Advice from Artists & Producers

Nocturnal Parasite

Nocturnal Parasite

New member
Hello,

I'm new to this forum (registered today), I came across it when doing some brief research through Google when a topic came from this source, and after going through a few threads and reading some of the constructive criticism and feedback from some of the users who are on here. I thought I'd sign up and give it a shot myself.

Anyway... I never came here to introduce myself in detail. I had a question I wanted to lay down in front of producers AND artists in regards to publishing your music to digital stores such as iTunes, Spotify (Not really a store), Amazon etc...
As an aspiring artist who currently specializes in Hip Hop, mainly working on Remix's and small songs I record for practice with mixing down, mastering, volume limiting etc etc...
I've noticed, thanks to my social media, a slight shift in follows, and subscribers to my channel on YouTube, simply through advertising on them to people I've deemed as being fans of Hip Hop.

So I've been thinking the last month... What if I get to the point where I can actually produce 100% my own music, (excluding the produced beat for it) and get them up on digital stores and potentially begin to rake in a slight bit of cash.. Now this.. Speaking on behalf of artists and producers, we all want.

But I NEVER endeavor into unknown territory without the correct knowledge on what I'm doing. So in regards to publishing music to Digital Stores, if I was to release for example... a Single... And the beat was leased not exclusive purchased. Do I have to purchase Copyright for my produced track entirely? Or simply just the lyrics as the beat would be Copyrighted already... Then.. When publishing the music, who would I declare as the legitimate copyright holder of the song? What do I do to avoid any court letters coming through to me.
Appreciate the feedback when it comes and apologies to anyone who isn't into reading big posts, but I felt I had to justify why I was posting here before going onto the question.

Thank you
~Nocturnal
 
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Hi Nocturnal,

So to quickly iron out a few wrinkles in what you're saying:

I'm assuming you mean the beats you lease are on a non-exclusive basis. That means the producer can resell the beat... In regards to the terms of your license... That's something YOU need to READ. Normally, however, producers tend to say you're allowed to sell the completed song a number of times, and then you'll have to repurchase a lease for every (say) 1,000 copies sold after that.

Also, I'm assuming you're talking about US Copyright laws. In the UK, you own the copyright from the time it's created, and you can't protect your rights like you can in the US. Registering a copyright with a company here would not hold up in court. In the US, however, it would.

To answer your question:

When publishing, you would register a songwriter and a composer. The producer would be the composer, and the songwriter would be you... As long as no one else had written the song with you.

The royalties from the song would be split 50/50 between you and the composer and the publishing company would take a cut before your cuts.

You can avoid legal letters by not breaking the law... Consult an entertainment lawyer, and if you can't afford one, consult a couple of entertainment law books. It's what most lawyers tend to do anyway. If you do receive a letter, whatever it may regard... (Once I had a cease & desist) You should reply and agree to their demands if they are threatening legal action. I didn't, but they can't actually sue me when there's no money to be won.

Quick disclaimer...

I AM NOT A LAWYER. YOU SHOULD CONSULT A LAWYER. NO LEGAL ADVICE SHOULD BE TAKEN AS LEGITIMATE UNLESS IT'S A LAWYERS.
 
Exclusivo said:
Hi Nocturnal,

So to quickly iron out a few wrinkles in what you're saying:

I'm assuming you mean the beats you lease are on a non-exclusive basis. That means the producer can resell the beat... In regards to the terms of your license... That's something YOU need to READ. Normally, however, producers tend to say you're allowed to sell the completed song a number of times, and then you'll have to repurchase a lease for every (say) 1,000 copies sold after that.

Also, I'm assuming you're talking about US Copyright laws. In the UK, you own the copyright from the time it's created, and you can't protect your rights like you can in the US. Registering a copyright with a company here would not hold up in court. In the US, however, it would.

To answer your question:

When publishing, you would register a songwriter and a composer. The producer would be the composer, and the songwriter would be you... As long as no one else had written the song with you.

The royalties from the song would be split 50/50 between you and the composer and the publishing company would take a cut before your cuts.

You can avoid legal letters by not breaking the law... Consult an entertainment lawyer, and if you can't afford one, consult a couple of entertainment law books. It's what most lawyers tend to do anyway. If you do receive a letter, whatever it may regard... (Once I had a cease & desist) You should reply and agree to their demands if they are threatening legal action. I didn't, but they can't actually sue me when there's no money to be won.

