----- Original Message ----- From: "Don Cox" <doncox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>And as I noted a couple of days ago, there is such a thing as music you can buy on CD with performance rights and royalties included, from a variety of publishers. They sell mostly to TV, radio and film producers but also to theatres, and the music is in brand new recordings and often in any style you like (a lot of them are called "soundalike"..say you want The Pink Panther Theme but Mr. Mancini's estate has other ideas, and these music services would probably have one or two tracks that sound pretty close to it). And ASCAP can't do a thing about it if you've paid for it.On 03/08/07, Steven C. Barr(x) wrote:----- Original Message ----- From: "Frank Strauss" <fbsdmd@xxxxxxxxx>However, the question was about music rather than recordings.On 8/1/07, Steven Smith, King of the House, Inc. <kingofthehouse@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: Again, 20 years ago, I worked with a large theater chain. They were told they had to pay ASCAP fees for the music before and after the show. The owner of the huge Washington chain, instead, managed to locate a bunch of music that was in the public domain. How much public domain music is there?
Depends on where ya IS! In the US of A, there effectively isn't ANY (at least as far as the sound recordings go...keep in mind that other laws and terms cover other applicable musical royalties...!!). Here in Canada, in the UK (thanks to a recent decision...!) and in most of elsewhere, the copyright on a SOUND RECORDING lasts either 50 calendar years or 50 years from the end of the year in which the given sound recording was "fixed" (a term which, for some reason, scares my cat...) :-)
And the answer remains the same! Each country has its own set of copyright laws, which define the terms for various forms/types of copyright as well as whether copyright can be renewed. In the case of the publisher/composer copyright, more information can be obtained from the entity which collects the relevant royalties; in the US of A, the Harry Fox Agency, and in Canada CMRRA. A small bit of web searching should lead listeners to the appropriate web site...which will also provide search facilities for the titles of interest.
Steven C. Barr