I will add to that though, it very depends on wheather your 8 bit song is recorded in your own studio by your own instruments, or, derived by software processing from original WATCH. In the first case, precedense should play for your side, as melodies cannot be patented. What do you say Tom?

Licensing isn't complicated as far as business agreements go, and the cost depends on the song and your usage based on a bunch of standardized formulas. Some quick searches it looks like you'd need to license it through BMI and PRS, both can be started through their web sites.

As Tom mentioned if it isn't licensed you run the risk of legal consequences. You might never be noticed. You might be ordered to stop, sued, and required to pay restitution for willful copyright infringement. Or something else in between. How much of a lawsuit can you afford?

JohnnyCode said:
as melodies cannot be patented.

Probably the most known example was George Harrisons ‘My Sweet Lord’: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Sweet_Lord
The​

I worked in the music business, and while i do not know details about legal issues, there were many of them. Constantly a stack of letters was waiting to be processed, the guy which specialized on exhausting grey zones at some point could no longer leave Switzerland without getting arrested.

rogerdv said:
not the original song, but an 8-bit like version.

If you also change harmony and melody (which feels just embarrassing) you could win an eventual lawsuit. …After years of being forced to take the game down.

So, the short answer is surely just no. Otherwise we would have heard We Are The Champions in many sports movies / games i guess, which is not the case.

fleabay said:
Copyrights last 100 years or so.

95 years from first publication. Counts from 1 January. Music from 1926 is OK now. Here's Bye Bye Blackbird, the original recording.