Legal issues with performing OC ReMixes live?

[Kraus]

Hi!

I'm new. Not exactly in a sense that I've been listening to your stuff for years, but new to the forums anyways. Can't really say how many years it's been, but it's been many. I remember when Jenova for Classical Piano was news. I didn't really want to register to the forums at the time for two reasons: getting too familiar with people doing what you adore takes away a lot of magic off it, and, frankly, I didn't think (nor do I now) that I'd have too much to add. Yet, I suppose.

Anyways, I did register for a reason.

I finally enrolled a year past to the Music as profession course at the local academy. Doing that at the same time with university was not the greatest of ideas (time management!), but I really was torn apart by the fact that I hadn't done too much music since highschool. And, frankly, I really thought that if I didn't push myself now, I'd never know how good I could be with this stuff. So I decided to leave uni for a couple of years and finish my music degree properly first.

This year I was planning on transcribing and leading a project based of an OCremix album, Missing No. Tracks. That'll be a live performance, a basic band gig, of 40-50 minutes, and I started going through the tracks already. The thing I was wondering about was legal issues.

So, I couldn't find anything about this in tha FAQs:

Is there a legal issue with performing OCremixes live?

Who do I credit royalties to, if needed? Do note that this is a school project, so no money is involved, even in the slightest. No entry fees or anything.

Should I contact the remixers themselves to ask for permission?

What is the general consensus with playing your stuff?

Thank you for the answers, yours truly

Petrus "Kraus" Makkonen

[Rozovian]

Moi and welcome.

You're basically doing covers of covers, covers of remixes, so the same legalities apply whether you'd be playing The Black Mages' stuff or ours. nobody can stop someone from playing covers, tho rightsholders and collection agencies might take issue with any usage they're not paid for. We're partial rightsholders to our music in that the performance, production and arrangement is ours, not unlike in a significantly different cover of any song.

Check with Teosto about the royalty stuff. We can supply any real names we've got for the remixers whose mixes you decide to work with. (possibly useful link, tho possibly less so if it's all free)

Dunno if it's actually the consensus, but I think it's cool, and I don't the the others have any issue with it either. At least as long as nobody is making any money off of our work when we're not. Being asked for permission is usually appreciated, tho. It makes us feel like stars, reminds us that we've got fans.

Also, if this is happening in or near Helsinki, and especially if either of my tracks are used, I wanna hear it live.

[Nonamer]

Not really good with the legal stuff (yet), but I say that you should definitely ask the OCRemix artist for permission. Of course, if you can, you should attribute the song to the person who originally performed the music on stage. As far as I know, we haven't completely fleshed out the legal issues with performing OCRemixes live. Only recently have we actually performed our own music in front of an audience.

I say that when in doubt, perform it anyways (after given permission from the artist), but don't release a recording of it until you have the green light.

[Kraus]

Thanks for the answers, mates! Really appreciate it!

Oh, Rozovian, didn't know that there were Finns working on Missing No! Ilp0's the only guy I've heard being Finnish, so there. Great work on the album, hav'to say! It's definitely one of the best OCR has done, along with FF IV Echoes of Betrayal. I'm a huge fan of the second CD, and the first one ain't half bad either.

Yeah, I'll have to check with Teosto anyways, but I thought I'd ask around the forums first if there was a consensus with how things are done. Maybe I'll actually call them and ask what they think about things like these. I mean, I'm not really sure how they handle non-printed (as in CDs) material, but I'm pretty sure they have some kind of a system. We had a course about this last year, but I really can't say I know it all by heart...

I'll need to ask for the real names of the remixers after Christmas, I suppose. Teosto and our school's pretty serious about getting names and tracks' names right, and rightly so. I don't want to mess important things like that up.

Roz, it's not a possibility to play all of the songs in there, nor even a half, and I've been needing to pick ~10 tracks from both CDs. I had to double check which were yours - I'm afraid Spume and Blue Haze had to go on the last minute! They're great pieces of songs, but following the theme I picked (the jazzier ones) I had to reconsider them several times. Most likely they won't make it into the 10 songs I'll have to pick.

The gig won't be in a long time, I'll make it my final this year. It'll most likely be at the end of May or something. Just gotta start working early enough so I'll have sheets for mates. I'm not exactly a whiz with harmonies or anything, and if I'll have to start listening all by ear and just writing bass lines out and going through chords by error... That'll take TIME! But it's a lesson most likely worth it.

And no, nowhere near Helsinki, but in Joensuu. 4 hours by train, not that bad, aye?

And yeah, it's not legal even (I think) to get any money out of schoolwork. So no, it's all 100% free. No money involved.

About recordings - yeah, I was definitely planning on recording it somehow (maybe borrow a Zoom from a mate), but I'll make sure to check if it's okay to publish anything beforehand. Cheers!

Anyways, I'll gladly answer any questions you locals might have, and will use this topic (probably) for more questions that'll rise. I'll come back asking about names and all when it's more appropriate.