About Rob Evans Expertise Questions on all aspects of Computers and Music production. Setting up and using a computer based recording studio. Sound editiing. Creating Music CD`s and DVD`s. Software for recording and mastering and all of the pitfalls that you will come across.
Experience 31 Years of playing guitar, bass & keyboard and as a vocalist, in many bands. I have a huge amount of knowledge on all aspects of music and music production. 15 years in IT has given me the necessary skills to apply the power of computers to music.
Publications Local Papers; Evening Mail, Sutton Coldfield Observer
Education/Credentials Graduate of London's Guitar Institute
Graduate of London's Musicians Institute
Studied all grades of music, classical and contemporary
HP Accredited Systems Engineer (ASE)
Accredited Platform Specialist (APS) Proliant BL30e Blade Servers , Rapid Deployment and Integration
Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) ? NT4 Server in the Enterprise
Citrix Certified Administrator (CCA) ? Metaframe XP 1.0
Compaq Accredited Systems Engineer (ASE)
Accredited Compaq Technician (ACT) ? Proliant Server, NT Performance
and Integration, Systems Management
Wyse Terminals Winterm Sales Certification, General Information Certification
HP Sales Star Associate (HPSSA)
Toshiba Laptop and Desktop Accredited Technician (TPCMP-A/ii)
Question hello Rob,
My band is just finishing up our self-produced and I was
wondering how I would go about getting the songs copyrighted.
Also, we have a cover of a Beatles song we recorded and I was
wondering how I would go about getting permission to use it.
We do not intend on making any more than 400 copies of the
cd, we are an independent band and we do not intend on
making any measurable profit from our cds. Thank you for your
help! -Matthew Robidoux
Answer Copyrights vary from country to country, so it what you have to do depends very much on where you live. In the UK, true copyright exists in essence as soon as you have written a song. The secret is proving that you wrote it. This is usually done based on the proof of when you wrote it. I have always used the method of sending a copy of the material you want coprighted to yourself, by registered post. (A postal service where the date and time of postage and delivery is recorded for proof. When you receive the package, you leave it unopened and store it somewhere safe. In the event that someone questions when you wrote a song, you take the package into a court of law to be opened there and the courts can get the delivery information from the post office. This is all you can do as a unsigned band/musician, but it does work for other things as well, such as books etc. If you are signed to a record company, they use people like the "Mechanical Copyrights Protection Agency" who register everything and claim all royalties. As far as the Beatles track is concerned, you would have to approach the owner of the material and agree to pay them a royalty for every time it is played and every time you sell a copy. This gets very expensive indeed.
Hope this helps
Rob
