Musician independent contractor agreement
Below is a list of the kinds of contracts a musician might come across in his or her career.
Getting Started – band names, logo, website
Bands – band member sharing percentages worksheet
When forming a band, it’s good to go over all the questions below and come to a decision on all these issues. Then, members should sign an agreement laying out all the terms so that in case of a dispute, a per-determined agreement would control.
- who owns/shares in the name, logo and service mark?
- right to be contract signatory (who signs for the band on all the contracts?)
- rights to writer royalties (who gets paid songwriting royalties? only band members involved in the writing of the song)
- rights to sound recordings (shared equally among all members)
- rights to accounting – all members usually have rights to view records and books
- rights to performance income – shared equally by all band members
- rights to merch income – shared equally by all band members
- right to outside income (endorsements) – shared equally except where product endoresement is by one band member as an individual
- physical and hard assets of the band – owernership of equipment paid for by band is owned equally by the band. ownership of items purchased by individual band members – resides in just those who bought that property.
- right to expel a member – majority vote? how will you do it?
- …. [see p.36 of Music Business Contract Library]
Solo artists
Working with agents
Working with publishers
Working with producers
Working with managers
Working with indie labels
Working with a recording studio
Working with publicists
Working w photographers/videographers
360 Management Deals
Digital Rights Management
