If I use my own cover of a song in a student film, do I still have to pay rights to use the song?

Yes, if not exempted use, you would owe the songwriter a royalty.

You can make the film without paying. You cannot show the film to a paying audience without paying. And then there are some gray areas in between.

In your place I would write to the owner of the rights, explain the situation, and request a waiver of royalties or a reduced fee.

I commend you for taking copyright ownership seriously.

You can also try to find a similar piece of music which would suit your needs at

www.creativecommons.org

Since yours is a non profit project, I’m sure you can find plent of stuff in the music archive there.

Having been in this predicament myself, I can tell you that as long as you only show the film to your classmates and teacher, you should be fine. If you write to the record company and explain the situation, you will be expected to pay money and probably get sued if you do not comply. Do you want to show this film in film festivals? If so, you cannot use copyrighted music without written permission. However, like I said, if this is just something that you would show to your classmates and maybe your family, you don’t have much of a need to get permission.

ASCAP has an FAQ about student and independent films here. That said, none of the film students I knew in college ever bothered acquiring the rights to the music unless they planned on screening the film in an open setting (i.e., where they didn’t know or couldn’t control who would see it). That’s not a recommendation, just a bit of historical information.

thanks everybody! That was really helpful!

@zenvelo, would it just be to the writer of the song, not the band that originally played it? It makes sense, but I’m just checking.

@Carly: You would actually have to ask the record company. Technically, the artist would not be able to give you permission to use the song unless they were not on a label.

I would not trust an ASCAP FAQ. Any organization evil enough to sue the Girl Scouts for singing campfire songs and bold enough to take restaurants to court for its patrons singing “Happy Birthday” a cappella is clearly run by a bunch of thugs. But what else is new. This is a broad gray area that those in power continually try to draw into their territory.

That said, the basic rule of thumb is, if a CD does not have a bar code, nobody can bother you. I’m not exactly sure how that plays out with a film. But if you’re not doing this for profit, you’re on safe legal ground. That’s not to say that the forces of evil will not come after you. But you’ll have a good defense if they do.

@jazzticity Regardless of what one thinks of ASCAP, the FAQ does give you an idea of how that organization interprets the law and might react to/sue over. Do you not think that information falls under @Carly‘s request?

I do. And I would be very careful of ASCAP.