Using song titles, lyrics, singers name?

Mentioning titles and artist names are okay. Copyright-protected lyrics are emphatically a no-no, without obtaining permission, which you may or may not be able to obtain, and which likely will cost money, if granted at all.

caw

There was a thread recently here that covered this topic in pretty thorough detail.

http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?317066-Fair-Use-and-Song-Lyrics-How-Much-Can-I-Use

http://ahunter3.livejournal.com/23364.html

(the full story of obtaining permission to quote the lyrics).

http://ahunter3.livejournal.com/24363.html

(why it mattered enough to go through all that)

Use artists' names and song titles as freely as you wish in fiction. There is no rule that says you must attribute a song title to an artist in a work of fiction and no prohibition whatsoever on using song titles.

Lyrics are another story, but if you really want to use them don't be scared off by tales of how horribly difficult it is. A few of us here have succeeded in obtaining lyrics that we felt were important to our stories.

I obtained permission to use the lyrics to a Pearl Jam song in my novel which, not coincidentally, is named for a different Pearl Jam song. The process wasn't nearly as daunting, difficult or expensive as I'd been warned. It took several weeks and required jumping through a few hoops, but in the end I was pleasantly surprised that the fee was quite low. I'm sure it depends in part on the popularity of the song in question. The one I needed was a little obscure.

The music publisher was Hal Leonard. You can do a search on their site for a song to start the process, but if the song you need rights to doesn't come up, ask anyway. That's what I had to do as the one I needed didn't come up in a search. ETA: If you don't know who the publisher is, you can probably ask via the artist's website.

The full story is here on my blog.