sample contracts?

[sport]

Hope this isn't too far off topic-it's not really about home recording. Here goes: I'm going into someone's home studio to do a 'preproduction' demo. He is also a drummer and he is going to lay some drum tracks down for my tunes. I don't want to be going to a music lawyer to draw up a contract every time I have a session player as this would get expensive. I'm wondering if there are some forms I could download off the internet that are fairly basic work for hire or session contracts that would suffice. I know a lot of inexperienced writers have a little too much paranoia regarding copyrighting their tunes, but it would just ease my mind and I think it would be a good idea to have something in writing, as this guy seems very professional and business savy. He said that some of the people who hire him have contracts drawn up- but they are a minority.

 

[gaffa]

Having a lawyer to draw up a standard contract wouldn't be a bad thing - get him/her to write up the contract with a selection of clauses, and include a description of what each clause means. This way, you'll have a contract that can be modified by you over and over again, but changed around a bit for different needs. (You choose version A or clause X for one case, version B for a different case etc.)

Doing it this way might cost you a bit more initially, but you'll end up with a very flexible contract to use, with layman descriptions of each clause so you understand it properly, and can explain it to your clients, that should cover most contractual requirements.

- gaffa

[This message has been edited by gaffa (edited 04-04-2000).]

 

[sonusman]

No need to get all technical here. A simple laymen terms contract will suffice and hold up quite well in court in the event of any troubles. Both parties just need to understand EXACTLY what the terms are and you need those stated in the simple contract.

If you are just hiring the guy to come in and play drums to your songs for a recording, and you are not offering any songwriting credits, and are not offering any royalties if the song should be bought by a publisher, you just state something to the effect that so and so is being paid X amount of money to perform a drum part on a recording for such and such tune, and that under no circumstances will he be entitled to future payments as a result of the tune making you any money.

Basically, word it so that he agrees to be paid to give up all future rights to any compensation for his contribution to the song. If he agrees, well, he agrees. He can't go back on it if he signs a clearly worded contract, and this contract does not need a whole bunch of legal mumbo jumbo to get it's point across.

The only way you can get into technicalities is if you are offering future payments based upon the song making you money. In this case, you would want to get a lawyer to draw up a contract of a little more detail.

Good luck

Ed

 

[sport]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by gaffa:
Having a lawyer to draw up a standard contract wouldn't be a bad thing - get him/her to write up the contract with a selection of clauses, and include a description of what each clause means. This way, you'll have a contract that can be modified by you over and over again, but changed around a bit for different needs. (You choose version A or clause X for one case, version B for a different case etc.)

Doing it this way might cost you a bit more initially, but you'll end up with a very flexible contract to use, with layman descriptions of each clause so you understand it properly, and can explain it to your clients, that should cover most contractual requirements.

- gaffa

[This message has been edited by gaffa (edited 04-04-2000).]<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>


So do you think I could make copies of these contracts and use them whenever I needed a session player? It may be kind of a simple question, but can a contract be photocopied and used in a different situation, or is it worded by the lawyer in his office, saying, 'this is a contract between John Smith and Joe Blow'. Would a lawyer let you out of his office with a stock blank contract that you could use repeatedly? Or is the idea to pay the bucks for the first one, and in the future draw your own contracts up using the same terminology? I guess what I'm asking is, would you photocopy the contracts, or use the first one as a blueprint to write up your own.

 

[gaffa]

Sport,

I've got a sample contract that I had a lawyer draw up for contract programming work (which is probably a bit more technical than for music). The lawyer (for $800AUS) gave me a Word file copy of the contract, with a heap of comment blocks attached, along with alternatively worded clauses for different situatuions (in my case covering things like if I was being hired, or hiring some one etc.)

This way, I just modify the name of the party invloved at the top, cut and paste a few sections, and print out a new contract. Biggest advantage is that I have an explanation of every clause in the contract, so I can explain it to the other punter

- gaffa

PS. The lawyer also included a little bit on clauses to watch out for if we are signing another contract, which ahs saved our bacon a number of times.