Rob is correct. The guy who made the recording does not hold a copyright on the sound that train made. He holds/held the copyright on the recording he made. I'm not even sure it falls under the category of "intellectual property". Maybe it does. Maybe it doesn't. I'm not a lawyer. The Beach Boys (or more likely and accurately, the record company) saved some money by licensing the recording instead of recording it themselves. That is at least a part of the value of the copyright.

It's the difference (in the old but still used model) between copyrights on a song and copyrights on the recording of said song. The former is held by the publisher of record. The latter is held by the "record company". The latter don't "own the song", just the recording. In fact, they pay the "owner of the song"...a statutory amount. Covers (no matter how closely they resemble the recorded version) have nothing to do with the latter...only the former.

I curious about how all this works in synchronization rights. I know you can't put a Led Zeppelin song in your film without explicit permission from either the publisher, record company, or both. And I'm pretty certain that the rates are not statutory, but negotiated and contractual. But I don't know who gets paid or how.

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"You are right, Captain. I do babble." Data, Star Trek the Next Generation.


Last edited by Tangmo; 04/12/20 06:30 AM.
BIAB 2021 Audiophile. Windows 10 64bit. Songwriter, lyricist, composer(?) loving all styles. Some pre-BIAB music from Farfetched Tangmo Band's first CD. https://alonetone.com/tangmo/playlists/close-to-the-ground