Being a Musician is a Business (Producer Agreement Edition)

Whether you’re a music producer, or a performing artist working with a producer, it’s important to discuss the terms of your arrangement with each other.

While it’s better late than never to formalize the artist-producer relationship, it’s easier to start the conversation before heading into the studio, and much easier before the music generates interest and money.

What does a producer do? They generally oversee the production of the song, record the artist’s performance and produce artistically, commercially and technically viable masters.

On one end of the spectrum of formalizing the relationship is not talking about the relationship. On the other side is a producer agreement negotiated by a music lawyer for both the producer and artist. Many people land somewhere in between. One purpose of this blog is to touch on some of the relevant issues when negotiating a producer agreement.

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Some of the logistics questions answered in a producer agreement are where the song will be recorded, the artist’s approval process and the producer’s deliverables.

Regarding the master recordings, will they be owned and controlled by the artist? Controlling the masters should include the exclusive rights to manufacture and distribute the masters. Also, for publishing opportunities, if a music supervisor wants to use the recording in an ad, the master use license (from whoever controls the master) is one of the required licenses needed to place the song.

What percentage, if any, is the producer entitled to the song’s copyright as the artist’s co-author? The outcome may be that the artist and producer each own a percentage of undivided interest in the copyright. Perhaps it will be 50/50 split, 80/20, or some other division, which may easily include more than two parties.

Regardless of the copyright percentage held by an artist or producer, each of their consent is required for copyright holder decisions. As such, it may be preferable for an artist to get the producer to pre-approve in the agreement as much as possible instead of asking later. It may be reasonable that the producer provide the artist with a mechanical licence to reproduce their share of the song in respect of the commercial exploitation of the master in return for their pro-rata share of the mechanical royalty (head to CMRRA for more details).

What financial compensation should the producer receive, up front and on the back end? Perhaps the producer will be entitled to a percentage of the published price to dealer (for more about PPD click here) for physical copies, but will be entitled to receive a percentage of the gross revenue generated from streaming revenue. A related question is whether or not the producer will be paid before or once the artist has money in their pocket from sales.

Along with money, credit is key. The agreement may indicate the specific credit that the producer will receive.

There are a variety of standard reasonable clauses that should be considered to be in a producer agreement, including regarding the work of the artist and producer being original and clarifying what happens should the contributions not be original.

While the artist may be given the right to license or assign their rights to others (for exploitation purposes), it’s not as reasonable that the producer be allowed to get someone else to do their job.

The producer agreement is likely either a spec deal between an unsigned artist and producer, or an agreement between a producer and the record label who signed the artist. If the former, it’s important for the artist to consider what rights the label will want held by the artist, such as control of the masters.

This blog merely highlights a few relevant concepts that are generally considered and negotiated in a producer agreement, along with other terms. Ideally this blog encourage artists and producers to talk about the relationship from the start.

The conversation should be more than what amount of cash is switching hands. If the conversation concludes that the artist is giving the producer a certain fee to produce a song, the expectation of the artist might be that the money covers all rights, whereas the producer might think it’s an advance against their future royalties as a co-author. The result of such incomplete discussions is far riskier if the song is successful, and if you’re doing this to be successful, you might as well plan for success.

 

Edwards PC, Creative Law is a boutique law firm provides legal services to Music, Film, Animation, TV, Digital Media, Game, Software and Publishing industry clients. For more information and blogs, please visit www.edwardslaw.ca

Regarding music law, Byron Pascoe works with musicians and music companies to assist with record label agreements, publishing contracts, distribution deals, producer agreements, band agreements, etc.

© 2018 Edwards PC

* This blog is for general informational purposes only and is not to be construed as legal advice. Please contact Edwards PC, Creative Law or another lawyer, if you wish to apply these concepts to your specific circumstances.

 

 

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