I was thinking of hiring someone online to just create an instrumental of my several favorite songs.
I was wondering if they’ll be any copyright issues associated with creating the instrumentals. Could I enter a contract that states they would create an instrumental of Stings, If I Ever Lose My Faith In You and give it to me with no infringement on the owners? If simply for personal use?
IME, they’re somewhat different. A karaoke version of a song lacks the melody provided by the singer entirely (because it’s meant to provide the instrumentation for singing along to it). Most instrumental versions of songs that originally had vocals use one or more instruments as a substitute for the portion of the song that a vocalist would normally supply.
Recording a song with no lyrics or even with alternate lyrics is creating a derivative work. Even the compulsory sound recording licenses (mechanical licenses) do not apply here (unless the owner of the work has previously allowed someone to record a version without lyrics). The owner of the work has exclusive rights under US law to create derivative works.
This means you will have to negotiate with the owner of the work for permission and to make financial arrangements.
While it differs based on country in the US Mechanical license cover the Compositions (the underlying structure of the song, including melodies, lyrics, chords, etc.) and do cover instrumental or covers.
This does not cover use in videos, public performance or the use the song or lyrics in karaoke or “CD+G” products.
A mechanical license still applies for an instrumental “cover” unless it alters the melody or character of the song(s) to be called a derivative work.
As for what constitutes a change in the “fundamental character” of the song, that’s not clear except that it’s well established that you can’t change lyrics without permission.
You need to obtain permission from the publisher directly to create a derivative work, and include that permission when you apply for a mechanical license using HFA’s regular licensing form.
Note that HFA’s licensing is pretty inexpensive even if it does mostly go to HFA, when bundling a few songs for a few copies it will be less than $50 in most cases.
Thanks but I’m looking for the song without the vocals of Sting. This version is a ‘similar’ cover and not the actual instrumental of the original song.
It’s not just this song, I have a few others but basically I would like a recreation of the instrumentals in the original song without any vocals.
Slight Hijack
I see this on youtube all of the time. A person violates copyright by copying the song and says all rights belong to the copyright holder. Ummm … but you just violated that right by copying the song.