Music Contract Jargon

Seeing that you are a musician, there is a good chance that you are not a lawyer as well. This definitely puts you at a disadvantage when it comes to reading, reviewing, understanding, agreeing to and signing music contracts . Music business contracts can be complicated and confusing if you are not trained with a legal background. Over the next few minutes, we will review and define some of the common jargon of music recording contracts.

The first phrase—the deal is obviously the agreement you are making with the label. It will essentially define what royalties you will be paid from the profit of your music. Some recording contracts may include a pay advancement. This allows the artist to get the ball rolling. They can get new equipment, new wardrobe, voice lessons, a car, a home, whatever you desire to get you going. Keep in mind, this money has to be paid back with future earnings, it is a loan not a gift.

Cross-recoupment or cross-collateralization is the recovery of advances, costs or losses from other projects. Exclusivity is a word you may run across quite a few times in music business contracts. This includes all of the things that are exclusively owned by the record company. They may want to own your present work, past work and future work. They most likely will own your logo, website, all merchandise, images and names.  All of those things will be exclusive to their company, understand?

The territory of your music contracts is important and needs to be defined. Laws and rules are different in every country and you need to make sure you music and rights are protected world-wide, ideally. As I mentioned before, different countries have different laws about copyrights and things to that effect. Just be sure the music business contract defines this.

How long is your contract for? This is referred to as the term of the contract. Is it two years, seven year, two albums, eight albums? It is crucial to define the longevity of recording contracts as soon as possible.

Recording contracts can contain a great deal of jargon. You may have to read over it several times or consult the help of someone who know what they are doing. Make sure you understand copyrights, publishing deals, recording agreements, promotion terms, and all the other ins and outs of your music contracts before you sign. If you must, consult the help of a trusted friend in the industry or maybe a lawyer if you have the extra dough.