Question about singers

[ErinC]

I hired a singer to perform six songs for me. I am the writer, I own the masters. Since I was new I failed to get a work for hire form. Now since I’ve learned better I’m getting all my paperwork in order. When I asked her to sign my paperwork she got freaked out that it’s her voice that is going to be released on a public EP.
Have any of you faced this before? What do I do? I always thought of her as a hired gun, apparently she thought she was just recording fully produced pieces for demos only
Thanks in advance for advice.

Sincerely,
Erin C

[Casey H]

Unfortunately, there's nothing you can do. As you learned here, it's important to establish the terms up front and make sure they are OK with the WFH agreement before they start. There are singers that only want to do artist-pitch demos, not have their voice used elsewhere as it might conflict with their artist career.

I assume you still have the backing tracks- even better, the DAW projects. The best thing you can do now is have them re-sung by a WFH singer. If you DM me inks to the tracks I *might* be able to suggest some singers. Of course, this will set you back some $$$.

Sorry
Casey

[cosmicdolphin]

I take it you paid this person ?

Obviously they sound inexperienced in the way of such things. I'm not sure why any hired musician would assume nobody else would hear their performances outside of a private demo in this day and age.

I'd at least ask for a refund if they aren't willing to sign a WFH but let it be a lesson learned in setting expectations before working with someone. I assume you didn't find the singer on any of the more well known professional websites like Sound better.

What you definitely don't want to do is start pitching the recordings against the singers wishes without the necessary paperwork on file or it will bite you on the ass.

Maybe if you make it clear the recordings are of no value to you if they can't be used publicly the singer will either see sense and sign the WFH or offer a full or partial refund so you can get them recorded again.

Sounds like you're going to be out of pocket though I'm afraid.

Mark

[ErinC]

Man!! I did pay this person. I hope I can talk her into a “featuring” role, she’ll still get credit. Expensive lesson learned I guess
Thank you guys for getting back to me.

[cosmicdolphin]

Man!! I did pay this person. I hope I can talk her into a “featuring” role, she’ll still get credit. Expensive lesson learned I guess
Thank you guys for getting back to me.

There are lots of songs out there in the Sync World sang by people who want to keep it seperated from their ' artist ' brand...you can use psuedonymes both at a Production Music Library and with a PRO

Or you can spin it the other way that if one of these songs does land up in TV then it's great exposure.

[ErinC]

Both of those are great to keep in mind too. I'm hoping I can just talk to her about it. She wanted to talk to her music lawyer and said she'll get back to me by the end of the week.
Funny thing is, I already sent her to my site with those songs on it, told her I was releasing on distrokid months ago and had her approve her photo for the album art, had her approve her bio for my site and all of that was fine. Now I've discovered a radio contact friend I didn't know I had and the music actually has a chance of going somewhere. As long as it wasn't on paper she didn't really care, probably not even enough to look over anything I sent her. Now that I want to be official and professional it's suddenly a big deal. Annoying.

Man!! I did pay this person. I hope I can talk her into a “featuring” role, she’ll still get credit. Expensive lesson learned I guess
Thank you guys for getting back to me.

There are lots of songs out there in the Sync World sang by people who want to keep it seperated from their ' artist ' brand...you can use psuedonymes both at a Production Music Library and with a PRO

Or you can spin it the other way that if one of these songs does land up in TV then it's great exposure.

[ErinC]

Luckily I have the DAW projects, all tracks and stems so it's not hard to replace a singer. Just annoying and expensive. She hasn't quite said no yet so hopefully I can still talk her into it. She wants to talk to her music lawyer and said she'll get back to me by the end of the week...

Erin C

Unfortunately, there's nothing you can do. As you learned here, it's important to establish the terms up front and make sure they are OK with the WFH agreement before they start. There are singers that only want to do artist-pitch demos, not have their voice used elsewhere as it might conflict with their artist career.

I assume you still have the backing tracks- even better, the DAW projects. The best thing you can do now is have them re-sung by a WFH singer. If you DM me inks to the tracks I *might* be able to suggest some singers. Of course, this will set you back some $$$.

Sorry
Casey

[melodymessiah]

have you asked her if she's ok with it as long as her name or artist name is not used?

[Casey H]

have you asked her if she's ok with it as long as her name or artist name is not used?

Good point! There have been times where singers were OK with my using a pseudonym, since they didn't want a conflict with their artist career. Some of us even use made up artist names to represent the combo of that singer and and the writer(s).

[VanderBoegh]

She wants to talk to her music lawyer

Ugh.....

~~Matt