We are the music makers

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  • 360 deals vs distribution vs label services: which deal takes what

    A distributor licenses your music for a fee and takes nothing else. A label-services company licenses your masters for a few years and keeps a larger cut. A traditional label usually owns the masters and pays you a royalty, and a 360 deal adds a share of touring, merch and other income on top. Here is what each one takes, in one table, and when each makes sense for an independent artist.

    Industryvia UK Competition and Markets Authority

  • Work for hire in music: when the song you played on isn't yours

    Under US law a "work made for hire" makes the hiring party the legal author, which also switches off the right to take your work back after 35 years. A clause saying "work for hire" doesn't make it true, though. Here is when it actually applies to music, and what to check before you sign.

    Artist rightsvia U.S. Copyright Office

  • Stem separation doesn't make samples free: sample clearance explained

    Pulling a drum break or an acapella out of a finished record with a stem splitter doesn't turn it into a new sound. It is still a copy of someone else's recording and song, so in most cases it needs two licences, one for the master and one for the composition.

    Artist rightsvia US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (via UC Berkeley School of Law)

  • Producers: how to get paid by SoundExchange with a Letter of Direction

    Producers, mixers and engineers only get US digital radio royalties from SoundExchange if the featured artist signs a Letter of Direction, or, for recordings made before November 1995, through a narrow 2% fallback in the statute. Here is how both routes work, with the numbers, and what to put in your producer agreement so you never have to chase it.

    Industryvia Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School

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