For those wishing to record songs owned by Anthony K. Music or Clifty Music...

Under the United States Copyright Act, the right to use copyrighted, non-dramatic musical works in the making of phonorecords for distribution to the public for private use is the exclusive right of the copyright owner. However, the Act provides that once a copyright owner has recorded and distributed such a work to the U.S. public or permitted another to do so, a compulsory mechanical license is available to anyone else who wants to record and distribute the work in the U.S. upon the payment of license fees at the statutory "compulsory" rate as set forth in Section 115 of the Act.

The current royalty rate as of January 1, 2006 is 9.10 cents per use for compositions that are 5 minutes or less; for songs over 5 minutes, the rate is 1.75 cents per minute or fraction thereof of playing time, whichever is greater. It should be noted that a mechanical license does not include the right to reproduce an already existing sound recording. That is a separate right, which must be procured from the copyright owner of such sound recording.

If you wish to record music that is published by either Anthony K. Music or Clifty Music, you must obtain the necessary form. This form is available by clicking here. It is an Adobe PDF file called mechanical.pdf. On some computer systems, you may need to right click on the link and choose the "save as" option. Choose the folder you wish to save to, and then print from there. Once you have printed out the form, simply fill in all the pertinent information and fax it to 731-644-2773.

You may also mail it to:

The Acappella Company
Mechanical License Request
P.O. Box 1982

Goodlettsville, TN 37072