Picking an Band name

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mikeandronda

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First off I love this site....there is so much awesome info and helpful people. My band has finally gotten to a point where we have the members that we all are comfortable with and are now in the writing songs stage. This is going very well and its time to pick a name.........Where can I go to find out if any of the names we are throwing around are legaly taken...... I have done a google search and yet I really dont want to promote, make website, bios and then find out some obscure band from zimbobwie is useing the name and legally we cant :D
 
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We went to something like bands.com or bandname.com and checked there. My band's name was Secondhand Sin, so we google'd for Secondhand Sin, Second Hand Sin, Second-Hand Sin, etc.

After that, go to www.whois.com and search for all of those in the "Easy Domain Search". This will tell you if your domain is taken or not.

Check MySpace, PureVolume, Garageband, and any other band sites to see if the name is taken.

One thing to remember is that trademarks on names are kinda quirky. If a nationally (or larger) reknown act has the name already, then you're kind of screwed. If you pick a name that some other small time band in "small-town, Michigan" has, you're still okay as long as you don't play or market your music there. As long as someone isn't already marketing in your state (selling CDs, playing shows), you shouldn't have a problem with the legalities.
 
right on

Thanx for the reply.....heres a question. What if we wanted the name THE EGGS ( we dont just an example ) and there is already a band called EGGS......would putting a the infront of it make it a legally different name?
 
Sorry, I'm not sure about that. I'd like to say you'll be fine, but I can't imagine if someone called themselves Killers, or Vines, or Strokes, or Jets, that there wouldn't be some lawyer action going on somewhere.

Read up in those links and google for Band Name Trademark, music law, band law. Somewhere in there you should get a solid answer.

You could always email a lawyer from one of those sites & get the answer straight from them. It would probably be more reliable than mine, or most people's answers here.
 
what's up Mikeandronda?!

Well this is how i understand this...

It's fairly important to make sure you don't have similar band names as someone else...HOWEVER, there are many bands out there with the same name, for example...

I'm sure you've heard of Jack Johnson, the singer/surfer guy...anyway, if you go to this page... http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=MIW060602111748&sql=1:JACK|JOHNSON~T1 you'll that there are many different Jack Johnsons out there. I think the only time it becomes an issue is if your music is similar as well. for example, if you're looking for Jack Johnson (the surfer guy) and end up buying Jack Johnson (the old blues performer), there are going to be some legal issues.

For 99.9% of the bands out there, they'll never have their CD actually sold in stores or even play much out of their home town. If this is the case, then you could probably call yourself whoever the hell you want to call yourself...However calling yourself Coldplay or The Beatles will most likely confuse everyone and you get you a nasty phone call from a lawyer.

By the way, according to http://www.allmusic.com/ EGGS is a band. Also, i could be wrong, but slapping the word "the" on the word probably does not make it different enough. I could open a burger joint called The McDonnalds, but i'm pretty sure they'd make me change more than just the word "The".

It's funny, we've played with a band that has changed their name 2 times, and just found out some other band from the east coast has thier new name, so they're AGAIN looking to change it again. The best thing i can say is do your homework. you can find a lot on line. be creative. the more you look into it now, the fewer headaches you may encounter down the line.

good luck!
tait
 
:)

Thanx Robert........I kind of figured "The" wouldnt make a difference. I have been in many bands and this is the part I hate the most.....nameing the band. :)
 
the first real fight our band ever had was over that stupid name. it basically came down to me and the bass player shooting out names, and every name he came up with i hated, and every name i came up with, he couldn't stand. "Bag of Toys" was the only name that we didn't both hate...go figure.
 
OH I hear ya......There has not been one name that we all like......theres 5 of us. I guess the first one we dont all hate will be the one we go with :D I swear we have gone through 100 ideas allready and everyone we find that we like there is some band in some little town that a bunch of 15 yr olds have put up on myspace as there band........frustrating to say the least.
 
what sucks is that 5 years from now, even more band names are gonna be taken, and the list of available words keeps growing shorter and shorter! pretty soon everyone's band name is just gonna hate to be a number, like 12246635 and 54627810.
 
Just a little input about a real life situation that happenend around the Austin music scene a few years back.

There was a band called "Texas Instruments" also the name of a major high tech firm located in Austin in fact that's where they got it.

Long story short...years of playing under that name and litigation generated tons of publicity....who cares?.....Nobody until there's money involved. Then it just depends on who hires the best lawyers... go for it if it's the name you want, change a letter or the way it's spelled. Ride it untill just before the lawyers get really serious. Then send out a press release that the band name is being changed....best when you're about the release a CD.

Rusty K
 
Not a bad idea

Rusty, The plublicity thing isnt a bad idea......what do they say....."the only bad press is no press" In truth I really dont wish to ruffle feathers, step on toes or cheat. I have been playing in bands for 19 yrs now and through it all particapated or been around the back stabbing and underhanded dealing enough to know I dont want anypart of that anymore. Better to try with integrity and fail then to cheat,lie or steal and get any sucess because of that reason. Now dont get me wrong business is business and gimicks of all sorts are fair game. I think we have a name nobody has that none of us hate.......well for now :D
 
I'm with you on all you've said. I'm just going through a messy divorce with a band I've been playing with for 9yrs. because of many of the integrity issues you've pointed out, but don't under rate the sex appeal of the"bad boy" image. It's just a game and there are a million ways to play it and of course do what's right for yourself.

Rusty K
 
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