Performance

Can I sing the lyrics printed in the book?

Best Practices, Performance

The short answer is “no”.

Copyright protection covers both the musical composition — the melody and lyrics that make the song — and the sound recording. Different people probably hold each of those copyrights. The songwriter or her music publishing company generally own the song copyright, and the performer’s record label usually owns the sound recording copyright.

Performing and distributing a copyrighted song without first obtaining the proper licenses for these activities is copyright infringement.

You should not sing song lyrics printed in your book unless the song is clearly in the Public Domain or the rights holder has paid for reprint rights and a mechanical license.

The “Happy Birthday” song was considered copyrighted until 2016, when a judge ruled it is in the Public Domain. Therefore, you could sing this song in your audiobook.

You cannot sing copyrighted lyrics with a made-up tune. The words still have the same meaning and sequence protected in the song copyright.

You should not even say the song lyrics unless the rights holder presents evidence of the necessary copyright clearances. The RH could have requested and been given permission to reprint the song lyrics in the book.

Since the melody is copyrighted as part of the song, you shouldn’t hum it in the audiobook.

You can legally say the song title since titles cannot be copyrighted.

“What about the Fair Use Standard?” I can hear you thinking. Fair Use allows a person to use a small amount of copyrighted material without permission in a limited way, such as in artistic criticisms and reviews, as well as in educational articles like my Case Study below. A piece must pass several subjective tests to be deemed Fair Use. No magic number exists for the amount of the song that could be freely used, and you don’t know whether a judge would agree with your position if you had to go to court.

Just remember: The music industry zealously protects its copyrights, and the publishing industry is extremely risk-averse.

 

Case Study

While this real-world example deals with the song melody instead of the lyrics, the principle is the same.

As you can see in the below screen shot from Amazon, Stephen King’s book 11/22/63 includes a number of references to the famous Glenn Miller song “In The Mood”. The italicized portions of the circled text represent part of the melody of that song. You’ll notice that the same sequence shows up 5 times in the search results on the left.

 

 

Glenn Miller plays the italicized part of the song in the :3 sample below.

 

This :13 excerpt from the audiobook demonstrates that narrator Craig Wasson did not hum a recognizable tune.

 

Other resources on this topic:

  • This article offers more information about copyrights and music and lyrics.
  • The Knowledge Base articles about music and sound effects may be relevant to your project.

 

How to play characters of the opposite gender

Performance

The listener knows the gender of the narrator and is not expecting him/her to sound like the other gender. Female narrators shouldn’t necessarily use lower pitch for male characters, nor should male narrators instinctively use a higher pitch to voice female characters.

Each character’s voice will be derived from their personality, which you discover through reading the book and taking notes. You want to be able to visualize a 3-dimensional person and ACT their part according to their scene intentions in the subtext.

Simply distinguishing characters on the basis of generic vocal tricks (changing pitch, gruffness, etc.) does not make the characters sound like real people and isn’t a sustainable approach over the course of a book. Remember, real people have differences in cadence, breathiness, musicality, and articulation. You may find that changing your posture even slightly is a helpful technique for physically embodying a different character.

Regardless of a character’s gender, I think of who I would cast in the role and then channel that person in my performance. The person could be an actor or someone famous, or it could be a family member or friend. This technique enabled me to think of 5 men I could picture as the drag queens who were in several prolonged scenes together in 2 books! If no one comes to mind, I start giving the character a back story that would shape how they would sound.

In books with dozens of characters, you may find that some of your minor characters tend to sound similar. That’s okay. Your main goal is to make sure that the major character voices are distinctive.

 

Other resources on this topic:

How to switch characters during recording sessions

Performance

When you start out, you may be tempted to record each character separately and edit them together.

Avoid this temptation. You should read the book straight through and switch your voice as needed for each character as s/he appears. However, when doing dialogue between characters with a wide variety in accents, you may find that you need to stop and punch in more frequently.

Each moment in the book builds on the one before it. Recording the voices independent of each other would cause 2 negative effects:

1. Editing the files together into the finished book would take entirely too much time.
2. The finished book would sound disjointed and choppy, which would result in listener frustration and complaints.

To be honest, if you’re not comfortable with the practice of easily and quickly switching voices as you progress through the book, you need to spend more time in practicing performance skills and perhaps doing more prep before undertaking a project to be sold commercially.

 

Other resources on this topic:

* To read Tanya’s article, a subscription may be required to her Substack. She is offering a 50% discount to anyone coming from Narrators Roadmap. Follow this link to subscribe with the discount.

What is Co-Narration?

Performance

Most audiobooks are performed by a single narrator. Co-narration occurs when 2 or more actors divide the performance of the text. These types of projects can be done 3 ways:

  • Dual narration — 2 actors narrate everything in the chapters associated with their main characters’ points of view, including the lines from the other actor.
  • Duet narration — 2 actors narrate their characters’ lines (and potentially those for all characters of the same gender) throughout the book. Normally, one person is the main narrator who would also voice the narrative portions. This approach requires extensive editing and therefore has a higher cost.
  • Multicast / Full Cast — 3 or more actors perform the text. The producer would determine which approach above would be used and inform each actor of their roles. The producer may mark or color-code the parts or divide the text to aid the actors and editor. This style of narration requires significant coordination and editing and is the most costly type of audiobook to produce.

Dual and duet narrations are especially popular in romance books when the point of view (POV) switches between the main characters. Both narrators read and prep the entire book so that they can fulfill the author’s vision. It’s important for the actors’ studios to be of similar sound quality so that switching back and forth in the audio is not jarring to listeners.

In a co-narration project, actors can perform their roles:

  • In the same studio at the same time. This option offers the highest quality recording and best collaboration, but it could require travel expenses and studio rental in addition to the narrators’ and editors’ fees.
  • At the same time in separate studios but connected via Zoom or other real-time system so that they are responding to each other as they record their lines.
  • Independently in their own studio. This option is easiest to schedule and budget, but the performances may not sound connected to each other.

Any time you’re an actor working with 1 or more narrators to create an audiobook, you need to collaborate and coordinate with your fellow actors so that you understand and utilize each others’ choices, especially with voices, accents, and pronunciations. The goal is creating a smooth and consistent listening experience, as if the customer was listening to the audio from a TV show or movie without any effects. You will want to follow the Co-Narration Standards developed by the Professional Audiobook Narrators Association.

 

Other resources on this topic:

  • ACX does not have a way for a rights holder to hire 2 narrators. This article explains their payment options.
  • In my article Dual Gender Narrations in Audiobooks, I explain how my husband Drew and I recorded — and I edited — a series of duet narrations. Actors working in different studios often use a dog clicker to signify where the other actor’s lines would be inserted in duet or multicast productions. However, the producer may choose another means for notating the insertion points. If the actors are working in separate studios, the editor must take care to match the sound.
  • Narrator and Casting Director Tanya Eby wrote the article Best Practices for Co-Narration and offers suggestions for dealing with a non-responsive co-narrator in her article Three Questions and Answers on Audiobook Business. You may need a subscription to her Substack to read these pieces. She is offering a 50% discount to anyone coming from Narrators Roadmap. Follow this link to subscribe with the discount.