Getting permission to put song lyrics in a novel?

How would one go about doing that?

Getting permission to put song lyrics in a novel?
super is correct, _but_ your course of action depends on:





1) Is the song in the public domain? ("Mary Had a Little Lamb" is in the public domain, versus REM's "Supernatural Superserious," which is not.)





2) How much of the song are you using? (A significant portion, or the whole song, falls under copyright, whereas a line or two might not, depending on factors.)





Consult the library of your nearest law school and they'll be happy to give you advice. (Most state universities have a law school, for instance.)
Reply:I write for megapublisher Harlequin, so I can tell you that it just isn't true that the legal departments of large publishers handle permissions for this kind of thing. Nor do literary agents. They don't have the time! A publisher or agent can provide authors with the necessary forms, but the authors must seek the copyright holders on their own and secure--and PAY for--the permissions. If an author does not provide the signed permissions forms to her publisher, the copyrighted material in question will be deleted from the book. Period. Contrary to what some have said here, it is NOT okay to use "just a line" from a song, with or without attribution.





In my upcoming book, I mention the titles of six popular songs and the artist who recorded them. That's fine. Titles aren't copyrighted and recording artists are public figures, so no permission is needed there. But using even a snippet of a song's lyrics is risking a copyright infringement lawsuit. I got around that by summarizing what the songs were about. Here's an example:





QUOTE


Jake turned his key in the ignition. His CD player powered up and George Strait put in his two cents' worth, sliding smoothly into the chorus of "Nobody in His Right Mind Would Have Left Her," a song about a foolish man who'd turned his back on the woman of his dreams.


UNQUOTE





If you still want to use actual lyrics in your novel, you can deal with the permissions problem when you sell the book. If you go the self-publishing route, contact the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers at http://ascap.com for assistance on finding out who holds copyright on the lyrics in question and how you might approach them for permission.
Reply:This is something your publisher will do for you - they have a whole legal department that looks after 'permissions' of various types. Basically, what they do is find out who holds the copyright to the song. Just because some group (or many groups) has recorded it doesn't mean they own the rights to the song. They, too, have to get performing rights and pay royalty to the person who actually wrote the song. So you would have to track down the publisher of the song, and their legal department would talk to your novel publisher's legal department and come to an agreement. You could do the same thing, but you'd want to have a lawyer go over the agreement to make sure they didn't come back and sue you for misuse - they very carefully spell out how much of the song lyrics you can use and in what context.
Reply:Yeah, like the previous person said. But you don't really have to do that personally, if you have an agent. Then just tell them what lyrics you need permission for and just tell you agent. Or you could have the publishers put a citing page in the back where you cite all of the lyrics that have been published in there. Good luck w/ your book!


~~MP
Reply:Contact the record label
Reply:http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/show...





This thread seems to have the information you are looking for.
Reply:Dizzy,





If you're not going to use a whole lot of the song, I wouldn't bother with permissions. I did this in my novel with an Alan Jackson song, but only used a line and did mention it was by Jackson.





It's the same if you quote a poem. You simply put the poet's name at the end. When you decide to publish your work, your literary agent will advise on the permissions.





PJ M