V8 wrote
As far as I can see, national anthems are royalty free - but if they weren't I'd nominate "The Star Spangled Banner".
If anyone is interested, here's a link to music considered to be in the public domain :
http://www.pdinfo.com/Public-Domain-Music-List.php.
I want to record a few children's tunes for my niece & nephew, so nice to know the popular children's songs are in the public domain, so I could (if they were any good) publish/distribute if I wanted :?
With songs that in the public domain there can still be a way to claim royalties for an arrangement. Look at records from the world of English folk music (or even bands like Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span who have extensively mined the canon of English traditional music) and you will often see the accreditation "Trad; arr...." EG "Trad; arr Carthy" or "Trad; arr Thompson and Swarbrick."
So if you learned the old traditional song "Matty Groves" off of a Fairport Convention record and want to record it, you will owe Fairport Convention royalties because it's their arrangement (there are others, but theirs is by far the best known).
There was at one time considerable ill-feeling between Martin Carthy and Paul Simon.
Simon and Bob Dylan had both worked the British folk club circuit in the early 60s, and both of them had spent time with Carthy who had shown them his arrangements of certain songs. Dylan based several of his own songs on the arrangements that Carthy had shown him. Carthy says that Dylan was always scrupulous about acknowledging sources, and it seems there must have been some arrangement by which Carthy got a royalty share.
However, in 1965 Simon & Garfunkel released their version of "Scarborough Fair" with an arrangement nearly identical to the one that Carthy had devised and which he'd taught to Dylan and to Simon. However, Simon copyrighted the song as his own composition and Carthy got nothing for years. Eventually, after some time had passed, Carthy managed to track Simon down and spoke to him directly, saying that he had a family and needed to buy a house and surely he was due something. Simon asked how much the house was going to cost. Carthy told him the price. Simon says "Gee! Isn't that the most amazing co-incidence. A cheque made out to you for exactly that amount landed on my desk this very morning." End of dispute, and after the two men performed together a few years later Carthy made it very clear that there were no lingering bad feelings.
But the point is there may still be a royalty to be paid or to be earned. Check it out carefully.
Check, for example, that Helmut Lotti isn't claiming copyright on some of them. He claimed (or tried to) copyright on Shosholoza, Nkosi Sikelel e'Afrika, the Click Song and Tula Tula. I know there were law suits about this, I don't know how they panned out.
