Vocal "Cover" Copyright questions

[Kromly]

I'm currently working on a dubstep "cover" of Feeling Good by Nina Simone, I make the entire backtrack but have my own vocalist do her own rendition of the vocals to use. What is the copyright on this? I have no knowledge or experience over copyrighted material (which I'm trying to learn and understand better) but have no idea how it would work in this situation. I know other artists, such as MUSE and Michael Buble, have done their own covers and released them but I assume they still had to obtain permission to cover? Would this be a MUST in my situation if I were planning on trying to get it signed to a label?

If anyone could ellaborate I would really appreciate that.
And if you have any general MUST KNOW copyright info that I can just keep in mind, that would be great as well (over samples, or for remixes, or anything else of importance and use)

Thanks guys,

Kromly

[Shum]

Don't need to obtain permission for covers, courtesy of the Copyright Act (in the US).

[seckle]

three issues here.

1. nina simone is dead, so you're dealing with her estate (lawyers), which generally means that they google search for exactly your kind of project every few months.
2. if you plan on releasing it officially by digital distribution, you need to file a mechanical license, with Harry Fox, limelight or other clearance sites.
3. if you decided to do it without taking the consideration of licenses, and you uploaded it to youtube thinking you'll never get caught, they can come after you with damages for every click on the youtube video, for up to 5 years after the fact. its happening all the time now, and will cost you dearly.
http://www.harryfox.com/public/songfile.jsp
http://www.songclearance.com

[Kromly]

I really appreciate the responses. Very insightful information! I'll take a closer look into these. Also, if it were to be a digital release, would I ONLY have to go through the clearance sites? Or would I still have to obtain permission from her estate? And also, from what Shum had said, would any of that even be necessary if i have my own vocal cover? Or does that only apply to songs that aren't being sold?