Sampling - a cautionary tale

What was supposed to be a quick comment on a Danish sampling case turned into a pretty complete piece on sampling and what every musician should know!

So if you want my take on sample clearance - get over to the main site!

 

Ask the music lawyer

Did I tell you that I started out in the music industry as a music lawyer?

Solid skills to underpin what I do now.

So, I'm biased, but I recommend listening to music lawyers, both in relation to your rights, what they are and how to protect them, but also these days because they get involved in helping you get noticed and get a deal.

This new piece from Sentric Music looks at those issues and is well worth a read.

“If you’re in the music business, you’re in the copyright business”.

Never a truer word has been committed to digital ink on this blog and it is of upmost importance you remember this tiny idiom.

It’s these tricky little titbits of intellectual property that will ultimately result in an artist earning a living from his/her craft and therefore any deal they make should be tooth combed by someone trained in the relative judicial law the contract is written in.

Following are crowd sourced questions from various areas of the music industry answered by three lawyers at the top of their game. The contributors are anonymous in order for them to give the most honest answers possible without fear of feeling the wrath from the aforementioned ill-educated.

Enjoy…

Read it here.

Do I need a license for a cover song?

I get asked this all the time!

Clearly, so does Rick at Musician Coaching.

The difference between me and Rick is that he has posted a great informative answer to that question!

Recording a cover song can be a great marketing tool—providing artistic interpretation on a song that your audience may already be familiar with. A cover can also bring notoriety to your art from people who were previously unfamiliar with your work. However there are legal implications to covering a song even if you are giving it away for free.

Read it here.

Record deals - the basics

You might well want to learn some of the basics of what's in a record deal before you ever find yourself presented with one.

The major record companies, like it or not, do still have the monopoly on big league marketing and promotion - you can succeed without it, but I know from experience that many artists grab that deal with the devil when it passes by....and some even do well by it!

This post has some great advice and good basic information on what to expect.

Recording contracts are extremely complex and it’s almost impossible to explain all possible provisions a contract might contain in simple terms. If an artist finds his or her self presented with a recording contract the absolutely most important thing to do is to find an attorney with experience in the music business (not a cousin’s friend who closes real estate contracts for a living) to review the agreement and negotiate on their behalf with the record company’s legal department or outside attorney. Recording contracts are written by the record labels and their attorneys and can be structured as less than advantageous for the artist.

Read it here.

 

How your songs make you money

I know that I owe someone for pointing me to this, but, sorry, I can't remember who!

It's a great video that sets out 7 ways that your songs can make you money - and it makes the very good point that once they are out there earning money they will do so up to your demise and beyond - meaning that a somewhat successful musician has a retirement plan built into their songs!

Obviously, they need to be good to get that kind of income.

So, watch the video and learn the 7 ways that your songs can make you money.

And then, go and check out Sentric Music if you're in the UK and Song Trust if you're in the States. Both these companies offer a great service and will publish your songs no matter whether you're signed or not or how successful you are. One takes a commission on what they collect - at a very fair rate - and the other charges a small monthly fee.

Crucially, neither takes your rights from you. So, should you get a hit record or your career takes off some other way you can finish your deal with them and do a 'big money' deal with a major publisher - if you want to.

I really like the guys at Sentric - it's a great service and very fair. I don't know the Song Trust people but I hear similar good things.

Write songs, get them published, collect money - another basic part of the plan for all musicians.

Watch the video here.

 

Copyright - the basics

Don't switch off and think that this is boring!

Understanding the basics of copyright is actually fundamental to all musicians. Only by knowing something about this will you know why your songs and recordings make you money.

I find that all but a handful of musicians know that there are 2 basic copyrights in every track that they make - the copyright of the composition (song) and that of the recording.

These are separate and each is capable of generating you money.

I am going to do a series on copyright and sampling on the main site in due course, but this article is a great primer.

I encourage you to read it, whatever stage of your musical career you are at.

So you’ve written a new song. It may have the potential to be a hit, but one thing is certain: it makes sense to properly protect your song if you hope to profit from its recording and public performance. How do music copyrights work? What is required to have ownership of your song’s copyright? Why should you register it with the Library of Congress? What are some of the common music licenses that generate income for songwriters?

Read the whole post here.

Music Publishing - what is it? The Basics

Great article that will help many understand the basics of music publishing - what the rights are, what the various means of exploitation are and where the money is at.

If you are writing songs, I'd read it!

If you’re serious about making this business of music your full time career, then one of the first things you need to understand is the lingo of the business! Today we will discuss, in plain English, the top 7 terms you need to understand about publishing. Something important to remember about publishing is, this is how songwriters earn their living. If you are an artist who only records other peoples music, you are usually not entitled to the publishing income. However, if you are an artist who writes some or all of your own material, or a writer/ composer (beat-maker for the rap producers), this is where ALL of your money is coming from!

See the whole piece here.

Sampling and what you need to know

I was a music lawyer many moons ago and I learnt the way that the music business works.

I wrote a definitive piece on sampling as it then stood (1994 this was), and I have cleared many samples that others thought impossible - I know what I'm talking about!

So do Tunecore in this article, which is a great primer.

One thing that it doesn't cover is the misconception that artists always tell me as if it's gospel. Most people believe that if they use a sample in a track and they get sued for the infringement, the damages that they would have to pay if they lost would be related to how much money the record made. This is NOT the case. There will be factors that determine the damages and these depend on what part of the world the infringement and the case take place in. BUT.....you can be sued for damages that outweigh the profits from the record many hundreds of times - enough to bankrupt you.

My advice - DO NOT have a hit with an uncleared sample!

Similarly, ignorance is not a defense. If you, create a derivative work without knowing or intending to do so - e.g., you put a riff in your work that is so similar as to be seen as a derivative work of another's copyrighted material, but you didn't know about this prior work - you are still infringing on the copyright holder's exclusive right to create a derivative work. However, if you can show that there was no knowing or intentional infringement, the damages will be less than if you intentionally and knowingly infringed.

Read the Tunecore article in full here. If you use samples you should know this!