Licensing for Use of My Original Songs
Most of my original songs (posted here with lyrics and chords) are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. This license allows you to perform the song or post a recording of it (or its lyrics/chords/melody) on a web site without even contacting me, as long as you attribute the song to me. Read about it: creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ . If published in a form where text can appear, its copyright notice (as shown on the lyric/chords sheet here) along with that “by-sa”Attribution-ShareAlike URL also need to be there. (You don’t need to contact me, but I would enjoy hearing about your use of my song...)
The Attribution-ShareAlike license even allows you to use it commercially without royalties. I doubt that most songs I’ve licensed this way would be big commercial hits. But I have also used this license for some songs (e.g. Sea Change and Cold Mountain) which I imagine could have some commercial potential. But these are songs I’d like to have people hear. So, even if used commercially, there’s no obligation to pay any royalties to me. [I do, however, take seriously the obligation to attribute the song to me.] But I (perhaps naïvely) would hope anyone using these particular songs would feel a connection with me. Enough so that if you use one of them in a context (say, on a commercial recording) which becomes more than minimally successful, you might consider contacting me to pay some voluntary royalties.
Just a very small number songs posted here are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 license. This lets you perform the song or post a recording of it (or its lyrics/chords/melody) without contacting me, as long as the song is used in a way which generates no income and is attributed to me. The difference is that to use one of these songs in a context which does make you money, you do need to contact me for a license: jburrill {at} gmail {dot} com. Read about it at creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ . Again, any text must include the song’s copyright notice (as shown on the lyrics/chords sheet) and that Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike URL. (Also, other types of licensing may be needed for purposes such as synchronization with a video presentation.)
But what if your use of one of the few “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike” songs of mine is likely to generate only minimal income (use on a low-traffic web page with an ad, or singing the song in a public setting where you receive minimal payment)? For a “non-commercial license” song of mine in such a context, I have a special deal for you. In this case, if you contact me about such a use (giving some details about the use), I expect to give you a license which will require no royalties to me – essentially I’d let you treat such a use as “non-commercial.” I will at that time, however, remind you of the following: If at any point your use does begin to be in a context where significant income is generated, you will be required to contact me again to obtain another license – which won’t be free.
But, again, this possibility of needing to pay me anything is limited only to commercial use of just a small number of my songs and limited to users who start to generate significant income.