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Hello

I wrote a song, lyrics and melody, basic chords. My friend who plays and sings is helping spruce up the chord charts, will play and sing and do the recording. I will do some background vocals. He is not taking a fee for this, however So what kind of
rights does he have to the song?

since he is "producing it" , singing and playing on it. has said that "we" would own the Sound Recording, I would own the music and lyrics and as a prodcuer would get about 5% of any royalties.



I will copyright it as a SR , do I put him as a work for hire. He knows I own the rights, I just want to get our "contract" right. He may want some performance royalities if it gets picked up, but i think we are going to do that on the side and I want him to sign all rights to me so I can pitch to film and TV.

Just wanting to make sure I get this right.

shellsings wrote:

since he is "producing it" , singing and playing on it. has said that "we" would own the Sound Recording, I would own the music and lyrics and as a prodcuer would get about 5% of any royalties.

"any royalties" isn't exactly right; you'd get the writer's share of publishing and mechanical royalties and he'd get half the performance royalties, which may or may not end up being 5% of total royalties, depending on the use. For instance, sheet music income would be split between you and the publisher, but your collaborator would be entitled to 50% of fees and royalties earned by the sound recording; not a bad deal, in my estimation, if you couldn't otherwise record/perform the work to a standard that can achieve placements, but it's best if you can pay your guy up front and get a signed 'work for hire' agreement. However, if you're doing modern dance-pop, where the drum and synth sounds are specific to the genre and the production is just as important as the melody and lyrics, it may be worth cutting him in for a percentage. (it's what you'd do if you were Ke$ha or Katy Perry and he were Swizz Beatz)