- Posts
As those of you who read my posts know, I am moving to an all public domain format.
There are two determining factors in determining whether a particular song is in the public domain in Canada. And remember that our rules are far more liberal than those in the U.S.
Up to mid 2015, musical performances (i.e. recordings) went into the public domain 50 years after the end of the calendar year in which they were published. Our government extended that to 70 years in 2015, but all performances then in the public domain (i.e., all that were recorded and released prior to 1965) remain in the public domain.
Songs are a different kettle of fish. In Canada, that copyright currently is for 50 years after the end of the calendar year in which the last surviving author (music and/or lyrics) passed away.
Here are two examples, and whether or not something is in the public domain has to be determined on a song by song, recording by recording basis.
So, the first is Moonlight Serendade, credited as written by Glenn Miller on the 78. The performance itself is definitely in the public domain, as the record was released in 1939. Glenn Miller passed away (actually, was declared to be missing in action) in 1944, and since he is listed as the only author, the song itself is in the public domain as well. I can safely play it.
Now, take Tuxedo Junction, another hit by Glenn Miller, in 1940. Once again, the recording itself is in the public domain. However, the song is credited to a number of authors, including Erskine Hawkins (music). Erskine Hawkins passed away in 1993, so the song is still protected by copyright, and under the existing rules, will be until the end of 2043.
To make matters even more complicated (for the future), if the TPP is ratified by
Canada, copyright for songs will be extended (for all songs still under copyright protection) to life + 70 years, so in all liklihood that song will come into the public domain at the end of calendar year 2063.This is going to be tedious.
Total posts : 45366How can you do the research and find all this info?
Especially for several thousand songs you may have on your playlist?
So all the do-wop songs you were playing before….how do you know if any or all the members of these groups are alive now and when they died?!! And when will they die!
Seems next to impossible to find all this and there’s so much you can’t play!
Maybe the lesser of the evils is do what you were doing before…and pay the small fee if you only have to keep logs a few days or weeks a year?
And you mentioned the ACTUAL WRITER of a song…not just the performance…how can you find out who actually wrote songs by Peggy Lee for example…and find out if they are still alive?…and do this with thousands!!
I find this mindboggling to say the least.
You were great before…it wasn’t broke.
Good luck….I mean in a good way.
Mark
Total posts : 45366Recording performances are easy. Anything prior to 1965 is in the public domain.
It’s the songs that are the issue (i.e., music and lyrics). I just spent an entire afternoon weeding out public domain performances/songs from old jazz material, and got maybe 20.
You’re right – it may be a lot easier to just pay the SOCAN fee of $100 – that will take care of any song copyright issues. Everything I already play was recorded in 1964 or earlier.
Total posts : 45366I’ve found some easier ways to get performances/songs that are in the public domain in Canada.
1. Go for Jazz Standards. These are songs that virtually every jazz artist plays, and many are in the public domain, and
2. Find songwriter(s) (many work as teams) that have been dead for over 50 years. Get a list of their songs, and then search for musical performances of those songs. Since the musical performances will also be over 50 years old (you can’t perform a song that hasn’t been written), the work is guaranteed to be in the public domain.
Sounds morbid, I know. But it’s the only way to determine if a song/musical performance is in the public domain in Canada.
Total posts : 45366It’s a piece of cake in the USA.
There are NO (as in ZERO) Sound Recordings in the USA that are in the public domain.
SONGS that were published prior to 1922 ARE in the public domain.
However, since terrestrial radio only pays WRITERS and NOT performers, you’re OK with any songs written prior to 1922. But you need to be careful — if a modern day performer has any writers credit for an arrangement, verse variation, alternate or additional lyrics, you’re screwed, as it will be a new copyright.
If you STREAM you will be limited to songs written before 1922 that are performed by YOU or someone you hire to perform them. Or comeone you contract to perform them. As streamers have to pay the writers AND the performers.
Easy. But you don’t get many songs to work with.
TIB
Total posts : 45366Yes, there are many more performances/songs in the public domain in Canada than the U.S.
Even some stuff that you wouldn’t think would be in the public domain. For example, Billie Holiday passed away in 1959, more than 50 years ago, so all of her published musical recordings are in the public domain. And as for the songs themselves, if she performed (and she did, along with many others), say, Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man (written by Jerome Kern & Oscar Hammerstein II, both of whom passed away more than 50 years ago), then the song is in the public domain as well. Kern & Hammerstein is a good example of a musical team for which all their songs (and there’s a good lot of them, many performed by jazz musicians) are in the public domain.
Even the Platters’ Smoke Gets In Your Eyes is in the public domain in Canada. It was written by Kern & (Otto) Harbach (the latter passed away in 1963), so the song is in the public domain. And the record was released in 1958, again more than 50 years ago.
And finally, here’s another interesting find. I’ve Told Every Little Star (released by Linda Scott in 1961, #3 on the U.S. charts for that year) was written by Kern & Hammerstein, so it is in the public domain as well.
Total posts : 45366Artisan……there’s so much that you can’t play, for example Carole King wrote so many songs that were done by hundreds of artists but since she’s alive and well you can’t play any and if she died tomorrow you couldn’t play any for 50 years!
That’s just one of hundreds of examples….so much you won’t be able to play.
Your playlist will not be what you really want, just what it has to be to meet this criteria.
$25 to Resound and $100 to Socan annually is really just small change to play whatever you want and you said they want a log only for a few days a year(Socan).
And all the off the beaten path songs you were playing before….how are you going to find out the writers?, and all those singers were teenagers that performed the songs back then and are alive and well now still.
Make it easy on yourself, Play what you want, you’ll be much happier!
What you are putting yourself through would be different if you had to keep a log all the time, not to save $125 a year for permission to play copyrighted music.
Mark
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
