Any legal experts on board? Re: music contracts

[Slyde]

Posted a rough draft of a songwriter collaboration contract in the producer's section, but thought I'd mention it here too in case there's any experts around...would you mind taking a look at it and making some suggestions? I took bits and pieces from a few different ones I found to make it useful for broke producers who want to convince musicians to play on their beats without having a lot of cash for them upfront...the idea is that the producer would keep most of the rights and control of the finished product, but the contributing musician(s) would be guaranteed a certain percentage of all future profits...looking to make it as simple as possible but cover everybody...will post the final version for all to use after I run it by as many people as possible...thanks for your help

http://www.deephousepage.com/forums/...d.php?t=233298

[Slyde]

9-5 bump

[larry p rauson]

Slyde,
it has been my experience that these contracts are useless unless the owners of the copyright, publishing, and writers royalties grant you rights against those interests, tangible assets that have basis in law, and may be valuable over time, in essence, making tne musician, singer, engineer, etc., an owner in part of the work in question...any contract that only guarantees a part of net profits is not worth the bandrwidth it takes to email it, cuz as we all know, the terms of any contract are in favor of the person, or entity that prepared if, and that there will be no net profits to be shared...i still get these kinds of offers, in lieu of my session fee, and if, the producer refuses to add me as a copyright owner, or offer a publishing split, a writers credit, or at least a 50% licensing and merchandising split, we have nothing to talk about, and i wont play...after 20+ years in this game, to be offered $50 for a sax solo, or $100 to actually write a song is insulting...you'd be surprised at the names in this game that try and pull that bullshit, you would be more surprised at the names that accept that shit

[Slyde]

unless the owners of the copyright, publishing, and writers royalties grant you rights against those interests, tangible assets that have basis in law, and may be valuable over time, in essence, making tne musician, singer, engineer, etc., an owner in part of the work in question

Hi Larry, thanks for your message...that's exactly what I'd like this contract to do, make each contributor a part owner of the song with all associated future benefits from it...maybe I'm making it more complicated than it has to be or possibly wrong that the publishing rights of the underlying composition are worth more than the copyright of that specific recording, as long as the other writer(s) get a share of profits from it.

I thought it would make sense for it to favor the producer a bit, since in house music situations they would be doing most of the parts themselves, arranging it all, and doing all the legwork...also figured it might make the administrative side more streamlined...but I agree, when you show up to do your sax solo, in a way it's taken you 20+ years to write that part unless the producer already knew exactly what they wanted you to play...I'm trying to find an alternative to insulting people because even $50-100 is way over budget for a lot of people making music...but maybe it would be useful even in cases where there is more money involved, and you might believe in the song or producer enough to be more interested in gambling on a percentage?

I'm trying to look at it from both angles because I'd like to give incentive and peace of mind to people I invite to play/sing/rap/engineer etc on my beats, but have also been doing some bass sessions for people's releases and don't mind jamming for fun, but want a cut of the sales.

Thanks Larry!