DISTROKID

[Shalee]

Hey guys,
Given that last week a lot of talk was about CDBaby and TuneCore, I thought I'd investigate the distributor I use, Distrokid. Below is an exerpt from their terms and conditions in regards to the grant of rights that you give Distrokid when you upload music. I've bolded a few particular spots, because I'm thinking that from this, it might mean that any music on Distrokid is also under a non exclusive licence and isn't up for being put into exclusive libraries. But let's discuss because I may be completely wrong- but if so I think it is worth people knowing!
Shalee

5. GRANT OF RIGHTS

a. In order for us to distribute your Recordings (which, solely for purposes of clarity, and as a reminder to you, includes the Compositions) and related content to your selected Digital Stores via our Service, our lawyers and the Digital Stores need us to confirm that you grant us the non-exclusive, sub-licensable right and license during the Term and throughout the Territory to:

i. reproduce and distribute your Recordings to Digital Stores for them to sell or sublicense to their Customers by any and all applicable digital (non-physical) formats, configurations, technologies and methods (including, without limitation, permanent downloads, temporary or "tethered" download, interactive and non-interactive streaming, "scan and match" services, and "cloud" services) to any and all capable devices (including, without limitation, to personal and tablet computers and smartphones), in each case as now or hereafter known;

ii. create and to authorize Digital Stores to create and publicly perform and make available free preview clips of your Recordings via streaming format;

iii. authorize third-party partners and/or licensees of DistroKid, which offer services permitting the creation, use and exploitation of so-called "user generated content", including, without limitation, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram (collectively, the "UGC Services"), to synchronize and authorize others to synchronize your Recordings (which again, solely for clarification, includes the Compositions), with visual images and/or combine excerpts of your Recordings with any series of still or moving images, either pre-capture, post-capture or as a live stream. Without limiting the foregoing, you agree that DistroKid shall have the right to grant UGC Services the following related rights: the right to
(1) store, host, reformat, make on-demand streams of, make conditional ("limited" or "tethered") downloads of, and display your Recordings as have been embodied in user videos, "art tracks," audio-only tracks, and label videos, and to make your Recordings available on and through the UGC Services, including without limitation, in embedded YouTube video players;
(2) reproduce, distribute, and prepare derivative works (including synchronization rights) based upon your Recordings, to the extent necessary for the purpose of engaging in any of the foregoing activities; and to collect all income from the foregoing activities; and to create reference files and fingerprints of the Recordings, and to store and use such files;
(3) grant the UGC Services all necessary rights to (and to pass through such rights to users as applicable) include the Recordings, in Google's so-called "AudioSwap Library" (or any successor product thereto which is owned or controlled by Google) and similar "libraries" of the UGC Services, which consist of master recordings any of which users may add to their user videos;

[funsongs]

The TAXI TV episode that recently aired with Bob Mair is a prime example of why this publishing rights issue needs to be crystal clear: Bob wanted to sign pieces from the live review broadcast, but - alas - 4 of them were so encumbered that they could not be used.

Several members have stated Distrokid does NOT claim publishing rights - but your post seems to contradict that.

Thanks for posting this - hopefully others will chime in and help set the record straight - pun intended... though, we really don't make records anymore.

EDIT: links to other FORUMS threads about this:
topic142469.html

topic142340.html

[Shalee]

The TAXI TV episode that recently aired with Bob Mair is a prime example of why this publishing rights issue needs to be crystal clear: Bob wanted to sign pieces from the live review broadcast, but - alas - 4 of them we so encumbered that they could not be used.

Wow, that is so frustrating! I'm sure Bob would have been frustrated also. It definitely needs clarifying because it's a legal minefield out there at the moment. And the stuff I pulled was just a fraction of the contract you sign when you put your stuff up on Distrokid- and it took some heavy ready to get through it. I thought Distrokid was ok because I didn't take the publishing option. But alas, found in the fineprint that that may not be the case!
Hopefully it all gets worked out soon!
Thanks for your input
Shalee

[Shalee]

Also- UPDATE- I have emailed Distrokid directly to try and get a direct answer from them as to what this means for music distributed through them. Will post my results on here when I get them!
Shalee

[Kolstad]

Great thread, Shalee, working on clarifying this.

I think you need to make sure that the differences between exclusive and non-exclusive rights, as well as the differences between publishing administration and digital distribution, are clear in the thread as well.

With music libraries you can sign exclusive contracts, as well as non-exclusive contracts. And with digital aggregators (Tunecore, CD Baby, Distrokid and many many more), you can sign up for different agreements, where some involves publishing administration and some involves only digital distribution. So we are discussing 4 concepts at the same time in general, but they can configure in different combinations, and it is very important which combination we are talking about. The non-exclusive/digital distribution combination shouldnt be an issue, but any type of deal involving publishing administration will be.

So, you need to check in each case what is possible and not possible. It can be pretty confusing, because some aggregators have both types of services, so you need to check twice what you sign up for. As this is a new market evolving, the aggregators often also change up their offerings, to adjust their business model. So it definitely requires full awareness.

Like said on Taxi TV, publishing administration deals with aggregators will be a problem with all types of licensing, simply because you sign away the publishing (which you cant, when you sign a library contract, because they will often want all of the publishing).

Digital distribution only should not be at odds with non-exclusive contracts, though (but that is what I understand you are checking up upon here..). In some cases, I have read that even with exclusive deals, some libraries will accept digital distribution (not publishing) on the side, because that is a different market for your music. But that is a grey zone, and will have to be validated clearly within the agreement in question.

Exclusive contracts are currently popular with libraries in the production music market, and this is where we need to be very careful with the aggregators.

justmy2c (but Im a recording songwriter, not a lawyer)

[Shalee]

Ok, So I think Distrokid is in the clear. I directly asked them about this and these was there response:

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out! I'm happy to help.

DistroKid is non-exclusive, but be aware that if you send your release(s) to the same stores via DistroKid and another service, the duplicate listings of your release(s) may cause complications and/or problems in those stores.

We only focus on digital distribution at this time, and we do some playlist pitching as well. We currently do not do any syncing licensing.

I hope this helps clear things up a bit! Thanks again, and thank you for choosing DistroKid. Have a great day!

Best,
Ashley
DistroKid Support
http://distrokid.com

So, I'd agree with you, that distribution is a different thing to publishing, and at this current time, Distrokid only distributes your music, rather than undergo any publishing for it on your behalf.

Which is a relief for any non exclusive TAXI pitches! But I'm still hesitant to distribute anything until I get either returned or have floated in the debris of unused forwards for a few months if I am pitching to TAXI listings with synch libraries that want an exclusive deal.

Given most of us write to pitch, I'm sure we want to be able to utilise all avenues for our music to get opportunities to be seen, noticed, grow our listener bases and to potentially make income. So it's good that this stuff is all being discussed and clarified- it makes us better music professionals.