The following is a guide to obtaining the proper clearance for your mix CD. Needless to say, most DJs do not do this. But you should be aware that US law states that any reproduction and distribution of copyrighted material is a violation. Therefore, in theory, burning 50 copies of your mix and handing them out to promoters would be considered a copyright violation, and the copyright owner could take legal action against you. Although the chances of this occurring in the aforementioned case are slim to none, you should still consider taking all precautionary steps if you are distributing your CD on any large scale. Should you not want to take on the task yourself, there are clearance services you can employ to take care of all the licensing for you.

There is a myth in the DJ community that putting "For Promotional Use Only" on your CD will protect you from litigation. This is FALSE. Again, any reproduction and distribution of copyrighted material without permission is illegal. To make your CD available to the public you will need two types of licenses, a Master Recording License and a Mechanical License.

Master Recording License
This is obtained by the entity holding the rights to the actual sound recording, i.e. the record label. Try asking them for a gratis use for promotional purposes. If they deny the gratis request, or if you are selling the CD, you'll need to negotiate a fee for the Master Use. I've been told that many smaller electronic music labels, if you ask nicely, don't mind letting you use their tracks for free. It's the nature of the industry, and they'll probably be flattered and appreciate the exposure. Be sure to credit the Artist, Song, and Record Label on the CD sleeve. If you are selling your CD without a license, you're putting yourself in danger of legal action.

Mechanical License
A Mechanical License should be requested from the person who has the rights to the composition (words and music), the writer or their publisher. Ask the record company for this information when you license the Master. It's quite possible that they themselves hold the rights. Otherwise, look at the label copy for something like: Published by EMI Music Publishing. In this case EMI Music Publishing would be the organization you'd need to contact for the Mechanical License.

It is often the case that there are multiple publishers, thus multiple people or companies to contact for just one song. You have to have clearance from all parties involved. Again, you can ask them for a gratis use for promotional purposes. If denied you'll have to pay the statutory rate set by congress. The statutory rate for 2001 is $0.0755 per composition, for each unit manufactured. A good way to look up the contact information is on the performing rights society web sites:

http://www.ascap.com
http://www.bmi.com
http://www.sesac.com

In many cases you can use the Harry Fox Agency to obtain licenses at the statutory rate:

ttp://songfile.snap.com/nonpro_search.html

Should you want to review and learn more about the US copyright act, visit the Copyright Office web site at http://www.lcweb.loc.gov/copyright. The friendly people at the Harry Fox Agency are also available to answer questions from the general public about licensing.

The bottom line:
As always, it is better to be safe than sorry. Don't be afraid to pose questions to the labels, publishers, and the Harry Fox Agency. You might just save yourself a lot of trouble later on.