How do you sort out royalties fairly !!

[UK Clive K]

Hi all,

Just wondering if anyone could help with this. Im working with 2 songwriters (lyrics) and also one is the vocalist. I make the music, record mix and master the tracks. We are trying sort out the roaltly split, and basic contract between us before we send tracks to publishing companies.

Is a fair split 33% between us ok. Or shouldI be asking for 50% because I wrote half of the track ie the music. 2 of the tracks I wrote to there lyrics, 2 of the tracks they wrote to my music.

Thanks for any advice,

Clive

Also, who owns the recorded vocals ???

 

[Fundy]

My guess would be whoever owns the mechanical rights to the recording, i.e. whoever owns the actual media and equipment it was recorded on. Your best bet would be to contact a lawyer to some proper information on this, if money is an issue.

 

[UK Clive K]

Thanks Fundy,

Well I own all the recording equipment And did the recording. This was a nice collab until i mentioned setting up a basic contract hehe. There is no money involved so far. We have all worked for free to get the tracks done.

Prehaps Im being to picky and should send them the master cd..

Ta Clive

 

[BTLG]

It's been a few years since I dusted off my music biz info, but I'll take a whack at it:

I believe that unless you have something already sorted out on paper, it would be considered a joint work between the 3 parties. That means that you can't separate the music/lyrics and that everyone gets an even split of the ownership.

I don't think that ownership of the recording equipment has anything to do with who owns the song. If that argument worked, then the vocalist could argue back that he/she owns the vocal chords that sang the song.

I second the lawyer suggestion. Consult Donald Passman's book for any more info.... it's a pretty good book aside from the cheesy title \"All You Need To Know About The Music Business\"

 

[UK Clive K]

Thanks for your help BT,

Ill going to see a lawyer on monday, Ill let you know whats happens, hee

Clive

 

[Kosta]

Equipment has nothing to do with it, if you're talking about publishing rights (I think).

We usually split it music/lyrics/arrangement, some make it music/lyrics.

anyway, it's better to have 33% somewhere, than 50% nowhere.