A topic brought up at this year’s Great Escape Festival in Brighton surrounded the use of ‘band agreements’. Many bands and acts begin with the best intentions but the majority will at some point fall out over legal or monetary rights to the works created.
A plethora of examples of standard band agreements can be found following a simple Google search but why is it necessary?
As with any business venture and partnership agreement will have been drawn up between partners, a band is no different particularly if the band split is not amicable.
A music industry example from recent years that may have benefitted from an agreement was; American band, Paramore. Formed in 2004, the female fronted rock group pulled in the attention of record labels as the singer, Hayley Williams and the band’s manager began talking through deals with Atlantic Records. Before the rest of the band had realised, this group had just been signed as a solo artist. After many years of going along with the momentum, founding members Josh Farrow and brother Zac left the band in late 2010. This may have had a different result if an agreement between the band had been in place from the start.
The usual points to be included within a band agreement can generally be broken down into individual percentages based on the input and creative input involved;
- Copyright rights – this includes both the musical and literary copyright concerning the instrumentation and the lyrics, the phonographic copyright regarding the ownership of the recordings and finally the copyright in any original artwork used.
- Income rights – including the obvious question of who gets …% of the music income, merchandise income or synch / sponsorship. Also to be thought about is what happens to these percentages should a band member leave or even if the entire band splits.
- Finally the band name – if a successful brand has been created who is entitled to use the name if the band members go separate ways?
Other considerations include;
- The spending of band income on merch, equipment etc.
- Equal share rights? Does every member have the same voting power in a decision or does someone have a casting vote?
Sources:
https://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/protect/band_agreements
http://www.avenantlaw.com/whybandagreement/
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/jan/26/paramore-interview-three-piece
