Mechanical Licensing

The U.S. Copyright Law requires that a mechanical license be obtained for a "cover" record, which is a new release of a previously released Composition. CDs, vinyl, DPDs, and streaming are all considered "Mechanical" uses, stemming from the very first Copyright Act of 1909 which applied to player piano rolls (a "mechanical device"). Title 17 U.S. Code § 115 in the US Copyright Law sets forth the scope of exclusive rights in nondramatic musical works. This is called a Compulsory License for making and distributing phonorecords.

​​

Regarding your cover record, as long it is a true cover and does not fundamentally alter or change the basic melody and/or the lyrics of the original Composition, you may obtain this Compulsory mechanical license without explicit permission of the publisher and songwriters.

 

Please first go to https://www.songfile.com/ to see if you are able to obtain the necessary mechanical licenses for all of the shares (%) of the composition you would like to license.​

​

Depending on the song/composition and also the publisher(s) of that composition, however, it may not be possible for you to use Songfile to license all the shares of the composition. ​In that case, we can step in and handle the entire process for you.

​

DMG charges $500 per mechanical license and fees include all licenses for all shares of a single composition.

​

A flat fee for larger mechanical licensing projects (three or more titles) can also be quoted to you.