CONTRACT OFFER I DON'T TOTALLY UNDERSTAND

[Krehbiel]

Hey folks, I'm new to this game and just got a contract offer for an acapella Christmas song with a company in Germany. There is quite a bit of legalese in the contract that I don't understand. Three Examples: 1 "Composer waves any so-called moral rights in connection with the Songs." 2"Publisher shall have the sole and exclusive rights to the Compositions and Master recordings for the full life of copyright, including any renewals thereof..." 3"Composer guarantees that said samples, loops etc are a) always within his own musical context and combined with at least 2 additional instruments which are musically significant in the arrangement." Is there a TAXI member out there that might have a similar contract and be willing to talk with me? Or do I need to talk with a lawyer? If so do you have any recommendations? Thanks!

[VanderBoegh]

You can certainly talk with a lawyer if you want, just to understand the basics of these things, but this verbiage is nothing out of the ordinary.

1 "Composer waves any so-called moral rights in connection with the Songs."
This would be if you have any moral issues / hang-ups with your music being placed on certain types of programming, shows, content, etc. For example, political ads, or stuff that might be morally "unsavory" (sex scenes, scenes with drug use, etc). This clause says that you will have no say over where your music is placed, even if you have moral objections to the placement.

2"Publisher shall have the sole and exclusive rights to the Compositions and Master recordings for the full life of copyright, including any renewals thereof..."
This means this library / publisher is offering an exclusive deal, and you can't sign this track to any other music libraries.

3"Composer guarantees that said samples, loops etc are a) always within his own musical context and combined with at least 2 additional instruments which are musically significant in the arrangement."
This means you ]can'thave purchased loops and have them play in isolation in the track. There needs to be at least 2 other musical elements happening at the same time, so that you're not essentially just signing a loop that someone else made.

Hope that all makes sense. These are pretty standard clauses, so nothing raises alarm for me.

~~Matt

P.S. whoops, realized I typo'ed a word above. I changed it in red.

[cosmicdolphin]

Have ChatGPT explain it to you - Great use case for AI

[Casey H]

2"Publisher shall have the sole and exclusive rights to the Compositions and Master recordings for the full life of copyright, including any renewals thereof..."
This means this library / publisher is offering an exclusive deal, and you can't sign this track to any other music libraries.

Just to add... This deal is all encompassing as far as ownership of the song and recordings. You are signing over the full copyright for life which means that not only can't you ever sign it with any other libraries, you can't sign it for artist recordings or any other types of usages. I'm not saying that with judgement, just explaining what it means. There are times when a deal like that can work well in the long term. But if you are someone who does not want to give up all ownership and control of a song, it might not be for you. If you write a lot of songs of this type and don't consider this one special to you, it can be worth a shot. If, however, you feel this is one of your "babies", that would be different.

HTH
Casey

[Krehbiel]

Thanks all for the helpful advise! I very much appreciate it! An additional question in regards to Casey's comment "you can't sign it for artist recordings or any other types of usages." This song is already on one of our albums that we have sold for years. We perform this song regularly for Christmas concerts/programs. What we turned in to TAXI is an acapella version of the song that we perform with instrumentation. How does this contract affect OUR personal usage of our song?

[Casey H]

Thanks all for the helpful advise! I very much appreciate it! An additional question in regards to Casey's comment "you can't sign it for artist recordings or any other types of usages." This song is already on one of our albums that we have sold for years. We perform this song regularly for Christmas concerts/programs. What we turned in to TAXI is an acapella version of the song that we perform with instrumentation. How does this contract affect OUR personal usage of our song?

You should let the library know the song has been previously released on your albums and played at concerts. Ask them if that's a problem and if the contract precludes non-sync related activities such as albums, artist cuts, streaming, etc. They may or may not care. Usually when they take the copyright to the composition as well as the master, those things are prohibited or highly restricted. But without seeing the contract, hard to say. And even if I saw the contract, it might not be clear.

Good luck!
Casey

[Krehbiel]

That's very helpful, Casey. I emailed the company the info and questions you suggested. I don't want to take advantage of your generosity, but you are welcome to look at the contract. Thank you!