Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Puerto Rico
how to ensure money from my songs
I have given a singer verbal
permission to use 4 songs
of mine for a CD she will
record soon. I will take care
of sending the songs
previously to the Copyright
Office and she is paying me
$100 per song to use them.
Here are some questions
1 I want to receive payment
for each song for each CD
sold. What are the legal
steps to achieve that?
2. The singer is paying the
whole process of recording,
reproduction and selling of
the CD. By doing that , is
she automatically the
publisher of those of my
songs which end up in the
CD?
3. If she is automatically the
publisher , will I be able to
receive payment for each
song in each sold CD ?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: how to ensure money from my songs
Well, you have to enter into an agreement that properly and adequately protects your rights in the distribution agreement. For now, it would appear according to the information that you provided, that she is entitled to simply recording the songs and reproducing the CD's . You can always structure an agreement as to how much she will pay in royalties, depending on sales and other factors. This agreements are usually structured so that returns are more profitable depending on the volume of sales of the recordings. However, depending on the media used to reproduce the CD and to account for the sales, this can be a very demanding task. That is the reason why most artists and authors recur to publishing houses. These have standard agreements that will allow you different levels of control and involvement.
Related Questions & Answers
Looking for something else?
10,200 active attorneys ready to answer your legal questions today.
Featured Attorneys
Earn additional revenue and grow your business.
