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is I'm going to talk about the cover
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song as it relates to the audio version
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and then I'm going to talk about the
00:02:20
cover song as it relates to the video
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all right so let's start with just the
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audio version itself first and foremost
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you may say well is it okay to do cover
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song and I've actually had someone ask
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this before and they go I've heard that
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it's illegal to do cover songs that's
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not the case okay but let's clarify why
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someone might think that and we'll start
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from what essentially a cover song is
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not so a cover song is not sampling when
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we think of sampling we think of taking
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something from someone else's
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pre-recorded song okay so this is going
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to be we're listening to a Metallica
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song and we use a portion of a guitar we
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use a portion of a drum we use a portion
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of a vocal and we put it in our new song
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that is sampling there's also another
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category called interpolation and
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interpolation comes up where you have
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someone who doesn't want to use any
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actual piece from the song so it
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wouldn't be sampling but they go I want
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to redo this song this song was such a
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huge hit in the 80s and now I want to
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redo it and I'm going to revamp it and
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give it some new better words but
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otherwise I'm really just redoing the
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song you see major labels doing this all
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the time because it's a little bit of a
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shortcut and we know it's a shortcut
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because it's a way to use something that
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was already a big hit and you just kind
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of repackage it together for one of the
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new artists and then it becomes another
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hit so we have sampling we have
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interpolation and now we have cover
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songs with sampling with interpolating
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you get licenses directly from the
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rights holders now with cover songs the
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reason why we love it is that doing
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cover songs you don't need to go and get
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a direct license from the rights holders
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and so right now you're like okay this
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is good and of course if you're a band
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if you are musician an artist you can do
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cover songs legally but you got to do it
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the right way and the way that I'm going
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to walk you through all right so what is
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a cover song I guess maybe let's put
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this way we'll have a little list of
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myths that I commonly have to answer
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when I'm giving you guys just
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consultations on how to do this but one
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of them will be well what if I make my
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own version of a song which generally
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okay we're thinking that this is a cover
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because if you go with me I do dark
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popop music and so what I love to do is
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to take like a very happy sounding
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Disney song and I've done covers that
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are dark pop covers and so I am now in
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reenvisioning them and that's okay I can
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do brand new production okay but we want
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to make sure we're using the same words
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very important and the same Arrangement
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so a common question I might get would
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be well I took the Disney song and I
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rearranged it and so I put it in a
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different order I put the chorus first
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and then I put the ver and the second
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verse together for some reason and then
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I did a double course and so now it's
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the same Parts but it's put into a
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different Arrangement it is no longer a
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cover if you do that and this is
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important because part of the analysis
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can be sometimes you guys will come to
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me and you'll say well I've done a cover
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but what I did is I kept everything the
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same I did my own rendition but I
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changed all the words for the chorus so
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instead of this melodic singy thing I
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did a WAP with my own rap on it that's
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no longer a cover so the the framework
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we're thinking through this is It's a
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cover song so long as you're keeping the
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same Arrangement and you're keeping the
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same lyrics very important okay if you
00:05:39
are someone that is needing help in the
00:05:41
music business at the end of this video
00:05:43
you can check out topmusic attorney.com
00:05:45
I have courses I have free stuff just to
00:05:47
kind of get you started if you do want a
00:05:48
deep dive if you do want to train with
00:05:50
me I always say go through my music
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business program which is how to think
00:05:53
like a record label become a record