Quick disclaimer...

I AM NOT A LAWYER. YOU SHOULD CONSULT A LAWYER. NO LEGAL ADVICE SHOULD BE TAKEN AS LEGITIMATE UNLESS IT'S A LAWYERS.
Click to expand...

Hi Eclusivo,

Appreciate the extensive response, anyone who takes time to answer something I always think is a patient person.

To answer your question, yes, I mean beats that I am leasing that can be re-sold by the producer again. I have read my past terms of licenses mainly giving me details on where not to play my music / broadcast it (Radio's etc). And I'm permitted to normally 2500 digital sales.

I'm not talking about US Copyright laws or at least I don't know really what I'm talking about, I'm from the UK if that's any consolation, and if it's within our laws to own the copyright form the time it's created, what exactly won't stand up in court? Surely this means we don't require to copyright anything? That's how I'm interpreting it which I know is completely wrong.

Well I've looked into certain music publishers recently in regards to the kind of fields they wish to take, including one which claims to allow the artist to keep 100% royalties which baffled me.. I'm un-sure if I can advertise the website here as a reference so I'll refrain from doing so.
Well I definitely am the song writer and no one else participates in the production of my own lyrics.

With money being an issue like yourself by the sounds of things. It'll probably just come down to some research from reliable sources on the internet.

Thank you for your response!
 
No worries.

As I said before, in the UK, copyrights are created when you create something. It's actually pretty much a grey area in the UK, and after consulting various experienced industry insiders and a lawyer, I came to the conclusion that there is no way to 100% guarantee protection when it comes to taking someone to court. You don't have to register copyrights with a company. It's a waste of money.

However, the best way to approach releasing a record and ensuring maximum protection is registering the song through a publisher... In your case, PRS 4 Music... Though they won't recoup any of your legal expenses, after speaking with a few of their representatives when I was signing up, they do try and sort out any copyright disputes which happen between artists in the society. However, if you have a copyright dispute with someone outside of the society then you're on your own.

It's of my belief that if my works copyrights were infringed and I took them to court, the time stamp from PRS of when I published my work would be of similar weight to a US copyright registration.

To conclude, if you're in the UK, you are protected by the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. If you're in the US, you are protected by the US Copyright Act of 1976.

Hope that helps you and anyone who may read this.
 
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Exclusivo said:
No worries.

As I said before, in the UK, copyrights are created when you create something. It's actually pretty much a grey area in the UK, and after consulting various experienced industry insiders and a lawyer, I came to the conclusion that there is no way to 100% guarantee protection when it comes to taking someone to court. You don't have to register copyrights with a company. It's a waste of money.

However, the best way to approach releasing a record and ensuring maximum protection is registering the song through a publisher... In your case, PRS 4 Music... Though they won't recoup any of your legal expenses, after speaking with a few of their representatives when I was signing up, they do try and sort out any copyright disputes which happen between artists in the society. However, if you have a copyright dispute with someone outside of the society then you're on your own.

It's of my belief that if my works copyrights were infringed and I took them to court, the time stamp from PRS of when I published my work would be of similar weight to a US copyright registration.

To conclude, if you're in the UK, you are protected by the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. If you're in the US, you are protected by the US Copyright Act of 1976.

Hope that helps you and anyone who may read this.
Click to expand...

Yep, this all makes sense now... I know a bit about the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, as I'm a Software Developer and it's part and parcel to that kind of career in terms of my future as I'm just finishing up getting my Diploma. However when it came to music, it may sound stupid but I just thought music in general had a separate act that was linked with the UK Copyright, Designs & Patents Act. Obviously not.

So you recommend all publishing to go through PRS?
 
Yeah, copyright is all under the same umbrella. So anything you know from your software development can probably be applied to music.

Mine goes through PRS and PPL. They are the only ones I know of. Both do different jobs.
 
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in UK and commonwealth therein, you assert your moral right to be acknowledged as the author/creator of the work when you publish the work, which in the case of beats means when you release them for public consumption/sales. You can do this with additional paperwork attached to the product whether digital or physical (a text file inside the same zipped file should be sufficient) or embedded tags such as ID3 tags in MP3s

you also need to assert any other parties rights as well as part of this process.

as exlcusivo notes, I am not a lawyer, so you should consult your own, but teh above is the usual process to follow to cover your assets
 
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