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By Graham Way
It's a sad reality that far too many bands
are remiss when it comes to housekeeping, and one of the things
that has come back to haunt more than a few bands and former
mates is an unfortunate propensity for untidiness when it
comes to song material written by members.
I like to see bands set themselves up for
success, and in this regard I've always been a big proponent
of prioritizing having a band partnership agreement in place.
It should be one of the first orders of business for any group
that is serious about getting out there and making waves.
One of the most important reasons for this is this matter
of songs. A written band agreement will go a long ways toward
addressing this issue by covering the subject of writing credits,
ownership, division of any publishing revenue and the administration
of such publishing.
As I see it, there are basically two approaches
to dealing with song credits and ownership in a band: One
sees the actual writers retaining all writing credits and
copyrights; the other distributes those credits and/or ownership
equally amongst the band members. At first glance the former
seems pretty straight forward and the logical way to go--i.e.,
the people who write the songs deserve those credits and ownership.
A second look at this may give one cause to reconsider.
Take the situation where a band member comes
up with a song idea and presents it to the group. They like
it and have a hand in developing it to completion for performing
and recording purposes. Did the other members just help arrange
it, or was their contribution also compositional? And who
gets to determine this? Or, what if the person who started
the band has a real thing about pushing his own songs on the
group but is reluctant to share in any of the credits and
ownership?
These are examples of circumstances where
song creation and usage can easily become fodder for dispute,
tension and dissension within a group, which is the reason
why some bands opt for each member having an equal share of
ownership of all songs. That way, everyone gets a piece of
at least the publishing side of song income. Some bands go
further and give everyone equal writing credits, too, regardless
of any individual member's contribution, although it is perfectly
understandable why the one(s) with most of the creative juices
in the group might have a problem with that.
I'm not advocating this kind of egalitarian
approach, simply pointing it out as an option to consider.
If you do go in this direction, you will need to set up a
publishing company for the band material unless the band decides
to find an existing publishing firm to handle it's song-related
business affairs. Your band agreement should stipulate whether
or not the band partners agree to create such an entity, the
administration rights and duties that such a company would
have, and the criteria that would have to be met for a song
to fall under its control.
If you opt for the first approach, then it
is important that the person who brings a song idea to the
group have the other members sign off on their sole rights
to the composition, in the way that a music producer working
with an artist on an album project might be asked to do.
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