Contradictory Contract?

[BenjisBadBrain]

3. Company’s Rights: (a) Subject to the terms hereof, Composer hereby grants to Company, its successors and assigns, non-exclusively, One Hundred (100%) percent of the so-called “publisher’s share” and retains the "writer's share for the purposes of this agreement. This agreement will not be applicable to the exploitation of other sound recordings of the same compositions by the Composer under their original titles. Composer agrees that composition will not be submitted to or represented by another library.

How can the publisher's share be "non-exclusive" as it says in line 1 yet not be submitted or represented by another library as it says in the last line? And does line 2 mean if I make another recording of it then I can submit it to another library? Confusing language. Time to lawyer up? -Benji

[mazz]

For one, you need to find out how they define "composition".

I'm not an attorney, so I'm just speculating here: They're asking for exclusivity as far as library usages are concerned, but if you make a different version of the same composition with the same title, you can promote it to the general public via iTunes, etc, at which point you would be the publisher.

I read this small section of the contract to mean that they define "composition" as the music as it exists outside of the recorded versions of it, and they are asking for exclusivity on this recording of the composition and the composition itself for library purposes only.

But only your attorney knows for sure.

Good luck!

Mazz

[mojobone]

1. The composition is a separate copyright (Form PA) from that of the sound recording.(Form SR)

"How can the publisher's share be "non-exclusive" as it says in line 1 yet not be submitted or represented by another library as it says in the last line?

Because there are other avenues besides libraries by which you can exploit your copyrights. You could, for example, sell it directly to the public, as a ringtone, (depending on what sort of library you licensed it to, originally) or pitch it for a theatrical production or video game, among others. In short, you're free to make other deals with the track, either as publisher/writer or with a third party publisher.

"And does line 2 mean if I make another recording of it then I can submit it to another library?"

Usually not, but if your new version sounds different enough and there's a deal on the table, you could run it by them; this clause is intended for the eventuality wherein an artist wishes to record a version of your song for release. Mainly, what this language means is that you can't license the track to a competitor library. "Competitor library" can sometimes be very loosely defined; there are libraries that focus on music for movie trailers exclusively. (that would give you plenty of leeway) Other libraries are so generalized as to make it difficult to license your non-exclusives to a puppet show.