Music and Lyrics

[phoenixwings]

Do any of you here use lyrics in your novels?

I am asking out of curiousity as i am thinking about using one or two in mine but i don't know much about using songs or lyrics that have been made copyright. Would i need to gain permission to use them?

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[SeverinR]

That is the fine line of paying tribute versus profitting from.

You can quote someone's work without getting in trouble(if you credit them) but if you use to much...

I am using songs in my book, I wrote one that I needed at the start of a book, using an existing lullaby as a guide(no music to it though).
I am pretty sure one or two lines here and there wouldn't be a problem, but whole songs would.

 

[JCFarnham]

You could find any number of books that use quotation. As long as you have the correct citation somewhere in the final product you're golden. And when authors can't be bothered with citation and creditation but still need lyrics and/or inspirational quotation they make it up - In universe stuff quoted to characters instead of real people.

I've considered doing it a number of times in fact in a couple of my WIPs.

 

[Telcontar]

I occasionally like to bury a tribute to my favorite songwriters and bands by borrowing a song lyric or two as a line of dialogue. I don't believe I would ever reference real-world songs in my writing to call attention to the actual song, though. Seems like it would shatter internal consistency.

 

[Ghost]

I write my own lyrics, so this isn't something I've dealt with myself. (So, please, correct me if I'm wrong about rights, anybody.)

You need permission unless the lyrics are in the public domain. Don't assume something is in the public domain. (For example, "Happy Birthday to You" is not public domain. ) You've got to check. You can have a character hum "Bad Moon Rising" but he can't sing the chorus to "Pokerface" without getting permission first.

I'd suggest checking ASCAP/BMI for information on the rights holder. Or if you know who is credited with writing the song, you can try to contact them. If the artist is independent, you could probably contact them by e-mail. However you contact the rights holder, get written permission to use the lyrics.

Giving the artist credit isn't the same as getting permission. It's not like a research paper where you pull from different sources and proper credit is all you need. Since both the song and novel are creative works and there's a possibility of income, people want their cut. If it's a popular song, you might need an entertainment lawyer to sort out royalties with the labels' lawyers. I believe publishers expect you to have the permissions taken care off, but I'm not sure. If you self-publish, you'd be the liable party if you use the lyrics without permission.

I'd just write the lyrics myself. All the legal stuff is too much of a hassle, not to mention costly for some songs.

 

[SeverinR]

Ouroboros: If mentioning a song title or quoting a line gets royalties, the Home improvement I saw last night would have cost alot, they rambled off six different titles and quoted lyrics from four songs.

I believe you can quote lines, but not sure if you sing them without trouble. But like I said before how much is too much?

I would also point out "sampling" was big for awhile, the ruling on that might be a good reference. Sampling was playing or singing parts of other peoples songs to create a song.

 

[Ghost]

I didn't say mentioning a song title was problematic, hence "You can have a character hum "Bad Moon Rising"" in my post. I was going to mention sampling, but my posts are too long. Sampling caused legal problems for both sides.

As far as a limit goes, I don't know. Neil Gaiman wanted to use seven words, but changed his mind when they came with an $800 price tag. That's probably a much higher rate than normal, unless the song is popular or very recognizeable. I figure, if the song isn't popular, you might as well make the lyrics up. It can get expensive take up precious time otherwise.

If lyrics are necessary and you can't write your own, it doesn't hurt to check out the rights on a song. The rights holder might be the accommodating type. You could also find someone to lyrics, or poetry really, and get it tailor-made for the novel.

 

[SeverinR]

It would seem, how rabid the publisher is, depends on what quantity is allowed. Until settled in court, I guess its up to the owner of the rights, each one would get expensive.

$800 for seven words, how much for the whole song?

I'm glad the chance of existing music that I would use, would all probably be in Pub Do. (European Renn music.)

I bet Home improvement picked the lyrics carefully, 4 song quote would be expensive at 800 a pop. Bad enough if like the author of your link said 150 a quote.