[Dixielandjazz] songs free of royalties

[Jim Kashishian]

We were recently discussing the extension of years that it is required to
pay royalties for a song on djml.  Well, I am in the midst of compiling 16
songs from our four published recordings to bring out a 45th Anniversary CD
of our best known songs.  I realized that all but 5 of those songs are from
1920 to 1935 and thought "ah hah"!  
 
No ah hahs or anything!  The Authors & Composers Society here in Spain (of
which I am a member) told me today that it is 80 years from "the date of
death" of the last of the composers.  Most of our songs have two & three
composers, so from the date of the death of the last remaining composers you
gotta add on 80 years!  Kind of don't think there will be any freebees on
our list of tunes this time, at least.
 
The amount collected off of the record company (which is us in this case!)
is a percentage of what we tell them we are going to charge for our CD's.
Without paying this fee no company will fabricate your CD in Spain.  It's
not worth it to go out of the country as then we would have to pay
importation fees to get the CD's back here.
 
On the other hand, for 80 years from my own death, my kids will collect fees
collected for my registered music.  One big hit was a tv ad which has run
for about 30 yrs already.  Since it is 3 seconds long, I collect about 3
Euros a year on that one, so my kids shouldn't be booking their Ferraris
just yet!   :<
 
Oh, well, 
 
Jim