Is It Time To Write Our Own Music Contract?

In these days of do it yourself (DIY) music recording, with a laptop and a bunch of software, Online distribution with the likes of The Orchard and Tune core, Retail outlets like Itunes and Amazon, and even low cost internet marketing strategies to boot, you might be left with one last nagging question. Should musicians, independent record companies etc now start writing their own music contracts as well? Well it definitely would be cheaper.

 

Also, by writing your own music contract you might be able to resolve the issue of musicians working outside the usual music industry norms and completing the whole process on their own in the absence of any commercial record contract agreement. After all, such contractual agreements are commonplace in many other industries. If collaborating musicians start making any serious money, and don’t have a music contract between them, it does not take a rocket scientist to see that power struggles and arguments over who wrote the songs, who paid for the recordings or recording equipment etc might ensue when the profits are divided up.

 

This might destroy an otherwise very good friendship and possibly a profitable musical collaboration altogether, not to mention broken bones and smashed guitar amps. If you think the idea of musicians working in this collaborative fashion is a fantasy, then you only have to scan the band pages of myspace, facebook or artists twitter comments to see that it is a growing phenomenon. “So that’s that sorted then, show me how to write the contract.”

 

Hold on, before you start getting all excited about becoming the music industries very own Judge Judy, consider first the potential downside to this ever-popular DIY approach to your music career. Music contracts in general are thought out very carefully and thus are very comprehensive. There is a lot of unusual terminology that few of us encounter in our every day lives. Moreover, there are a multitude of different types of music contracts to become familiar with, manager contracts, royalty contracts, artist contracts, producer contracts, song writer contracts and the list goes on and on. So you’re going to need a lot of time on your hands and a strong willingness to study for possibly several years to master this subject area.

 

Although I am a musician, who fully embraces this new and exciting paradigm of the online music industry, I have some initial reservations. I’ve had a lot of dealing with contractual law as a property landlord and despite the fact I also have a 1^st class Honours degree in Psychology, I have learnt that real life experience in a discipline such as music law really adds major value. Remember, ignorance is not bliss, as some people would have you believe.

 

So, in legal matters, where one music contract clause inaccuracy due to lack of adequate knowledge of the law could put you on the wrong side of it, you might want to try another strategy. A middle ground strategy now available, which still has a DIY kind of ethic and is significantly cheaper than paying for a music attorney, is to purchase music contract templates and forms off the Internet. Strange but true, you can buy a whole range of contracts to cover every music contract category or event you might face in your artistic dealings.

 

So you can do it yourself in the sense that you can edit the music contracts to your own situation. This is not uncommon with landlord-tenant contracts, within the bounds of state or statutory property law of course. You need to ensure that the music contract templates and forms you buy are up to date with current laws, work on the computer platform of your choice and arguably most importantly of all are standardised for the music industry. So all that is left to do is enter your information in the spaces left in the contract and sign the dotted line. So, the DIY music contract final frontier has in part been reached with the help of the star ship Internet.  Lets hope the independent artists musical revolution continues. As always, if you are in any doubt seek professional advice before you ever sign a music contract.

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