Thread: Using copywrited material?

The main character of my novel does a lot of singing. Sometimes she'll sing karaoke with her friends, other times it's in the car. The music in the novel is a big part of the storyline and is what I'm using as my characters outlet. This isn't a question of using or not using the music.
My question is: What do I have to do to get the rights to using songs in my novel? Do I have to contact musicians managers? My cousin has access to that kind of information where she works and is more than willing to help me out with it, if that's what I need. But I don't want to put the cart before the horse so to speak, by calling people that aren't going to have the answers I need.

Thanks guys!

Honestly, I wouldn't worry too much with it. I don't think its a problem as long as you put it in italics or quote it and make it plain that the lyrics are not yours, but belong to some band or singer. When you get a publishing company on board with your book, they'll iron out all those problems before it hits the shelf. Focus on the story, and let the agents and publishers deal with the legal.

If it does become a problem, I guess there's always the possibility of writing your own songs. That could be fun, since you would get to create your own pop stars in your character's world. But if you have specific music from our world in mind, then just go ahead, like riverdog said, and hope it isn't a big deal.

If you are talking about using very short snippets of the songs, that could come under the 'fair use' provisions of most copyright laws. Fair use is what allows a reviewer to quote short passages from a book or a few lines from a song lyric.

To get permission to use most or all of the song lyric you need to find out how the music is licenced. There are three primary licencing agencies - ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers), BMI (Broadcast Music Inc.), and SESAC. Look at the label on a cd cover and somewhere on it one of those three will be identified as owning the licencing rights to the music. That's who you, or your publisher, need to contact for permission to quote the song.

Never, ever, quote copyright material without getting permission or getting a legal opinion that what you plan to do can be construed as 'fair use'.