I’ll mention also that, for folks that remember Baskerville’s Music Business Career Guide, it appears it’s been updated in 2010. There is a section in there that clearly describes the difference in royalties paid between broadcast and mechanical.

There is also a new service called Limelight (http://www.songclearance.com) , which appears to be an (another?) online clearing house for rights to cover songs on recordings (mechanicals), both HFA and non-HFA. I have not used this site yet, but plan on checking it out for an upcoming project.

Obtaining rights for the online (streaming and or download) remains cloudy.

Two more points:

Keep in mind, also, that if your music is licensed by ASCAP or BMI or other para-governmental agency, your rights become “compulsory”, and though it is customary to get the songwriter’s approval before releasing a recording, technically, it is not (or wasn’t at least) required.

Also regarding ASCAP and BMI, there are 2 royalties paid – a publisher and a songwriter royalty, and together they each are considered 100%. If you are your own publishing company, you get paid twice, in theory.

As far as an alternate licensing scheme, I would imagine that would only be worth pursuing if you had demand to match the time in crafting it – otherwise you might be re-inventing the wheel here.

Rock on,

Sean