#licensingmusic

by Courtney Delaney

If you are a songwriter or artist who pitches songs directly to opportunities for film and television, it’s important to get all your ducks in a row with regard to legal rights before pitching. Consider this scenario: A film production company has narrowed it down to two songs for use in their film, your song and one other song. The film production company likes both songs equally.

In order to include either song in the film, the production company must attain either

1) a synchronization license (for use of the song itself) and a master use license (for use of the recording)

or

2) an all-in license that combines both the synchronization and master use licenses when both rights are owned by one person or company.

For simplicity’s sake, let’s say you wrote your song, hired musicians for the studio recording, and paid a producer to create the sound recording. You registered a form PA with the Library of Congress for the song; you registered form SR with the Library of Congress for the recording, listing all participants. You might expect you own all the rights. However, for use of the song in film, the production company will need permission from the producer and all performers unless other legal agreements are in place. Other than your copyright registrations, you have no other legal documentation.

In this scenario, let’s say the songwriter for the other song has on file his PA and SR copyright registrations along with work-for-hire agreements* between himself and the producer and each performer. These agreements state that in exchange for what they were paid, the participant waives the right to license the recording and they are not entitled to additional compensation.

Guess which song will be selected? Yes, the other songwriter’s song will most likely be used. That song will be easy to clear for licensing.

I can offer some practical suggestions for lining up your ducks.

Get your hands on a standard work-for-hire agreement template. You can find such a template online or you can hire an attorney to draft the document.

Register form PA with the Library of Congress. Be thorough. If you wrote the lyrics and paid a composer to write the music, by all means, have a work-for-hire agreement in place with that composer. You can note a contribution as work-for-hire on the form PA, but you still need the contract in your possession.

 Before recording, have each participant you’ve hired sign a completed work-for-hire agreement. Once you have the studio recording, register the form SR with the Library of Congress, listing each participant and indicating that his/her contribution is “work for hire”.

If you want a participant to be compensated by a portion of ownership to rights, have legal agreements documenting those terms. I recommend you set terms that allow you to collect all payments and royalties and then disperse as agreed. This will keep it streamlined for issuing an all-in license.

To go the extra mile, you might put together a pdf showing copies of both copyright registration forms along with each work-for-hire agreement or alternate agreement for each song. When submitting your song for consideration in a film, you can mention that you have pre-cleared the license and have all documentation available should they need to see it.