By Aaron Ford for the Sonicbids Blog.
Picture this: You’ve just finished recording a song with your co-writing partner. You’ve discussed how splits would work in the past. Let’s say you’ve agreed, “How does a 60/40 split sound to you for this song?” Your co-writer responds, “That sounds great!” Then, your friend at an advertising agency calls you the next day with a synchronization opportunity to have your music in a commercial for a large brand. They want to give you and your cowriter $100,000 for the complete use, and they need to know within 24 hours.
You and your co-writer are both so excited, and she wants to know if she still gets 60% of the money… but you assumed that it was agreed that you get 60% of it. The delay from renegotiation causes the deal to fall through, and no one gets anything.
Throughout my career working as a musician, artist manager, for a major label, for my own label, and in advertising at The Orchard, I have found very few axioms. The most important one is that getting everyone on the same page is such hard work, it would be a shame to not have it codified in a contract, thusly negating everyone’s compromise.
There are contract templates available online, but if you’re serious, it’s worth working something out with a music attorney to look over your standard contracts. I find that if you’re willing to do the upfront work, many attorneys will cut you a break. I always have an app called Shake handy to create quick and binding agreements, which allows the flexibility you need to get agreements done without interrupting the creativity or discussion’s flow in the moment.
Let it be known that I am not a lawyer and …read more
Source: Hypebot.com
