Work for Hire Agreements DO MATTER

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Casey H
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Work for Hire Agreements DO MATTER

Post by Casey H » Sun Jan 04, 2009 7:09 am

From time to time, the subject of work-for-hire agreements and master rights comes up on the forum. Many of us often mention how important these are-- if you use a demo service or other performers for your recordings, you must have agreements in place for film/TV use.I'm in the process of negotiating with a library and... they will not include my tracks in the library unless I provide copies of my work-for-hire agreements. Fortunately, I do have them all and this is not a problem for me. I thought I'd mention this in case this helps anyone. These things really do matter. And even if the library didn't ask for them, without them I'd be 100% exposed should any claims ever arise. Library contracts always have a clause you sign that says you own all the rights and are legally responsible if otherwise. Casey

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Re: Work for Hire Agreements DO MATTER

Post by greatmoves » Sat Jan 10, 2009 5:21 pm

Hi Casey, quick question, where did you get those contracts? I would like to see/read them over. Have you ever had someone balk at signing them? BB
First we hear noise in our mind. A joyful sound we call music, Thus we all play by ear... bjb Songwriter

WOW, What Gall someone must have, trying to use "ideas only" to wedge their way into the music business... bjb

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Re: Work for Hire Agreements DO MATTER

Post by guscave » Mon Jan 12, 2009 7:06 am

Casey, Great post. I could not agree with you more. A few years ago my old keyboard player signed a song to a music library which got his song on a commercial for a local cable network. The library asked him if everything was cleared and he signed a contract basically saying everything with Kosher.Not Quite!The song used a small vocal phrase from a female singer he was producing and he never got a "work for hire" agreement signed by her. The commercial played locally for about a month, and the girl was super upset when she heard it and threaten to sue my friend. It all got settled out of court but it was a lesson he will never forget. Today if he can't get an artists to sign a "work for hire" agreement for a song with potential for film or tv, he won't send it out to anyone.

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