FAQ

You will need to pay what is called the “current statutory mechanical rate”, which is 12.4 cents per song, per recording copy for songs five minutes or less in length.  For songs over five minutes, the rate is calculated at 2.38 cents per minute or fraction thereof.

You can start with using ClearBox’s “Song Search”, or by searching on the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC) or performance rights organization (PRO) websites.  ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC each have repertory databases that allow you to search by songwriter, title, publisher, performer, etc. Those sites are:

www.ascap.com 

www.bmi.com 

www.sesac.com

www.themlc.com 

ClearBox Rights, LLC charges $15.00 to process custom, non-commercial licenses through our website, using a credit card.  This amount is not part of the royalty – it is a fee to cover the cost of issuing and processing each custom, non-commercial license. In most cases, you will receive the license immediately. 

There is a fee of $25.00 per license to process non-commercial licenses outside of the credit card license center, which are sent to the ClearBox office as an email, or hard copy request. These licenses may take a few weeks to process.

A synchronization license is a license that grants the holder permission to use recorded music in combination with visual images.  You must obtain a synchronization license if you intend to use music in film, television, video (all formats), websites, etc.

If the ClearBox Rights, LLC licensing percentage is less than 100%, this means that we only represent a portion of the song.  You will need to contact the other publisher(s) to obtain a license for the remaining portion.

Yes. Under U.S. Copyright law, you must obtain a license and pay royalties even if you are only making a few copies that you do not intend to sell.

Yes. The cost for a photocopy license is $1.25 per copy of the song. There is also a $15 license processing fee.

If you are making any significant changes to the music or lyrics of a copyrighted song, you will need to obtain permission from the rights holder before proceeding with your project. Please send an MP3 and/or pdf of the lyrics and music to license@clearboxrights.com for approval.

Please send an email to license@clearboxrights.com to request permission.

If your church has a CCLI license, please contact CCLI to ask if your specific use is covered under the license. If your church does not have a CCLI license or if the use is not covered under your current license, please contact license@clearboxrights.com to obtain a license. 

Please send an email to license@clearboxrights.com to request permission.  In your request, please include the following:  what the book is about, the publishing company, the number of copies you plan to make, and an explanation of how the lyrics will be used in the novel. Generally, the cost for a license to include song lyrics in a book starts at a minimum flat fee of $100.  However, the fee per project cannot be determined until we receive the information listed above.

Yes, you must obtain permission from the rights holder before you record or make printed copies of your translation.  Please send an email to license@clearboxrights.com with the translation in another language, as well as a literal translation back into English.

In the United States, under sections 17 U.S.C § 203 AND 17 U.S.C § 304 of the Copyright Act, authors and their heirs have the right to terminate grants of copyright previously assigned to others, such as publishers. If you are interested in terminations, please contact info@clearboxrights.com for more information. 

All updates to personal records should be emailed to info@clearboxrights.com

Please include your current information and the new contact or mailing details you would like recorded, to help us keep our files accurate.