related links
Get Informed About The Legal Side of The Music Industry
The artist assigns to the Company with full title guarantee all rights (including but not by way of limitation audio-visual rights) in all master recordings made by the artist during the term.
As you can see the Record Company requires these rights in order to release and then distribute the work. It is important for the artist to realise that these rights only refer to those in the music made within the timescale of the contract. So all other music written or performed before the deal will remain the artists and cannot be exploited by the record company unless expressly stated. If though the last three words were missing from the above clause then the Company would have rights over all previous work done by the artist. This could be a major issue as that artist may have assigned those rights to someone else or simply not want earlier material to ever be heard!
Many first Recording deals will have various options that are bound to excite the budding new artist but may only be in the contract to fool them. An option is a common legal tool that gives the Company the choice to continue "plugging" the artist if their early releases are successful. This sounds fair enough but can lead to an artist effectively being dropped but still bound to the label for a number of years. An example of this can be seen below. Here is a clause dealing with release targets which may appear to contract the artist to a long term album deal but could allow the company to back out after the first single:
page << 1 2 3 4 5 >>
Also See: ilikemusic.com
Bookmark & Share:
Jez, Utah Saints: ilikemusic because... It’s very good for the soul.
Cesar Sangwa: ilikemusic because... it's there for me through thick and thin, highs and lows. I think about it when I wake up, and when I close my eyes to sleep. I like music because I'm in love with it!
Master Gee: ilikemusic because... It gives me an opportunity to truly express myself, unlike what happens in an everyday living situation where there are restrictions on you and limitations on you and demands on you and bills to pay, through music I can truly be comfortable with who I am, and do what I really want to do and say what I really want to say.
James Blunt: ilikemusic because... conversation is so limited. It’s the best form of expression we have.
Riot! Traffic: ilikemusic because... music is LiFe...and more than...
Hugo, The Maccabees: ilikemusic because... I just do. I’ve always liked music. It’s just my thing.
Rasmus, Alphabeat: ilikemusic because... It makes me happy and it makes me dance around and sometimes it makes me a bit emotional. It encompasses all the emotions from happiness to sadness and it’s fun to play too.
Tom Baxter: ilikemusic because... It makes you feel alive more than anything else.
Hard-Fi: ilikemusic because... what else is there to like?!