Copyright Office Oks Disc Fees; Ascap Offers Online Fee Calculator

THE MECHANICS OF IT: The U.S. Copyright Office has officially approved a new 10-year mechanical royalty-rate structure on recordings negotiated by music copyright owners and record companies, retroactive to its intended starting date of Jan. 1.
The office says that for now it has put aside the issue of rates on digitally transmitted music, following inquiries concerning that phase of the agreement made by the performance right organization BMI, the Coalition of Internet Webcasters, and the U.S. Telephone Assn. (Billboard Bulletin, Jan. 9).
IT ALL ADDS UP: ASCAP has introduced an online license-rate calculator. The ASCAP Ratecalc lets Internet music users compute World Wide Web license fees set by the performance right society. The interactive service lets operators of Web sites quickly calculate the cost of a basic Internet-use license by answering four questions. It also displays a comparative list of the costs of the three rate schedules available to Web site music users; the lowest fee is $250.
The program can also produce a filled-out license agreement and rate schedule, ready for the licensee to sign and return to ASCAP. The ASCAP Ratecalc is located at http://www.ascap.com/weblicense/ webintro.html.
'THE FIX' IS IN: On March 10, Relativity Records will release the London cast album of "The Fix," a musical that has earned four 1998 Laurence Olivier Award nominations. The show, which features music by Dana P. Rowe and book and lyrics by John Dempsey, will have its American premiere March 30 in Arlington, Va.
The original U.K. release of "The Fix" is on First Night Records; its liner notes are written by Pete Townsend.
'CAPEMAN' FOLIO UNFOLDS: Music Sales is marketing the matching folio to Paul Simon's Warner Bros. album of his performances of 13 songs from his new Broadway musical, "The Capeman." List is $22.95.
ABOUT THAT INVASION: Two years ago, veteran songwriter/producer Bob Feldman, a longtime New Yorker, relocated to Nashville. There he administers Grand Canyon Music, the almost-40-year-old publishing company he has shared with former writing partners Jerry Goldstein and Richard Gottehrer.
Feldman has a busy pace these days. He's been meeting with several film companies to talk about a bio of the Strangeloves, the rock group he belonged to with Goldstein and Gottehrer. Formed during the British Invasion of the '60s, the American band mischievously claimed to be from Australia.
Feldman says he's planning to host a "Christmas party" April 1 in Nashville to pitch more than 20 newly written Christmas songs to Nashville artists and producers.
On the commercial front, the potato chip company Pringles is using the Strangeloves' song "I Want Candy" as a jingle under the title of "I Want Pringles." "I Want Candy" was a minor hit for the Strangeloves in 1965, and it was covered by the new wave band Bow Wow Wow in 1982. During their heyday, the Strangeloves toured with such British bands as the Kinks, the Dave Clark Five, and the Zombies, as well as with fellow Americans Roy Orbison, the Lovin' Spoonful, and Sonny & Cher.
Besides "I Want Candy," the Grand Canyon catalog includes other popular songs like "My Boyfriend's Back" (a 1963 hit for the Angels), "Sorrow," "Night Time," and "I'm On Fire."
PRINT ON PRINT: The following are the best-selling folios from Cherry Lane Music:
1. Metallica, "Re-Load"
2. "Titanic," Vocal Selections
3. Metallica, "Load"
4. "Jekyll & Hyde," Vocal Selections
5. John Denver, Anthology