If you wish to record your cover, or your version, of a song, whoever owns the copyright on that material, you must first obtain permission for its use, unless it is so old that it is in what it is called the public domain. The United States Copyright Office can identify for you status of copyright for any work on file with its records. Technically, copyright can be claimed without a filing with the copyright office, but one should expect most composer-lyricists are serious enough about their work to have filed a copyright — relying on any legal protection thereunder.

Contact:    U.S. Copyright Office
101 Independence Avenue S.E.
Washington, D.C.  20559-6000
Phone: (202) 707-3000 or 1 (877) 476-0778 (toll-free)
Visit: U.S. Copyright Office

Mechanical license use refers to “composition” which is essentially music, including notation, etc., and lyrics – the underlying work that is the song itself.

Here your request for permission is for you, or an artist for hire engaged by you, to then perform this underlying work.

Precisely authorization granted is limited to uses of any particular permission(s) noted. Beyond typical standard parameters needed additional permission should be specifically expressed; going beyond standard parameters, this may require additional custom wording.

If you wish to use copyrighted material under a mechanical license, expect it to apply to the following parameters:
— for any instance of audio only use of the work [under someone else’s copyright] as your recorded AUDIO performance to a transfixed medium [in other words, vinyl (records) or CD or DVD or in the case of digital, by download to a hard drive.

To showcase or use this work in any visual capacity requires additional specific permissions.

To be clear, audio use only here means you are obtaining permission to generate your own audio interpretation of the underlying work. It does not mean you have permission to use the artist(s) voice(s).

If you want to record your version of Yesterday, that is a mechanical license if all you want is to make a new audio version and sell it as indicated above. Additional distributions are something else. If you wish to use Paul McCartney’s actual voice and performance that needs to be obtained from him.

As you can see, permissions tend to be a la carte, but take care that even a Master License [discussed on another page at this site] has a corresponding Mechanical License as required.
{Where a Master License is needed for an audio-only product (CDs, Digital Downloads, Interactive Audio Streams), you also need a Mechanical License. The master license pays only the artist for the right to use their recording; the mechanical license pays the composer for the right to use their song.}

Any commercial use of product requires expressed permission for use.

Compulsory licenses have existed, but are regarded as more restrictive than a Mechanical License, and the copyright holder gets paid anyway so most consider the Mechanical License if at all possible (barring unforeseen issues).

Form for download:

For Mechanical License permission for use of rights to a song under bernmeister copyright, click here and fill in the blanks and email back to us for processing at mech_license_use@bernmeister.com

Note: The U.S. Copyright Office advises that certain aspects of the Music Modernization Act are being implemented for the first time presently, in January 2021.

We are coordinating with legal staff to make sure all our forms are in order and there is compliance.

We will have everything up to date shortly, and in the meantime, please do advise bern of your interest and we will follow up with you.

If you want to use any part of this material in any other capacity, other types of permissions come into play and would be required commensurate to the use desired.

Additional types of established permissions also listed on a single page one further link over

At present team bernmeister is processing such requests for permission internally (here at this site).

In the near future it is anticipated an established rights organization may be a further option to facilitate such processing.

DISCLAIMER:

These are historically established industry norms. However, no representation, particularly of a legal nature, is made or implied in any description(s) thereof.

Just as it is proper for one to seek out a specialist for specialty needs, one may wish to consider consulting an attorney as may be necessary.

For general public information (for information purposes only consult a lawyer for legal advice): the United States Copyright Office lists circulars and other info about how it directs policy or otherwise administers to any law or related regulation pertaining to copyrights and their use.

Contact:    U.S. Copyright Office
101 Independence Avenue S.E.
Washington, D.C.  20559-6000
Phone: (202) 707-3000 or 1 (877) 476-0778 (toll-free)
Visit: U.S. Copyright Office