There seems to be a common presumption that if you pay for the recording session you automatically own the copyrights in the Sound Recordings – that is the Demo or Master tracks. The Sound Recording copyright needs to be distinguished from the copyright in the underlying song that is being recorded. The sound recording copyright protects the performance of the song. It protects the performance from piracy. It prevents others from actually illegally duplicating the sound recordings – or illegally downloading the recordings owned by record labels.
The U.S. Copyright Act grants copyright ownership to the “author” of a work. In most instances this would be the creator – anybody who made a creative contribution to the work. That isn’t necessarily the person or company that pays the studio, the producer, the engineer and the players, although it could be. In the case of your song demos or master recordings in many cases more than one person made a creative contribution: The Producer, the musicians, the backup vocalists, etc. This is especially true at the professional level. Although it has not been a standard practice in the industry, you should have each one of those people sign a simple agreement stating that their contribution to the song is a “work made for hire”. This should be signed before the recording begins. The agreement should go even further and state that if the work is not legally a work for hire then the person making the contribution (musician, etc.) is assigning his copyright interests in it to you. If you have ever signed a recording agreement or a producer agreement you will have seen the work-for-hire and assignment language in the agreement. Now you know why it was there.
It is becoming much more common that in the case where the “demos” or masters end up having an opportunity to be commercially exploited, having those agreements will be required by the record label, the motion picture company, etc. And having to go back and get a written assignment from everybody involved in the session can be a real problem later on. I know because I have tried to help artists about to be signed to a label try to get signatures after the work is done.
I have had many clients and prospective clients believe that their masters or demos are works for hire because they paid for them. In most instances in the music business that is not going to be true unless the written agreement I referred to is signed by the creators. And not always true even if there is a written agreement. I will explain this more thoroughly in my next post.