1st Contract offered! can anyone please advise!

[wildman3344]

Hello there, My name is Paul KappaIf anyone can offer any advice at all, I'd really appreciate it. I had a song forwarded to a music library last month and I've just had an email from them, with an offer of a contract. I know from reading the forum that I cannot say who the offer is from, so I have excluded it from the contract, which is shown below along with their message. Can anyone tell me if this is a pretty standard contract, especially the part about the song being re-titled! and modifying it in case I want to do an exclusive deal in the future! I'm fairly new to Taxi, having joined in Oct 08 and although I have been writing and performing for over 20 years, I am a complete novice when it comes to the ins and outs of music licensing. I suppose the wisest thing to do is get myself a music lawyer and I probably will, but I just thought I'd see what your feed-back is, if you can spare the time to reply. Thank-you in advance, Paul.PS, the song is called A Thousand Miles and my Taxi URL is:My TAXI link: http://www.taxi.com/paulkappa EMAIL:Hi, I just received your music from Taxi for MTV shows. It sounds great! What ---------------- Music offers is a non-exclusive publishing arrangement. Basically, we retitle your song(s) and name ourselves as the publisher, while you retain the writer's share. You are free to use the song for any other non-exclusive deals you like, and you keep the publishing on the original title. If you'd like to be able to make exclusive deals with these songs in the future, then the best thing to do now would be to present us with slightly modified versions. We work with many many shows and hope to be able to incorporate your existing catalog and/or new stuff you might create as the need arises. For now, please take a look at the attached contract to see if this is something you're interested in. Ideally, we'd like to create a working relationship with you so that you can send more tracks you're willing to allow us to pitch under the same agreement. Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks!FILM & TV PITCHING AGREEMENTThe following shall constitute an agreement (“Agreement”) on this the ___th day of __________, 2009 between _____________ (“Writer”) located at _______________________ with respect to a non-exclusive film & TV pitching agreement between Writers and Company. 1. TERM: The initial term (“Initial Term”) of this Agreement shall commence on the date hereof and shall continue until thirty (30) days after either the Writer or Company receives notice from the other party. Such notices are to be in writing and shall be given by courier or other personal delivery or by registered mail to the appropriate address indicated above. The Writer agrees that the usage rights given to any third party are irrevocable and that the Company will continue to collect any earnings resulting from negotiations commencing prior to the thirtieth (30th) day after either party’s receipt of such notice of termination.2. TERRITORY: World3. SCOPE OF AGREEMENT: Company shall have and is hereby granted the non-exclusive right during the Initial Term and throughout the Territory to exploit and license for exploitation the re-titled compositions (“Compositions”) listed on Schedule “A” for Film, TV & Advertising.(a) Writer shall retain one hundred percent (100%) of ownership for the originally titled Composition.(b) Writer shall receive one hundred percent (100%) of the writer royalties generated from re-titled Composition.(c) Company receives one hundred percent (100%) of the publishing royalties generated from re-titled Composition.(d) Writer and Company will split (50% / 50%) any license fees (including but not limited to synchronization fees) collected by Company from any third party (“Third Party”) to whom Company has licensed a Composition. Company agrees to send Writer’s 50% share of any such license fee to Writer at the address above with a copy of the license agreement between Company and Third Party within thirty (30) days of the date Company receives such license fee from Third Party.4. The parties intend that this is the sole and complete agreement between them.If this agreement meets your approval, please sign in the space below.ACCEPTED AND AGREED BY:_________________________ ____________Name Date _________________________ ____________Name Date

[allends]

Hi Paul,I love the song! No wonder you got an offer! I'm not in a position to help you out with every word of the offer - that's the job of an entertainment attorney - but you asked specifically about the practice of re-titling. This is very common. The stuff about how you can go about licensing your current song elsewhere exclusively just sounds like they're giving you helpful advice on how you can give them an exclusive on alternative versions.I hope you get good advice before you make your final decision. It sounds exciting for you.Allen

[bleuciel]

Hi Paul, I'm not a music attorney. I'm a member of Taxi like you but I signed few deals. What I see here seems ok to me. I would not hesitate to sign this contract. Matto would be the best to give informations and reassure you.Best of luck!

[daniel481]

It's about as standard a contract as you'll see. I signed the same one recently, and while I'm not a lawyer, I can confidently say that there's nothing in there to worry about!Dan

[wildman3344]

Thanks Allen, Jean and Dan for your responses, I feel a lot less apprehensive now, Cheers, Paul

[jeffgreenleaf]

Congratz Paul! Cool guitar work! Looks good to me, too.

[devin]

First of all, CONGRATS!!!I am not an attorney...but I'd take that deal for sure.Then I'd go write some more!!