Recording a track and releasing on i tunes, where do i start

[Martyn-123]

Hi,

Played guitar for many years, play the occasional gig with a band but never recorded anything and think it would be nice for something to look back on in years to come, bit like a old treasured photo. So as we are now in the technicial age and missed the vinyl opportunity i think releasing a track on i tunes would be a great thing to do for a hobby player.

There is one particular song i have always liked that is not very well known, it was first recorded in 1967, i would rather keep the actual title under wraps at the moment. I have several musician friends who can sing and play the other instruments so the actual playing is not a problem. I am not looking to make any £££ and would select a charity to receive any profits (and off course plugging for a local charity means more people's arms can be twisted to download it, clever eh !)

Questions are,

How do i get permission to record and release somebodies music ?

Do i have to get permission to record and release somebodies music that was wrote in 1967

How do i pay the royalties if due ?

How do i get a track onto i tunes

What else do i need to know ?


Regards,


Martyn

Edited by Martyn-123 on Monday 2nd September 00:13

Edited by Martyn-123 on Monday 2nd September 00:23

[GetCarter]

Yes you do need permission and yes it's still in copyright. You just need to buy a licence.

All your questions can be answered by: http://www.prsformusic.com/Pages/default.aspx

('cept the iTunes one, and I have no idea how to do that)

[Fantuzzi]

Martyn-123 said:

i would rather keep the actual title under wraps at the moment.

Why?

[chevy-stu]

To sell on iTunes you cannot deal directly with them as an independant, so there are a number of companies can do for you, but there is usually a one of payment to register, and they'll charge a percentage of the (already small) iTunes commission to do so.
A search on Google brings up loads of Distributors/labels that will do this. Before this you'll also need a UPC code for your release, which the distributor/label may do as part of the deal, or you may have to purchase one yourself .

This is to stop every rubbish bedroom DJ, and budding talentless singer songwriter releasing there stuff on iTunes.

[Martyn-123]

Thanks for the info so far.


I have found CDbaby who upload to i tunes and songclearance (Limelight) who i can pay for in advance for a mechanical licence to sell so many copies, it appears you have to have a licence for both CD sales and online sales e.g. itunes, i only want itunes.

I am still a little unsure whether this will enable me to sell on itunes uk instead of itunes usa. I will makes enquiries with them.


The reason i did not want to mention what track i was interested in was because Pistonheads whilst being a great tool for info does suffer from going off topic all to easy and wanted to concentrate on the actual proceedure of making and releasing a track rarther than "oh thats a grear song, no it crap. I preferred this version, that version blah blah blah",


Regards,


Martyn.

[Martyn-123]

Well we went into the studio yesterday and recorded a different song to the one i had planned in my original post and rather than a full band song it was myself on acoustic and a female vocalist and wow what a experience.

We did 3 takes with the vocals in the mixing room so only the guitar was recorded, it is a Takamine semi acousic but was recorded unplugged with 3 mics at various places near the guitar, one near the soundhole, another near the 12th fret on the neck and another a few feet away. With headphones on i had a mix of a click track and my guitar and once happy we listened back in the mixing room with no effects at all and the engineer cut and pasted the best bits from the 3 tracks to make one single track without any dud notes. Then over to the vocalist while i sat back with my job done, again she sang the track 3 times with the guitar and her voice in her headphones, once happy the engineer did a tune up of the vocals to get them bang on (they were good already ! ) and then with a touch of reverb it just bought the song alive and really pleased with the end result.

Cost us £85 for 3 hours work which i would recommend to anybody and we will certainly be doing it again.

Playing on my car CD player it sounds good but when i put it on my quality Cyrus home HiFi the sound is suberb.

Need to do a little more research now to get it uploaded onto itunes,

Any more advice gratefully appreciated,


Regards,


Martyn.....

[davepoth]

Original song or cover?

-edit-

From a quick look into this it seems that iTunes has its own deal with PRS which means that provided your track's writers are attributed properly (which will be part of setting up on iTunes) the licensing money will find its way back to the publisher, but you'll likely need to find someone to set it up for you with all of the sales codes and such.

https://www.apple.com/itunes/working-itunes/sell-c...

Back in your OP you mentioned you quite liked the idea of vinyl. That's back in fashion these days, and as a one off it's not actually too expensive as a memento.

http://curvedpressings.com/one-off-vinyl-press/

Edited by davepoth on Sunday 27th April 00:32

[Martyn-123]

Hi,


Yes it's a cover song and looking to get it onto i tunes.


I have found CDBaby who appear to offer a upload to i tunes service once the permission has been provided but need to read up a little more as i am in the Uk and everything appears to be US related.


I will have a look at your links,


Thank you,


Martyn.

[Posk]

I distributed my bands last album through Tunecore. I can thoroughly recommend their service and cost.

As for permissions for cover songs, all i can advise is to contact the publisher. Ive recorded so many covers that went on to be released with no consideration for this at all. Its refreshing to see somebody these days who is actually concerned with crediting the original artist.

Also, respect for taking your music to be recorded by a professional.