Publishing contract

A publishing contract is a legal contract between a 2 Types of music publishing agreepublisher and a writer or author (or more than one), to
ments
publish written material by the writer(s) or author(s).
This may involve a single written work, or a series of
works.
It is important for music authors, producers and publishIn the case of music publishing, the emphasis is not ers to understand the legal rights associated with publish[7]
on printed or recorded works. It usually refers to the ing contracts. The common music publishing contracts
promotion of a musical composition, and/or its referral to are:
a suitable recording artist. A music publisher who does (1) Single Song Agreement: A single song deal is an
produce (or contract to issue) sheet music is known as a agreement between the writer and the music publisher in
music print publisher. It can be used by authors, journal- which the writer grants certain rights to a publisher for
ist .et.
one or more songs. In single song deals, the writer is paid
a one-time recoupable advance.[8]

Some of the most essential clauses of a standard (boilerplate) book publishing contract are: Grant of Rights,
Subsidiary Rights, Delivery and Acceptance, Publication, Copyright, Advance (if there is any), Royalties,
and Out of Print.[1][2] All of them should be taken seriously by authors since trade publishing contracts are not
covered in the United States by statutory requirements for
fairness and may contain vague language, biased terms
and hidden future pitfalls.[3][4] In the U.K., the Contracts
Act of 1999, the Digital Economy Act of 2010, and the
Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act of 2013 opened the
door to revisions of the established practices in the area
of publishing contracts which are currently underway.[5]
Therefore,

(2) Exclusive Song Writer Agreement (ESWA) /

Publishing Deal: Under the ESWA or sta writer
contract, the songwriter generally grants all of the publishers share of the income to the music publisher. The
writers services are exclusive to the music publishers
for a specied period of time. Thus, any compositions
written within that period belong to the music publisher.
These deals are usually oered to writers with some degree of success. Because the writer has a track record
of writing hits, the publisher feels condent that it will
recoup its investment. In return for signing away exclusive rights to some or all the writers songs, the writer gets
paid by the publisher a negotiated advance against future
royalties. The advance amount naturally depends on the
writers bargaining power and on the competition in marketplace, if any. Under a sta writer deal, the writer is
paid on a weekly or quarterly basis. An ESWA can be either tied to a record contract, or independent of a record
contract.[8]

The key to a good contract is clarity. Ambiguity and inconsistency are the two key ingredients in litigation soup. Formal agreements
are essential. Under copyright law, without
a written agreement signed by the author, the
publisher does not control exclusive rights. If a
dispute arises, a well-drafted contract will anticipate such a dispute and could save you thousands of dollars in legal fees later on. Keep in
mind that you are negotiating a very long term
relationship. If the book is successful, the publisher and author (or authors heirs) could be
bound together for the life of the copyright. For
works published after 1977, copyright lasts for
life of the author plus another seventy years.[6]

(3) Co-publishing Agreement (Co-pub): The copublishing (co-pub) deal is perhaps the most common
publishing agreement. Under this deal, the songwriter
and the music publisher are co-owners of the copyrights
in the musical compositions. The writer becomes the copublisher (i.e. co-owner) with the music publisher based
on an agreed split of the royalties. The songwriter assigns an agreed percentage to the publisher, usually (but
not always), a 50/50 split. Thus, the writer conveys _
of the publishers share to the publisher, but retains all of
writers share. In a typical 75/25 co-pub deal, the writer
gets 100% of the songwriters share, and 50% of the publishers share, or 75% of the entire copyrights, with the
remaining 25% going to the publisher. Thus, when royalties are due and payable, the writer/co-publisher will receive 75% of the income, while the publisher will retain
25%.[8]

