Have been looking for a way to record some sample tunes, to post here on the forum for comment. I'm not a real performer, just a late bloomer trying to learn the sax.
I saw that many folks use the
www.soundclick.com site to accomplish this, and see many many of the standards as well as newer tunes on peoples pages there. Those listings only rarely are listed as "cover" category, yet most are not public domain tunes (I looked several up to check this).
So I read the posting rules, and there is the letter to the publisher, the payment for down loads, but specifically no payment described for streaming delivery. So question #1 is, "If posting a tune and setting it for streaming only, does a person need to go through this whole process?"
Their site does say you need to do it even if not selling. So I think, what the heck, maybe I just do the letter. So I go to look up a simple tune, Georgia on My Mind, and the BMI search comes up with 5 different writer/composer names under 3 different publishers. Well that is just stupid. I think, certainly all 5 of these folks didn't write this song. So question # 2+ is, "How can this be? Are these slightly different versions of the same song? If I am playing by ear, and my ear ain't that good, how am I suppose to know which version I am botching up?"
I certainly understand a composer/song writer's desire to protect and benefit from their intellectual property, but my efforts are no more of an intrusion in that regard than me whistling some tune while walking down the street. Further, when I do use sheet music (which is a lot), I have always bought the music from a legitimate source, so I do feel that I am correctly rewarding the owners of that property for their efforts. I would think that alone would cover the not-for-profit insignificant level of recording as a learning experience that I might do, but almost certainly this is not so under the strict letter of the law.
So last question, "Between the law and the real world, what is accepted action for recording of this type?"