I've always known music and writing go very well together, they're both a form of inspiration. Most times I can't write without putting a song on that matches the mentality of the chapter or story itself. But what I was wondering is: do you think it's okay to put well-matched lyrics at the beginning of a chapter to set its mood? I feel it would add something special to the story itself, readers could even listen to the same songs I used to write the book. But I fear there would be complications with copyright and such, and it wouldn't be allowed or something. I don't really have any idea about how that all works, or if my idea could work. Any information would be great
From what I understand, you need to get permission from the band(s) to use lyrics in a story that you intend to publish. So yes copyright is a thing that could bite you in the hiny if you use lyrics without getting permission first.
Yeah you'd have to get permission if you're using real bands' lyrics. If you're writing a story about characters who write lyrics or have a band, you could write some lyrics of theirs and include them.
You need to contact the copyright holder and pay for a permission to use the lyrics. It's expensive, sometimes even midlist authors decide against it because it's too much of a paycut for them. Just sayin' ...
The direction that I have been given by my publisher aligns with what everyone has posted above. Lyrics are a no-go unless you have permission from the copyright holder. You can use song titles, but not song lyrics.
As GlitterRain7 suggested above, write your own lyrics. Or use poetry. Herbert used snippets from a fictional bible, which worked well.
There's no per se rule that you need permission to use song lyrics--they're subject to the same fair use analysis as anything else. The problem you run into is that one of the factors for determining fair use (in the U.S.) is how much of the original work you're using. Thus, quoting one line out of a 1000 page novel is a lot more likely to be fair use than quoting one line from a song, where the lyrics are short. Publishers typically default to requiring permission or removing the lyrics, out of an abundance of caution. Publishers are not eager to test the limits of fair use by simply using the lyrics without permission and taking their chances in court. There has been at least one case where use of song lyrics were found to be fair use, but it wasn't even a whole line, just the phrase "party and bullshit," which is arguable unprotectable, but which the Southern District of New York found earlier this year to be fair use regardless.
Well thanks everyone kinda sucks, especially since it could be expensive. I have such a strong connection to music so I'll probably find some way to make my own up. I did write a poem for a prologue once and that worked nicely, so maybe I'll make up songs and such again
