Music Business/Law Tips - "Joint Work"

If a song is written by 2 or more people with the intent to merge their respective parts (i.e., words and music) to create a brand new copyright – that is considered a “joint work”. Even though each part contributed is separate, once merged each writer co-owns the entire work. In other words, the lyric writer would then co-own the music portion, and vice versa. Under the Copyright Act, for a “first use mechanical license” (i.e., first release recording/cover) all the writers must sign off. However, for all other types of non-exclusive licenses (e.g., synchs), either writer can license the song on behalf of all co-authors, so long as all the writers are properly credited and paid for their shares. If a writer/artist does not want to create a joint work – he/she needs to make sure to have a written agreement with the producer, arranger and musicians that such third parties’ creative contributions are “works made for hire”, so they cannot claim they are a co-writer. Ben McLane Esq Benmclane.com

Music Business/Law Tips - "Become A YouTube Star"

Musical artists would be well advised to follow the lead of the dorky YouTube duo "Smosh" (i.e., 2 bozos with a webcam) who have built an empire of 7.4 billion combined views and become very rich in the process (grossed 10 million in 2013 according to Forbes). Here are a few tips of how they did it: 1. Make a video performing a popular song (their first successful video was a goofy cover of the "Pokemon" theme); 2. Post new content often (over 10 years they have uploaded over 3,000 videos); 3. Target and create content for a specific audience/demographic (in their case teens is the market they connect with); 4. Diversify the brand (they have a YouTube Channel, a website, a blog, an app, a videogame, they release records, they have their own merchandise line, they filmed their own theatrical movie for digital release, they created an original web series - they even have Spanish language versions of their content); 5. Encourage fans to create their own original Smosh related content/take-offs and upload them to YouTube to expand the brand; and 6. Partner with a larger media entity to help push and fund more content and create more advertising revenue (e.g., YouTube, Maker, Machina, Awesomeness TV, etc.). Advertisers pay big bucks to be affiliated with a brand that has lots of views online. A recent Variety survey polled teens ages 13-18 about the Top 10 most popular stars in digital media. The top 5 were YouTube Stars and Smosh were #1 (Katy Perry was #9). Clearly becoming a viral sensation on YouTube is serious business these days and a great way to launch a real career. Ben McLane Esq benmclane.com