Question about buying and selling music..

[GreenPartyVoter]

I need to find ways to raise some money for my cheering program and was wondering about selling the music I mixed for our routine. Is that outright illegal, in a grey area, or an ok thing to do? How much money does one usually pay for a DJ mix, because I figure since mine wasn't professionally mixed it isn't worth as much and want to price it accordingly. And how does buying music from a DJ work, anyway? Is one paying for the royalties of using the music or only for the service of having the music mixed?

Thanks for your thoughts!

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. Kick

[democracyindanger]

2. If your mix is composed of other people's music

you can't sell it without the express written permission from the rights holders.

[GreenPartyVoter]

3. That's what I figured. So how do DJs making mixes for cheer teams

deal with this? Do they get permission? I would think the cost would be exorbitant given how proprietary the music industry has become in recent years.

[Frank Cannon]

4. There are several companies like ASCAP, BMI...

and SESAC that hold the rights to these songs. You will have to pay license fees to the appropriate rights-holders for whatever music you use. I'm not quite sure exactly how that works, but if you Google them and go to one of their websites, I'm sure they'll tell you.

[GreenPartyVoter]

5. I am suer I would pay more than I could make back on selling the music

so I am guessing that idea for fundraising is now shot. :(

Oh well, back to the drawing board.

[MissMillie]

6. chances are

they're not SELLING the mixes. That's the big kicker, I think.

My son and his friends like to make farce films, and they do so by mimmicking other films or TV shows. They do copy the films and distribute to friends, but they don't SELL anything.

[GreenPartyVoter]

9. Thing is the DJs are indeed charging money.. but do they get away with it

by charging for mixing time only? Or the cheer coaches have to provide music they have bought and therefore the coaches "own" it?

[progmom]

10. they probably do license the music

it's illegal to sell it otherwise.

[GreenPartyVoter]

12. Well, that's what I am thinking. It costs about $1000 to do a really high-

end mix with a DJ. So there has to be licensing fees in there somewhere. I mean, yes it takes hours to make a good mix but that would be an exorbitant price for labor only.

[xmas74]

7. I've got a silly fundraiser for you.

When I was in high school the cheerleaders actually sold cheers and chants. No, I'm not kidding. They advertised them for a certain time period where they would travel to area businesses and homes to do a couple of cheers. They did cheers for birthdays, promotions, etc. and they made a killing. They charged $5 a cheer and the cheers brought smiles to everyones face when they heard them.

They even did a week where they did individual cheers in the lunchroom for students and teachers for a couple of dollars. No travel involved-just a piece of paper that had the senders name and a cute message from the sender on it. And those who recieved the cheers loved it.

[Frank Cannon]

8. That's actually a really great idea

Imagine getting a personalized birthday message on your answering machine from an entire cheerleading squad! I think that's awesome.

[xmas74]

13. They used to do them in person.

They'd go to office buildings (w/ permission from the boss, who was usually in on it) and do a cheer for the birthday boy/girl.

(on edit: our marching and concert band did something similar. They played Christmas carols, did business openings and birthday songs. The business owner would offer a list, carols were picked from a list and for birthdays there were numerous requests usually ending w/ Happy Birthday or Birthday by The Beatles. Prices were determined by the number of instrumentalists (anything from solo to the full band) and the amount of songs played.)

[GreenPartyVoter]

11. That is really cute but our town is so small that it would be a very

limited fundraiser. In fact, there is a moratoriaum on school fundraising in town now because we have tapped the community out. :(

So I am looking for ways to make money outside of the area. I mean, we can hold cans out at Wal*Mart in the bigger towns up the road, but I am not sure how much teams actually pull in from that sort of thing.

[xmas74]

14. What about at the school itself?

A buck or two for a high school boy or girl to give his sweetie a cheer. Can you get around that w/ the moratorium?

[GreenPartyVoter]

16. We don't have a high school. We have a K-8 school with 60 kids in it

:P

[xmas74]

18. We did things like that in jr high school too.

Maybe the 7th and 8th graders would like it.

[GreenPartyVoter]

19. Maybe :^D

[xmas74]

20. You might be able to get around it that way.

And I bet that every dollar counts.

[Frank Cannon]

15. Well, there's always the baked food sale

Not very creative, but it always tends to get the job done.

[GreenPartyVoter]

17. Ayuh, That's how we got the $ to buy our boy a uniform this fall. :^D