Contract question

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Rock Star 87

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hi, i have been here for awhile, but i have a very important question. as we all know, it is very smart to work the business with contracts for everything. i am releasing an album, of which i am producing, and one of my friends is doing some vocals on the chorus. she doesn't want paid, but she should get royalties, right? what contract should i use, and where can i find it? i'm gonna mention her in the CD inlay, and i'm not going to deny she helped. im not out to rip her off, i just don't know where to get a copy of a contract. i purchased a book called "This Business Of Music Vol. 8" which came with a CD containing sample contracts. if i customized the names to match our situation, could i use one of those. and lastly, she's a minor, so would it hold up at all? any advice would be greatly appreciated. thank u so much.

PS. i also wrote the song and music, and it was done in my home studio, and no one else is involved except me & her, and whichever mastering engineer i choose.
 
there really isnt an issue with royalties unless you plan on getting massive air play or moving thousands of CDs. you also need to be registered with ascap, BMI or sesac to be able to collect royalties, though you probably know that. she would also need to be registered with AFM or something, some type of union. here is a good example. the kids who sang "we dont need no education..." on the pink floyd record, sued for royalties and got a couple hundred each. thats a HUGE multi platinum recording arstist. so dont worry about it man. if youre putting out a CD by yourself and its your friend singing, buy her dinner or something and call it a deal. royalties and such are an exhausting topic... you should really buy an industry book or something to understand them better. im taking an entertainment law class right now for my major (plan to go on to law school soon) and its exhausting trying to understand all this stuff. so like i said, unless you plan on selling THOUSANDS (10,000+) of CDs, its not really an issue. and if one day you do get famous, or signed, you will have an attorney to take care of all these things with you. but, if you really do want to go through with this and get it all taken care of, you should just call an attorney near you who practices entertainment law and ask him these questions.
 
what about ownership of copyright and the master recordings.
 
technicaly when the expression is fixed in a tangilbe medium (CD), its copyrighted. though its always best to file a form PA with the copyright office. when you file you arent actually getting a copyright, only a registration of it. if you ever wanted to sue for infringement on your work, and your song wasnt registered, you would have a hard time making a case in court. for sound recordings, you need to file a form SR. but that has nothing to do with royalties, at least not directly. i think, but im not sure, you need to have your songs registered with the copyright office before you can register with BMI or ASCAP, and i think the same goes for SESAC.
 
Rock Star 87 said:
what's the difference between form SR and form PA?
Click to expand...

form SR is for sound recordings and form PA is for songs...
 
If your friend sings on the recorded CD, then she can be considered having part copyright ownership of the finished product (the sound recording itself being the finished product, not the song she's singing on).

When you register the copyright, form SR suggests that you distinguish each author's contribution to the work:

"...give the requested information about every “author” who contributed
any appreciable amount of copyrightable matter to this version of the work. "

I suppose it will be up to you to decide whether her contribution would be considered an "appreciable amount".
If so, then be sure to separate her contribution as 'sound recording' and yours as 'sound recording' as well as whatever categories pertain to your authorship of the underlying material:

"... it is important for space 2 to include full information about the various authors of all of the material covered by the copyright claim, making clear the nature of each author’s contribution.
Sound recording authorship is the performance, sound production, or both, that is fixed in the recording deposited for registration. Describe this authorship in space 2 as “sound recording.” If the claim also covers the underlying work(s), include the appropriate authorship terms for each author, for example, “words,” “music,” “arrangement of music,” or “text.”

Hope this helps! :)
 
Better safe than sorry. Pay her something and have her assign the copyrights to you in writing.
 
Rock Star 87 said:
and lastly, she's a minor, so would it hold up at all? any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

Kind of an interesting sideline that corresponds with where you're at...

From BBC News:

Pink Floyd pupils claim royalties

Dave Gilmour has a global following with Pink Floyd
Former schoolchildren who sang on Pink Floyd's 1979 single Another Brick in The Wall have begun action for unpaid royalties.
Royalties expert Peter Rowan said he was appealing on behalf of one former pupil and was working with others.

The 23 then teenagers from north London have been unable to claim royalties as they recorded their vocals in secret.

The single with its chorus "We Don't Need No Education" became a children's anthem and was a UK and US number one.

The album The Wall, on which the single features, sold more than 12 million copies.

The album was also turned into a semi-animated 1982 film, starring Bob Geldof of as a pop star who descends into madness.

Mr Rowan said: "They (the former schoolchildren) are owed their money and we lodged the first claim last week. I've been working on it for almost two years."

'Scandalous' lyrics

The then pupils from Islington Green School, north London, were taken to a nearby recording studio by their music teacher but without permission from the headmistress.

On hearing the song, she banned the pupils from appearing on TV or video, meaning they had no proof of their involvement on the track.

The lyrics "We don't need no education, we don't need no thought control, no dark sarcasm in the classroom -- teachers leave them kids alone" were also described by the Inner London Education Authority as "scandalous".

The school was paid £1,000 and later given a platinum record of the song but the pupils were paid nothing.

The former headmistress has now agreed to support her former pupils' claim.
 
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