Book publishing agreements

REFERENCES

-To Understand Deeper In royalty payments, theres a ence about the book. The agreements can be often about
writers share and a publishers share. To make things the percentage of the money that the Publishers get. Faceasy, lets say each share is worth 100%. So the writer has tual MOTs are sometimes set up to bind the LASDs
a pie chart of 100% and the publisher has a pie chart of
100%. If there are multiple writers on the track, then they
will split the shares accordingly, 50/50 or 25/25/25/25 if 3 See also
there were 4 writers. After the writers share is calculated,
you can calculate the publishers share or vice versa. A
Publishing
record label would usually own 100% of an artists publishing rights, but if you enter into a co-publishing deal,
Music publisher (popular music)
then the label would only get 50% of your publishing. To
break it all down, if an artist negotiated a 50/50 split for
publishing, and retains 100% of the writers share, then 4 External links
the artist would get half of the publishers share and 100%
of the writers share. This would be equal to 75% of the
Book Contract Checklist
total royalty payment. If you publish your own music, this
means you get to keep 100% of your royalties... [9]
Sample Contract Between Author and Publisher
(4) Administration Agreement (Admin): An ad Sample Contract Between Composer and Publisher
ministrative agreement takes place between a songwriter/publisher and an independent administrator, or between a writer/publisher and another music publisher. In
an admin deal, the songwriter self-publishes and merely 5 References
licenses songs to the music publisher for a term of years
and for an agreed royalty split. Under this agreement, the [1] Publishing Contracts 101. Writers Digest, October 6,
2009. Accessed on 31 January 2014.
music publisher simply administers and exploits the copyrights for another publisher/copyright owner. Only the [2] Improving Your Book Contract. The Authors Guild. Acmost popular songwriters can even consider asking for an
cessed on 31 January 2014.
admin deal. Under this coveted arrangement, ownership
of the copyright is usually not transferred to the admin- [3] Less than Minimum Wage for Authors? Savvy book writers. Accessed on 31 January, 2014.
istrator. Instead, the music publisher gets 10-20% of the
gross royalties received from administering and exploit- [4] The Traps in Publishing Contracts. Savvy book writers.
ing the songs for a certain period of time and for a certain
Accessed on 31 January, 2014.
territory.[8]
(5) Collection Agreement: A collection agreement is
like an admin deal where the writer retains the copyrights, except that the publisher does not perform exploitation functions; like an accountant or business manager, it merely collects and disburses available royalty
income.[8]
(6) Sub-publishing Agreement: These are basically
music publishing deals in foreign territories between a
US publisher and a publisher in a foreign territory. They
are like admin or collection deals (with no ownership of
the copyrights being transferred to the subpublisher), but
limited to one or more countries outside the US. Under
this publishing deal, the publisher allows the subpublisher
to act on its behalf in certain foreign territories. Often,
they are limited to a group of countries, such as European Union (EU), GAS (Germany, Austria, Switzerland),
Latin America, etc.[8]
(7) 'Purchase Agreement: Under this agreement, one music publisher acquires in whole or in part the catalog of another music publisher, somewhat like a merger of companies. In this case, a due diligence investigation is done
to determine the value of the catalogue.[8]
8) Meetings: Meetings are then often arranged to confer-

[5] Owen, Lynette (Ed.). Clarks Publishing Agreements:

A Book of Precedents. Haywards Heath, West Sussex:
Bloomsbury Professional, 2013.
[6] Jassin, Lloyd B. What Not to Miss When Drafting & Negotiating Your Book Publishing Contract. CopyLaw.com.
Accessed on 31 January 2014.
[7] Petty, Shannon and Robert Gra. A Song in my
Heart, and Money in my Pocket A Songwriters Primer
on a Sample Publishing Contract. Philadelphia Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, Business Council of Greater
Philadelphia, 2005-2008. Accessed on 31 January 2014.
[8] Music Publishing Contracts. Songstu Site. Accessed on
31 January 2014.
[9] Black, Justin. Artist & Musician Essentials: Vital
Knowledge. Full Sail Entertainment Business Masters Student Blog. Retrieved 25 June 2015.

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

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