Fiery, if you are going to sell the album then you need to make royalty arrangements with whoever handles the rights to the songs of ANY living authors, and quite a few dead ones. Copyright now extends 75 yrs past the author's death. Usually you don't work directly with the composer/lyricist, but with the Fox Agency or BMI or ASCAP.

If I'm not mistaken, a demo disc or an album you would just pass out free to friends and fans would not require the royalties be paid or permission granted. Is this right?