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label and then if you do want to get
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into touch with me or one of my lawyers
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we got your covered but you can do your
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whole own production around it so this
00:06:03
is where you get to have a lot of
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creativity now the reason we're allowed
00:06:06
to do all this is because pursuing to 17
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USC 115 so 115 of the Copyright Act you
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have the ability to get what's called a
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compulsory mechanical license now I'm
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going to simplify this for you hang
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tight with me for two seconds okay so
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pursuing to the Copyright Act originally
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it had said well if you go get this
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compulsory license which you can get
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from Harry Fox agency you can get it
00:06:29
from easy song licensing super cheap it
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means you don't have to go to Metallica
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and negotiate anything you get it
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automatically okay and then these
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companies are in charge of paying out
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the rights holders I'm like oh my gosh
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okay great so that's how it used to be
00:06:43
but there was an update because a lot of
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people didn't know about this and a lot
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of artists were not actually getting
00:06:47
this license and so pursuing to the
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music modernization act this was in 2018
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there's a little update mate and they go
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you know what we're going to make the
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digital service providers so the dsps
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we're going to make them go and get
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these mechanical licenses so now it says
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in the copyright act that the dsps are
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the ones that get it so what does this
00:07:06
mean for you this means because we're
00:07:08
again we're talking just about the audio
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version only so this means when you want
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to do a cover song one you're okay to do
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a cover song two you can make it your
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own rendition your own production all
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good things but keep in mind what I said
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make sure you use the same lyrics make
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sure you keep the same Arrangements but
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then when you put it on music platforms
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you have to go get some special license
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the answer is no this is pursuing to US
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law I want to clarify that because I
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know I have followers in different
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countries what I'm speaking to is US law
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so with that being said we go well
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Spotify has to go and get this license
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so all you need to do is just distribute
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your song Put it on music platforms and
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the license covers streaming take a b
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listen closely if you are doing
00:07:51
something to sell your music that is not
00:07:53
streaming such as we talk about direct
00:07:55
to Fan selling on your website so
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digital downloads we talk about CDs we
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talk about selling finals if you're
00:08:01
doing something that is not just
00:08:03
streaming the music on platforms like
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Spotify platforms like Amazon if you
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actually are going to download it you do
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need to get a mechanical license still
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so there is a caveat okay but for the
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majority of you watching right now
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you're just going to put your song on
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streaming platforms and so you're good
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to go the music platforms are in charge
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of getting these licenses they take a
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little share of the royalties they pay
00:08:25
it to the rights holders through the
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mechanical licensing Collective you're
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good all right you're doing great hang
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tight with me because we're not to the
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video piece yet the video piece is just
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as important as the audio for the
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monetization and later really it's sync
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licensing so we talk about all the time
00:08:42
ways that you guys can make money from
00:08:43
your music and this includes cover songs
00:08:45
too but what happens is that you know
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copyright and all these updates that
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happened were so that you could do your
00:08:51
cover songs and then put your cover
00:08:52
songs on music platforms but no one made
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updates in regards to using your songs
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in video so obviously if you do a cover
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song whole big group of us like to do a
00:09:05
music video right we want to do clips
00:09:07
for social media I mean it's like part
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and parcel with releasing your song is
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that you're going to promote it if
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you're going to promote it there's going
00:09:13
to be some kind of visual to it right so
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the wrinkle here is that everything I
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just told you on your good to go with
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making your cover song putting it on
00:09:21
streaming platforms dsps pay and do all
00:09:23
the things with the mechanical licensing
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Collective great well what about video
00:09:29
and the way that it is technically under
00:09:31
the law is that you're supposed to go
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and get a sync license because we are
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syncing the audio to video does that
00:09:37
make sense in any kind of way that you
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need to now go and like figure out who
00:09:40
to contact you know to do your Metallica
00:09:43
cover well no and so again we had all
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these companies that were like all right
