Music Business/Law Tips - "Co-Publishing Agreement Deal Memo"

If an artist is entering into a co-publishing agreement with a music publisher, even though the actual formal contract might be between 10 and 50 pages long, all publishing deals generally boil down to just a few key issues which can be set forth in a Deal Memo to get the parties started. See below a sample Co-Publishing Agreement Deal Memo to give an idea of the points to focus on in this situation. Ben McLane Esq benmclane.com --->My new book "Music Business In 10 Easy Lessons" is now available for purchase on Amazon at the following link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07B91ZZ48/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1520448664&sr=8-1&keywords=music+business+in+10+easy+lessons\ *** CO-PUBLISHING DEAL MEMO Effective Date: ____________ This Deal Memo shall be between Songwriter ("X") and Publishing Company ("Y"). This Deal Memo shall be a binding agreement until superseded by a more formal agreement. The parties agree as follows: Terms 1. Term: Initial Period of 1 year, with 2 1 year options. 2. Territory: World. 3. Advance: 1st period ($50,000), 2nd period ($75,000), 3rd period ($100,000) 4. Copyright Split: 75/25 5. MDRC: Deliver 10 songs period, at least 5 have to be commercially exploited 6. Approvals: Pornography, religion, politics, product endorsement 7. Reversion: Any song that is not commercially exploited within 2 years post-Term shall revert 8. Demos: X shall retain rights to demos unless Y paid them. 9. Accounting: Y shall account to X 2 times a year 10. Expenses: Any expenses must be customary and verifiable The parties acknowledge that there is good and valuable consideration. ____________________________________ X ____________________________________ Y

Music Business/Law Tips - "Recording Agreement Deal Memo"

If an artist is entering into a recording agreement with a record label, even though the actual formal contract might be between 10 and 100 pages long, all record deals generally boil down to just a few key issues which can be set forth in a Deal Memo to get the parties started. See below a sample Recording Agreement Deal Memo to give an idea of the points to focus on in this situation. Ben McLane Esq benmclane.com --->My new book "Music Business In 10 Easy Lessons" is now available for purchase on Amazon at the following link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07B91ZZ48/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1520448664&sr=8-1&keywords=music+business+in+10+easy+lessons\ ***************************************************************************** RECORDING AGREEMENT DEAL MEMO Effective Date: ____________ This Deal Memo shall be between X Company ("X") and the artist Y ("Y"). This Deal Memo shall be a binding agreement until superseded by a more formal agreement. The parties agree as follows: Terms 1. Work For Hire Agreement. 2. 1 + 4 option albums 3. Territory = world 4. Advances per Album: 1st album = $50,000 2nd album = $75,000 3rd album = $100,000 4th album = $125,000 5th album = $150,000 5. Exclusive Deal. 6. Royalty = 15% of wholesale & 50% of master use license income. 7. X can recoup all recording and promotional costs. 8. X guarantees to release each album within 6 months of delivery. If not, Artist can terminate. 9. X will guarantee a marketing commitment per album of a minimum 1 single released to radio and 1 promotional video. 10. Y shall have the right to approve the following: songs, artwork, producer and use of music in relation to porn, religion or politics. The parties acknowledge that there is good and valuable consideration. ____________________________________ Artist ____________________________________ Label

Music Business/Law Tips - Blockchain for Music

There has been a lot of recent discussion of how the use of the emerging "blockchain" technology - currently being applied to cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin - can be implemented in the music business to help ensure that artists, songwriters, producers, record labels and music publishers can better be paid on the billions of "micro transactions" taking place online each year with relation to the digital performance and sale of music. Although complex, the key to this working comes down to the metadata embedded in the music via digital watermarking or fingerprinting. Each musical track is a "block" which contains the relevant information such as the artist, songwriter, producer, record label, music publisher, performance rights organization, splits, etc. (the more comprehensive and specific the better). A block pops up anytime there is a use (i.e., stream, sale or remix). Hence, this will help ensure that the proper parties get paid their share of royalties as platforms like Spotify and YouTube will have this information to properly account (and pay quickly without having to wait for old school twice a year accounting schedules). Bottom line, this should increase the volume of music transactions and consequently make more money for the rights holders - a very good thing! Ben McLane Esq benmclane.com