Royalties on a cover song of an unknown musician?

Question by rachelpayne2008: Royalties on a cover song of an unknown musician?
We are doing a cover song written by an unknown musician who has passed away.
His family has given us permission to do this song, but we have no idea what % of royalties to give if the song goes anywhere.
We are not out to screw anyone and they want us to write up a contract for everyone to sign.
Does anyone have any suggestions for us?

In case you need to know:
the band is just my husband & I.
We are not signed w/ any kind of label, management, etc.
We do our own recording at home.

Best answer:

Answer by Michael
Hey – just finished a cd myself – here’s the deal. If you look at Harry Fox agency online, you can search other songs and compare royalty rates.

It depends on:
-Length of song
-Units pressed
– Whether or not you’re going to do digital sales.

Generally, for a song under five minutes long, it’s pretty cheap. I did one for 200 copies and it’s only $ 18 (altogether). If you end up pressing more copies, you’ll want to continue paying royalties.
For digital sales (downloads on ITunes, etc) I think it’s about $ 60 for up to 1,000 downloads.

Good luck with your CD!

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