UPLOADING YOUR MUSIC- things to watch out for.
I have recently been scouring the internet for sites to upload my music onto, and having checked out a lot of them, there are many sites that have artist agreements which are very dodgy to say the least. The stories from the 1950's record contracts come to mind..
Some of them basically say they can do what they like with your music, photos, artwork, bio etc., forever, and if you click 'I agree' there will be nothing you can do about it that won't involve expensive lawyers.
I know the temptation is to think 'well, I just want to get my music out there,' but there are plenty of sites that aren't out to exploit your hard work, without being fair about it.
I'm not a lawyer, but I can read and do have (half) a brain. Before you upload your music to any site, take 5 minutes to read through the terms and make sure
you are happy with them. I will give you some major pointers here.
There are generally three parts to any agreement with a music website. first, they have to make sure that the material you upload is yours and you have
the rights to it, which is fair enough. If you think about it you could upload the tracks off 'Urban Hymns' under your own name, so they want to protect themselves against copyright infringement.
Then they will need you to agree to use the site in an agreeable manner - no defamation, racism etc. And no using THEIR copyrighted materials for your own ends.
Then the next part is what interest us as musicians - what they can and cannot do with your music.
You want them to be able to display your music, available for streaming/ downloading or whatever you want to do with it, so you need to grant them a licence to "publicly display, broadcast, transmit (etc.) by any means now or invented in future, anywhere in the universe," your music. They may also need to make 'derivative works,' ie - soundclips or different bitrates of your music, and to sublicense your music to heir affiliates, but only for distribution through their wbesites.
But you do NOT want to grant them the licence to sync your music . This would mean they could sell your music to TV program-makers without reimbursing you. Here's a beauty off the Uplaya website:
"You authorize Music Intelligence Solutions, Inc. to permit third parties including but not limited to advertisers, television, cable and radio producers and programmers, Web site designers and other creative types in the various media ("Sync Users") to use your musical tracks, on a non-exclusive basis unless otherwise agreed, in synchronization with radio, cable, television, motion pictures, websites, Internet or other visual or audio alone program, promotion, information, entertainment, or advertising material or service, or program material, or as so-called "ring tones," "master tones," "ringback tones," or similar audio segments in connection with wireless devices. The License Agreement does not grant to anyone the right to make or sell physical recordings of your music.
Brilliant. They can't make or sell physical recordings ( which no one buys anyway,) but they can use your tracks for background music. Do you think they'll be getting a fee for that? Do you think you will?
The other big things to watch out for are the words 'perpetual' and 'irrevocable.' These mean they can use your music forever, and you can't cancel the agreement.
Always check for the termination rights. You should be able to notify them, and they will take down your material within a reasonable time - 30 days is fair, but anything around that is fine.
If the site is promising to pay you, check when this will happen, and are there any trigger levels - ie - you get 50 cents per download, but they only pay you when you've reached 50 dollars. Why? 5 dollars I can understand, because of processing fees and bank transfers, but if people have paid for my music, I want paying too. And make sure that if you only reach $3.50, the amount is carried forward to the next accounting period. This is the music BUSINESS, remember.
I don't see it too often, but you don't really want to 'waive your moral rights,' either. This would mean they can use your music as background for anything they like - porn, branding etc.
This one from dmusic I read this morning doesn't sound too appealing either:
"Artist hereby grants to dmusic a worldwide, royalty-free non-exclusive license to do the following things during the Term for any purpose whatsoever, including a commercial purpose..
to display, copy, reproduce (and to mechanically reproduce each musical composition included in the Artist Materials)
For any purpose whatsoever! And mechanically reproduce means making a CD. And no, they don't pay you for it:
"Payment. Unless otherwise agreed between Artist and dmusic in a writing signed by both parties, the license granted to dmusic pursuant to this Agreementshall be royalty-free, i.e., Artist will not receive any monies for dmusic's use of the Artist Materials notwithstanding any advertising and/or other revenue dmusic may receive."
'Notwithstanding' means including, not excluding. They're not going to pay you a portion of their ad revenue either.
Most Podcasts and radio shows have agreements which show you the way to go. They need you to grant a licence for them to be able to play your music without paying royalties to collection agencies, and that's it, exposure for you, content for them.
I will add to this as I come across more rip-offs, but in the meantime, please be careful before you give your music away for free for others to exploit without getting rewarded yourself. By all means contact me if I haven't covered it here and I will help if I can.