Frequently Asked Questions

Licensing

“What is the Intellectual Property Rights Form, and why must I fill it out?”

As manufacturers of recorded material, Classic City Vinyl Works is obligated to ensure that all audio recordings and programming that we duplicate is owned or legally licensed by our customers. The “IPR” is to declare who the owners of the master contents are, and where needed, provides executed licensing documents should the material be property of a third party.

Should the Classic City Vinyl Works team discover an unlicensed song or sample during the master inspection process - which every order is subject to - the order will be cancelled, completed parts will be billed for, and a project cancellation fee charged.

“What information do I need to provide if I am sampling another artist’s work?”

Whether you are sampling a brass lick from some Detroit 60s soul, or a verse of spoken word poetry from a local wordsmith, you’ll need to provide a Master License contract to Classic City Vinyl Works between you and the Master Rights Owners (or their record label). Case depending, you may also need to need to pay to secure a Mechanical License from a licensing agency or a publishing company representing the work.

“What information must I provide if I am producing a compilation of various Artists?”

When using someone else’s recording on your release, you’ll need a signed Master License from the Master Rights Owner of the recording.

If you are a record label and own all of the masters featuring on the compilation, you should demonstrate that these recordings are currently under your control. You will also need to pay Mechanical Licenses as is standard with all releases on your label.

“What information must I provide if my project includes covers?”

If your project includes cover songs of another artist, you are the Master Rights holder of that recording but must still secure a Mechanical License so royalties can be paid to the owner of the song’s publishing.

SongFile is a quick and easy resource to register for a Mechanical License.

“What is a Master License?”

The Master Rights owner is the musician(s) or label who own the master tapes – it is ordinarily the entity that financed the recording. A Master License from the owner permits you the right to include an artist’s song(s) on your completed goods, whether it be a vinyl record or a digital download.

“What is a Mechanical License?”

A mechanical license grants the rights to reproduce and distribute copyrighted musical compositions (songs) on Vinyl, CDs, tapes, ringtones, permanent digital downloads, interactive streams and other digital configurations. If you want to record and distribute a song that you don’t own or control, or if your business requires the distribution of music that was written by others, you need to get a mechanical license.

When using a sample or adding someone else’s recording onto your record, you should get a master use license from the owner prior to requesting a mechanical license.

The Harry Fox Agency represents a good chunk of music publishers and should be the first place you visit when needing to secure a Mechanical License. If Harry Fox doesn’t represent the song / composition you are looking to license, you’ll need to track down the mechanical license owner directly.

If you are covering a song, use Songfile (a division of HFA).

NB on Mechanical Licenses and Sampling: the laws are complex at this time; some samples are extremely short and may not need a Mechanical License as it does not represent the song as a whole (although you will always need a Master License). You’ll need to prove to Classic City Vinyl Works that a Mechanical License is not required for any samples you wish to include on your record.