I have a website and i share music what can i say to make i legal?

Question

like i said i own a website and i have A LOT of fans, I upload exclusive hip hop and rnb songs for people to download.. i have a disclaimer that says the following
ALL MUSIC FOUND ON MY SITE IS FOR
PROMOTIONAL USE ONLY PLEASE
DELETE WITHIN 24 HOURS AFTER
DOWNLOADING IF YOU ARE
INTERESTED IN ANY OF THESE
TRACKS PLEASE FIND SOMEONE TO
PURCHASE THEM... THANKS
but i was watchin the news and this lady is getting sued for file sharing so idk if the disclaimer is enough I REALLY dont wanna stop the site i love doing it. so wat should i do

Answer 1

I am not a lawyer and strongly recommend retaining one on your own to protect your interests and to explain the laws relevant to your problem. People here might have good sounding answers; but unless they are lawyers specializing in copyright law, you can easily be misled.

In a nutshell here are your answers:

If you use your own music (original compositions that you create) then you have every right to do as you please; provided you own the copyrights.

If you are using music by other artists, then you must stop or pay royalties to the copyright holder. Even if the music is only a background track, you need to pay the copyright owner.

If the music is public domain, then you can use if freely; just have a lawyer double check that the music is public domain.

Answer 2

Any "public domain" music is probably not very interesting on your website, since it is either created by the US government or was published a long time ago. There might be some "free license" music available, but may be worth what you pay for it.

You can, however, freely write and perform your own music,
and also perform the music written by others, by obtaining a "mechanical" license from the US copyright office for a few cents a copy, depending on how you distribute it.

If you are distributing music that belongs to others (either the compositions or the separately copyrighted sound recordings), you need a license, except in very limited cases that don't apply to you. Find out about getting one and see if it is worth avoiding a fine of $9,000 per song.