I'm not an expert either but, I've been looking into this and here's what I've learned.

Royalties is an extremely complex subject.

There are two types of copyrights on music.
1.Sound recording .......whoever owns the sound recording
2.Composition.......the song writer and/or the publisher

There are different types of royalties.
-Performance royalties
-Mechanical royalties

Simply stated, if you write a song, you own the composition copyright.
The challenge is, pursuing your rights and any associated royalties.

To do a cover you need a licence.
That could be a mechanical license "like what is used for live performances" and/or a sync licence to put the music with a video.

I believe some artists/publishers allow YT covers, while others don't.


If you write a song and somebody else uses it, what will you do about it?
Will you hire a lawyer to sue somebody?
At what cost?
If the party has made money on your song, lawyers may what to get involved so they can benefit.
If No money was made, who's going to chase this copyright infringement?

The flip side is teams of attorneys are combing through the internet to look for opportunities to make money.
Some publishers want complete control over the songs they own and do not want anyone using the material.
Also, big labels are hiring people to find anything that even sounds like the copyrighted material.
YouTube is using algorithms to find and block content they see as copyrighted.

Recently,there have been law suites won on pretty slim grounds, such as, It feels like the original.



All I can say is it's complicated.






Last edited by CaptainMoto; 04/30/20 03:39 PM.
An Old Man Make'n Music

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