I've been meaning to ask this for a while and was jogged when I found Spaff's thread. Seems Rick has as well- anyone else?

And how do we do it? I've seen the directions on his site, but if I send in a recording of a song parody can I get sued? Do you have to get permission from somewhere first?

I have an absolute cracker of a parody I've been saving for that day...

as long as you don't use the original recording i think you're fine

Steve---In the late seventies, the good Doctor (aka Barry Hansen) had a sydicated four hour show. That's a lot of time to fill. Besides his personal collection of weird music, he was able to screen and air all kinds of "home recordings" that people like myself would send in. I have in my files at least five letters of either rejections or permission slips to play the ones he felt fit his show. (To my knowlege, he has played five of my songs, including "Mariwanna", which you can hear on Soundclick) Nowadays, with the explosion of home recording hackers like myself, I'm sure he is inundated beyond his ability to keep up, plus his show is only two hours long now, and has been for many years. It's obviously still possible to get noticed , as Spaff has done, but I'm sure it's a lot harder.

As far as permission for parodies, you don't need any. Yankovic gets it because he's that kind of guy. The only lawsuit issue is if you make money, you have to give royalties for the music to the publishing company and artist. If you make as much money as Mari and I have, believe me, no lawyer is going to notice you.

Steve---In the late seventies, the good Doctor (aka Barry Hansen) had a sydicated four hour show. That's a lot of time to fill. Besides his personal collection of weird music, he was able to screen and air all kinds of "home recordings" that people like myself would send in. I have in my files at least five letters of either rejections or permission slips to play the ones he felt fit his show. (To my knowlege, he has played five of my songs, including "Mariwanna", which you can hear on Soundclick) Nowadays, with the explosion of home recording hackers like myself, I'm sure he is inundated beyond his ability to keep up, plus his show is only two hours long now, and has been for many years. It's obviously still possible to get noticed , as Spaff has done, but I'm sure it's a lot harder.

As far as permission for parodies, you don't need any. Yankovic gets it because he's that kind of guy. The only lawsuit issue is if you make money, you have to give royalties for the music to the publishing company and artist. If you make as much money as Mari and I have, believe me, no lawyer is going to notice you.


I'd love to get on the radio, but I don't have good enough equipment to do any high-quality recordings. I get around the profit thing by not selling CDs, just shirts and stuff, and having a donations page. Works for me...