00:09:47
this doesn't make sense we got to figure
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something out because everyone's just
00:09:49
doing their cover songs and they're just
00:09:51
putting it on YouTube so what record
00:09:53
labels in particular did the rights
00:09:55
holders they're the ones that ended up
00:09:57
going and doing direct deals with
00:10:00
YouTube right with Facebook Instagram
00:10:03
right AKA meta Tik Tok so they've gone
00:10:05
and done direct licensing deals and they
00:10:08
go what we're going to do is that when
00:10:10
the songs pop up on your platform we are
00:10:13
going to lay claim to the cover song so
00:10:16
we get paid the monetization so we're
00:10:17
not going to do strikes anymore which is
00:10:19
what they used to do was you know scary
00:10:21
to get a to get a strike for sure what's
00:10:23
happening with the video aspect doesn't
00:10:25
technically comply with copyright law
00:10:28
but practically speaking the work around
00:10:30
is that most of the time you're okay
00:10:33
just to put your video on these
00:10:34
platforms because there are deals in
00:10:36
place directly between the labels and
00:10:40
the platforms and we're like okay you
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know that's good right so at least you
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know people are not getting sued for
00:10:45
copyright infringement they're not
00:10:47
getting strikes on their videos so there
00:10:49
is a workaround this is the general good
00:10:52
news so these are the practical
00:10:53
considerations so we go all right we
00:10:55
started with audio we feel comfortable
00:10:57
that we know we can do our own versions
00:11:00
we do in fact own our own versions
00:11:02
because one of the common questions that
00:11:04
come up is in regards to cover songs can
00:11:06
I register my song for copyright
00:11:08
protection and the answer is yes the way
00:11:10
that it works is that you just have to
00:11:12
make sure to disclaim when you file and
00:11:14
you got to tell the copyright office
00:11:16
don't beat up your microphone you tell
00:11:18
the copyright office I did this cover of
00:11:21
the Metallica song and I don't own the
00:11:24
underlying composition and then you put
00:11:25
the names of who actually does so the
00:11:27
good news is that you can register I've
00:11:28
done music
00:11:29
sales in the millions of dollars selling
00:11:33
cover songs and so everything that I'm
00:11:35
talking about of just the due diligence
00:11:37
of getting the licenses for the the
00:11:38
video pieces or otherwise not doing it
00:11:42
because there are these workarounds this
00:11:44
is what is practically happening now on
00:11:46
the last video I did on on this someone
00:11:49
comically left a comment just being like
00:11:51
look at the dumpster fire of copyright
00:11:52
law and what's happening with music I
00:11:55
think that's fair to a degree but the
00:11:57
good news is that this is practically
00:11:59
how it works now what I want to kind of
00:12:01
wrap this with is specifically the myths
00:12:03
and what people get confused on because
00:12:05
I've just done this for so long and I
00:12:07
and I wrote out my notes here because
00:12:09
this just comes up so often one myth
00:12:11
will be well if it's okay to do a cover
00:12:13
song and it's okay to do it so long as I
00:12:16
do the same Arrangement as the original
00:12:18
if I put two together right on one song
00:12:21
so it's a compilation so I have one
00:12:24
separate cover song I have another
00:12:25
separate cover song and I put it as one
00:12:27
long song is it okay I go and get one of
00:12:30
these mechanical licenses that you're
00:12:31
talking about and the answer is no and
00:12:33
why would that be right the answer is
00:12:35
because well technically the arrangement
00:12:37
is not the actual arrangement of the
00:12:39
song Anymore the arrangement is the
00:12:40
entire song and then you have a whole
00:12:42
other song at the end so a compilation
00:12:44
of two nope you're gonna have some
00:12:46
trouble with that another question in in
00:12:48
myth really is so long as I use just the
00:12:52
same Parts in the song I can rearrange
00:12:56
it you know and kind of put my little
00:12:58
creative spin on it no you cannot you
00:13:00
have to keep the same Arrangement one of
00:13:01
my clients got into such a situation on
00:13:04
this because the arrangement had been
00:13:05
like 5 minutes previously and to try to
00:13:08
just make it a little more digestible
00:13:11
they adapted it to a different genre of
00:13:12
music it was pretty cool but they cut it
00:13:14
down pretty significantly and so part of
00:13:17
our analysis is going in like as
00:13:18
copyright attorneys and just being like
00:13:20
look have you changed and modified the
00:13:22
song so it really is no longer a cover
00:13:24
yes or no all right so that's another
00:13:25
myth you generally want to keep the same
00:13:27
Arrangement keep the same lyrics Another
00:13:29
myth is what if I give credit if we give
00:13:31
credit I don't own this and you put a
00:13:33
little disclaimer in the description I'm
00:13:36
okay it's not copyright infringement the
00:13:39
answer is putting a little disclaimer
00:13:41
that you are intentionally doing
00:13:43
something you know that you may not have
00:13:45
the rights but you're not claiming
00:13:46
ownership do you see where I'm going
00:13:48
with this so the logic behind that is no
00:13:50
I don't think it's going to make any
00:13:52
difference if you say this is who I got
00:13:54
it from but at least what I'm telling
00:13:55
you is that the state of copyright law
00:13:58
is you do want to get this Sy license
00:14:00
the majority of people don't or can't
00:14:02
because it's too expensive and so
00:14:05
there's kind of this group think of
00:14:07
you'll just go on YouTube and be like
00:14:08
hey is there like a bunch of Metallica
00:14:10
covers of this song have they been taken
00:14:13
down or is it likely that the rights
00:14:15
holder is collecting and monetizing
00:14:17
because they have an actual relationship
00:14:19
with YouTube right all right and lastly
00:14:20
another myth is if I only change one
00:14:23
section of the lyrics is that okay I
00:14:25
used this example one time because I
00:14:27
love the song Blue by I 65 just one of
00:14:30
the best songs and it was actually
00:14:31
interpolated funny enough in recent
00:14:33
years and so they took the same song
00:14:35
they did a new rendition they put new
00:14:37
lyrics to it and I've done a cover of
00:14:39
that song previously and where normally
00:14:42
they say I have a girlfriend they have a
00:14:44
girlfriend and she is so blue when I did
00:14:46
mine I said I have a boyfriend and he is
00:14:49
so blue and so we could analyze that and
00:14:50
say well if we like materially changed
00:14:52
the song and so it's no longer a cover
00:14:55
song I go well that's pretty di Minimus
00:14:57
it's so small we're probably okay so
00:15:00
sometimes we do have to get granular
00:15:01
sometimes we do need to kind of analyze
00:15:03
it and just to see but what I want you
00:15:05
to know is here's the good news recap
00:15:08
it's okay to do cover songs and not only
00:15:10
is it okay to do cover songs but
00:15:12
copyright law has actually been updated
00:15:14
to cover you so that when you do your
00:15:16
cover song and you put it on the music
00:15:18
streaming platforms you actually don't
00:15:20
have to get any kind of license when
00:15:22
people say well what about Dr kid if you
00:15:24
distribute through Dro kid they will say
00:15:26
hey if you're doing a cover song we can
00:15:28
help you get the mechanical license
00:15:30
that's nice you don't have to do that
00:15:32
really important piece there you don't
00:15:34
have to do that but caveat if you are
00:15:37
selling your music directly through
00:15:38
digital downloads you're doing CDs
00:15:40
you're doing vinyls that's different and
00:15:42
then you do want to get the mechanical
00:15:43
license okay if you do need to get a
00:15:45
mechanical license personally I use easy
00:15:47
song licensing you can use Harry Fox
00:15:49
agency either one is fine so that is the
00:15:51
audio version when it comes to the video
00:15:54
version generally speaking when people
00:15:57
do their cover songs and they put them
00:15:59
as videos and they put them on YouTube
00:16:01
there are these licenses that have been
00:16:03
negotiated directly and you'll likely
00:16:04
get a claim on your video saying Hey
00:16:06
Universal is collecting 100% of your
00:16:09
monetization which is a whole other
00:16:12
thing so if you found this valuable
00:16:13
please be sure give it a big thumbs up
00:16:16
and I will see you on the next one
