Getting Permissions for Songs
We do not own, control, or administer the rights to any of the songs in these songbooks. Our publishers (Sing Out for Rise Up Singing and Hal Leonard for Rise Again) obtained licenses to reprint all the songs in the book for that publication only. All rights are reserved by the own copyright holder of each song.
We often receive requests from people to help them obtain permission for use of songs in different ways or to contact artists. We are glad to help people if we can but we do request a donation to help cover the time we devote to such informal consultations. Donations are always welcome at: https://www.riseupandsing.org/support/donate
If you wish to actually publish a songbook of any kind we strongly urge you to take the time it takes to obtain permission. If the song is written and owned by a singer songwriter in the folk music community then the chances are good that they will be happy to license your usage for a reasonable fee, perhaps even for free if they support the purpose of your book. You can find websites for most such songwriters online including contact information.
Large music corporations, on the other hand, are often very difficut to license songs from and the fees involved may be prohibitive.
Here are separate articles on specific kinds of copyright issues:
- Obtaining mechanical licenses for audio recordings (CDs)
- Getting print permissions for books, periodicals, songsheets, etc.
- Special search engines to help you find out owns & administers a given song
- Is a song in public domain?
- The meaning of "fair use"
Please note that we are not lawyers and all of this information is offered informally. Intellectual property rights are very intricate and can often lead to litigation. For detailed information please consult an intellectual property lawyer with experience in the music field. Here are two sites with information on music law:
