Use of music titles/artist names

[Scottish Writer]

Hello,

Back with another daft question...

My female character is a bit of a music buff and she listens to a lot of it in my story. Am I infringing rights if I name the titles of songs and artists that she listens to in my story?

[amschilling]

What James said. As long as you're not using lyrics, you're fine.

[OneTeam OneDream]

Just thirding....it's only the lyrics that could get you in trouble. However getting permission is easier than you may think (at least in my experience in two never finished books)

[Scottish Writer]

Thanks for the quick replies folks. Much appreciated

[eyebee14]

I was curious about this too! Thank you for the responses! You answered my question!

[Melanie Dawn]

Originally Posted by amschilling

What James said. As long as you're not using lyrics, you're fine.

just to beat a dead horse..this^^

[Calliea]

I asked my law teacher about this a while ago, she said that even quoting a part of lyrics is fine, because it goes under some 'quotation' privileges... She used a smarter word, but I only remembered her point, sorry

[ChristinaLayton]

Originally Posted by eyebee14

I was curious about this too! Thank you for the responses! You answered my question!

Same here! I mean I knew it was OK to mention a real-life famous person in the story. I see authors doing it sometimes, but I wasn't sure if it was OK to mention a specific song, although I knew that it's not OK to mention lyrics. Getting permission from the songwriter/record label, to use lyrics is a total hassle and it's not worth it anyway, in my opinion.

[Melanie Dawn]

Originally Posted by Calliea

I asked my law teacher about this a while ago, she said that even quoting a part of lyrics is fine, because it goes under some 'quotation' privileges... She used a smarter word, but I only remembered her point, sorry

I was told lyrics was altogether a no-no. but if you decided to use em, you'd better give the writer of said lyrics credit.

[Stacia Kane]

I do it all the time in my books, and then create playlists for the songs mentioned on iTunes.

[Unimportant]

Originally Posted by Stacia Kane

I do it all the time in my books, and then create playlists for the songs mentioned on iTunes.

Wait, you mean all those bands and song names are real? I thought they were all made up.

Gee, I think we can guess who's not exactly au fait with the contemporary music scene....

[Stacia Kane]

Originally Posted by Unimportant

Wait, you mean all those bands and song names are real? I thought they were all made up.

Gee, I think we can guess who's not exactly au fait with the contemporary music scene....

The only made-up ones are the ones who perform live. And most of them are somewhat obscure, being punk bands and not stuff you'd hear on the radio. But yeah...real bands, real songs.



BTW:

Originally Posted by Calliea

I asked my law teacher about this a while ago, she said that even quoting a part of lyrics is fine, because it goes under some 'quotation' privileges... She used a smarter word, but I only remembered her point, sorry

I wonder if your law teacher was talking about the Fair Use Doctrine? Either way, it's very odd advice for a law teacher to give (are you sure she knew you were referring to quoting lyrics in a novel for sale, an not, say, in a term paper?), because there's a good chance that quoting even part of a lyric is not in fact fine. Because Fair Use requires that the usage be a small/"not substantial" portion of the quoted work (along with other restrictions), and because most songs are not very long...quoting songs can get you into trouble, legally and/or financially, in a novel you're trying to sell. And technically only a court can decide whether or not the quote in question falls under Fair Use, so even if your usage does, you can still end up paying out quite a bit of money in legal fees.

I have a friend who has to give up a portion of every dollar she makes on a particular book because the writer of the song in question saw his/her lyrics quoted without permission and decided that wasn't on. She has to do all the calculations and paperwork, too.

It's not a situation you want to get into.


Wikipedia is not a source, but it does have an overview with some valid links here.