BRLawyer said:
Sorry Meow, but I must disagree again...I am talking about the prime source of the copyright, which is only one thing: the song and its elements.
No, recording rights are distinct animals. This is spelled out in the Rome Convention (1961), amplified by the Phonograms Convention (1971), and expanded by WPPT (1996).
Those rights have different names in different locales. In countries aligned with the UK convention, they are called phonogram rights. In the US, they are sound recording copyrights. In the strange strange land of WIPO, they fall under the vague moniker of "related rights" -- even though they are not necessarily related to other rights!
I will explain by example. Take the song "To Anacreon in Heaven", written about 1765. (US readers will know this as the melody to "The Star Spangled Banner".) This melody is old enough to be in the public domain everywhere.
There was a very famous performance of this public domain piece in 1969, by Jimi Hendrix at the Woodstock festival. This performance was recorded, and a film was also made of the proceeding. Three separate sets of rights were thus created: the right to the performance, which originated with Hendrix; the phonogram rights, belonging to Warner Bros-Seven Arts; and the film copyright, also belonging to Warner.
Now, there were some interdependencies here. Warner had to somehow obtain the right to use the Hendrix performance in their sound recording, and they separately had to obtain those rights for the film (although, as an expedient, a single contract may well have covered rights for both uses). This did not, however, transfer the film copyright or phonogram right to Hendrix; those belonged to the people who did the filming and recording. Despite all those rights (which are still in effect), the composition itself remains in the public domain.
In a simpler example, Chopin has been dead for over 150 years so all his work is in the public domain. A new recording of his work will still be protected. Likewise, if the copyright in a composition expires, that does not affect recordings of that composition; those rights expire independently.
(It is possible for these situations to become more complicated, if a newer arrangement is used; there will be a copyright attached to the new arrangement.)
Compulsory licenses? For what, songs? Please clarify...
Yes, these exist in many countries, usually for radio, but increasingly for other uses like internet streams as well. Under such systems, broadcasters can play any released recordings, on the condition that they keep track of what they play and hand over a predefined fee, normally set by each country. Conventionally, performing rights organizations in each country are responsible for collecting these royalties and distributing them to publishers.
