Walking Man Live

If you go to Mr. Cheapo CD & Record Exchange in Commack, Long Island and purchase a new album that happens to include a cover of Baba O’Riley, you just deposited 9.10 cents into Pete Townshend’s band account. Even though it is a Who cover, released as a Who hit song, and performed by the band on several shows, only Pete is compensated. What allowed the cover to be made, and Pete to be paid is called a mechanical license.

A mechanical license is also known as a compulsory mechanical license. This type of license is automatically given as soon as a song is recorded and commercially released. The copyright owners cannot revoke this license as it is protected in the copyright laws of the US. As soon as the song is recorded and released, anyone can make a new recording of the song and sell it. There are restrictions detailing what kind of changes can be made; this is for recording an existing song, not to sample, or remix it.

Now back to The Who. Their songwriter was Pete Townshend, the guitarist of the band. This means that as the songwriter, he is the only one in the band with rights to the songs. As far as technicalities, Pete is a songwriter who happens to also play his songs on guitar. He also happens to have backup musicians and a singer to help preform and record the song. But Pete still owns it

A mechanical license allows anyone to record any song already released as long as the royalty rate (9.01 cents) is paid per every song sold. So if you buy that record with a recording of Baba O’Riley, the recording artist of that record has to pay royalties to the copyright owners, in this case Pete Townshend.

So when does the band get paid for its songs? Only for the sales of their recordings (mechanical licenses only apply to covers) and live performances. As the songwriter, Pete is compensated for every use of his songs. If the band wants to raise new money, they must preform the song live and be paid for putting on a live show. In fact, if the band is paid $10,000 each to play a show, Pete will get his $10,000 plus royalties for playing his songs.. I’d say he got the best deal out of everyone.

I would like to thank Bruce Coflin from The Firm and professor at Five Towns College for sharing this knowledge with me.