Music Law in the Digital Age

Book excerpt: (Berklee Press). With the free-form exchange of music files and musical ideas online, understanding copyright laws has become essential to career success in the new music marketplace. This cutting-edge, plain-language guide shows you how copyright law drives the contemporary music industry. By looking at the law and its recent history, you will understand the new issues introduced by the digital age, as well as continuing issues of traditional copyright law. Whether you are an artist, lawyer, entertainment Web site administrator, record label executive, student, or other participant in the music industry, this book will help you understand how copyright law affects you, helping you use the law to your benefit. * How do you get fair compensation for your work and avoid making costly mistakes? * Can you control who is selling your music on their website? * Is it legal to create mash-ups? * What qualifies as fair use? * How do you clear another artist's samples to use in your own recordings? * What is the Creative Commons/Copyleft movement? * How do you clear music for use in an online music service or store? * Who decides who gets paid how much and by whom? You will learn the answers to these questions as well as: * The basics of copyright law, looking at the Copyright Act while explaining it in plain language * How revenue streams for music are generated under copyright law * The reasoning behind high-profile court decisions related to copyright violations *What licenses are needed for the legal online delivery of music * The intricacies of using music on sites like YouTube, Pandora, and Spotify * Deficiencies in current copyright law and new business model ideas