What kind of rights do you need...?

Question

Okay, I'm writting a short story and I want to have song lyrics in the mix. Would I have to get the artist's permission to use the lyrics or is it okay to use them if I use them in the exact context of the song and cite the artist and the song?

Answer 1

You need to go through ASCAP or BMI - whichever organization the songwriter is affiliated with. You will be shocked at how difficult and expensive it is to obtain song lyrics. You cannot use any lyrics without getting licensing and paying for it unless the song is older than 1923 and in public domain.

The best thing to do is just don't do it. There are ways around it. You can use the title. Titles cannot be copyrighted. So if you mention the title of a song, readers will automatically think of the lyrics in their head - without yoiu spelling them out. So you can just say someting like.

"After getting stood up by Jennie for the third time in one month, Mike drove home. The car radio blared out MIck Jagger singing Satisfaction. "How appropriate," Mike said to nobody but himself." I can't get none either."

So everybody KNOWS what he was listening to, but you haven't blown a couple grand buying the rights to publish the words. Get it?

There are also cases where you can have someone singing a song and they mess up the words, but that is iffy. It depends on how close you are to the song.

Either way, you would need a legal attorney to contact ASCAP or BMI and arrange a licensing fee for you if you wanted to use it. Unless you are a James Patterson or Dean Koontz, odds are the licensing will cost more than you will make selling the book or story. Pax - C

Answer 2

Hellcat gave, as expected, a fantastic answer. However, the you would be "borrowing" from the composer unless the artist is also the composer. The Artist just sings it and really doesn't hold a lot of rights over a song unless they wrote it as well. Just thought I'd pass that along as well.