Making Custom Beats/Writing Parts for Clients

[minorkeylee]

I've been doing a lot more beat work for local rappers. It seems they like my stuff and I'm guessing it has a lot to do with the fact that I don't listen to rap. As a result, I typically make beats more 'real'....for lack of a better word. I use live drums, guitars, bass, horns, rhodes, whatever. I'm just going for a groove with no concern for what rap usually sounds like.

I know already that I'm not charging enough for this service (that's my fault), but my question is: How do I approach this situation in terms of the music that I wrote? Is there a standard agreement of some sort? It's not like I think that one of these guys is going to break through because most of them are pretty bad. But what if they score a video game spot, or a TV show, commercial or the like? I guess I'm also concerned because I really like some of the stuff I've done, and if these boneheads never make anything happen with it, what if I shop it for commercial use down the road?

[bickle]

My understanding is that big-time producers charge (huge) flat one-time fees for the tracks and sign over the copyright entirely. This model wouldn't work for you, though - you need some contract clause that allows you to charge a reasonable rate but be able to cash in if there's a big success. That's a job for a lawyer, I think; there may be some pro bono resources available to artists in your state, you should look into it. Many states have an organization called "volunteer lawyers for the arts;" NM doesn't appear to, but it's worth looking around. If you make under a certain income, they'll pair you with a reputable, experienced attorney who can help out for free.

[minorkeylee]

Thanks for the input. Maybe I'll go through some of the contracts in "This Business of Music" and see if I can cut and paste some stuff together. Like you said....NM doesn't have anything to help ANYONE. Ahhhh....the wild west. We're about 2 decades behind everyone else. Like we always say....The land of entrapment (enchantment) - come on vacation, leave on probation.

[@?,*???&?]

WAY TOO MUCH WORK. For what it is, those guys are likely barely putting out 'mix tapes'. You likely won't see any money on the backside from this stuff.

The rappers I get locally here are completely satisfied with industry beats and being able to track vocals and get a monitor mix in an hour. Also, that is about all their budgets will allow.

I've had a few guys query about getting a proper mix, but once they provide the tracks broken down- not in a stereo beat, they don't have anywhere near enough to pay the $300 for a 'real' mix. It's strictly a low-budget mentality. THese guys are 20 years away from having $10K in their pocket to release a low-budget 'legitimate' product.

How many of the guys you work with do you feel have the ability to be a 'natioanal' level rap act?

Have any of your guys ever put out a 'legitimate' release?

Delineate between the dreamers and the people who actually want a career doing this. OR don't and simply take anyone's money.

[bickle]

WAY TOO MUCH WORK.

I could not disagree more - it always makes sense to protect your rights, especially when it's very easy to do. And let me clarify: To have a solid contract that you can feel confident relying on in court, you ought to have a lawyer. But to have a contract at all, you certainly do not. You can draw up a contract on a bar napkin and have it enforced in court; you just run a greater risk of missing something important than if you had a good lawyer. And, of course, if the lawyer screwed up your contract, you'd have someone (him) to sue.

Grabbing some language from contracts you find in books is a great start, and the one you mention is a good one. I would suggest (though I am NOT an attorney) that you try to find out what sort of agreements are common in this area and model yours after them. It could be very simple, though, and simply state what you're charging for the use of the tracks and a percentage you'd receive if they were later sold or whatever.

It is ALWAYS worth it to take these basic steps to protect your rights. Courts will not protect you if you make no effort to protect yourself. Is it likely you'll get rich this way? Of course not. But is it extremely likely that you'll never get what you deserve from the rare successful artist if you have no contract.

[Gentleman Jim]

Two ideas from a guy who isn't a lawyer, but sure looks like one:

http://creativecommons.org might give you potential ideas as far as "Some Rights Reserved." Keep in mind that when you give these tracks away, it's unlikely that the rappers are rushing out to copyright them. You could retain some rights and use the tracks as you wish later.

If that's too ambiguous for you, how about putting together some kind of a limited license? There's no rule that says you can't tell someone they have the right, exclusive or not, to use a piece of your music for a limited use and a specified amount of time. You could say something like they have X time to show Y success, or all rights revert to you. 'Success' could be sales, profit, artistic notoriety, continued use, whatever you're comfortable with.

Everything is negotiable.

Lastly, if you enjoy it, it's worth it. Don't let anybody else's notions of "what [they] would do" sway you. The more you do it, the better you'll get at something, whether that's writing, recording, networking, or negotiating.

[Aquaman]

You can always retain the publishing rights to your compositions instead of selling them outright. You can also license your beats to a client non-exclusively. That is, tell them for this low low price, they can record over your beat and release their song, but you retain the right to sell that beat for use with another client, say if the beat is hot and takes off in the local community.

This lets you charge a fair price for the casual vocalist. If they are stoked on your beat and don't want anyone else to have the opportunity to ride on it, then the price goes up. You should still retain publishing rights, though, even if you license a beat exclusively. That way if it goes huge, you get your cut via publishing.

[bickle]

Those last two points are good, especially Aquaman's - publishing is always where the money is.

We should be clear about copyright, though: It doesn't make sense to say the rapper's not going to "go out and copyright anything." One doesn't need to go out and do anything to acquire a copyright. Instead, as soon as you have fixed an original creative work in some tangible medium, you own the copyright. Registering that copyright w/ the U.S. Copyright Office is advisable because it gets you some extra rights and some better means of protecting your work, but it is not necessary to own a copyright.

So, when you make those beats, you own the copyright, which is actually a number of separate and distinct rights. In fact, when you write and record those beats, you've earned yourself a copyright in two different things (even though it might seem like you've only made one): both the "composition" (that is, the "song" you've written, even if it's just a beat and a bassline, which could be recorded differently or even just written down as sheet music), and the "sound recording" (that particular recording of that performance of that song). The composition is what you can have publishing rights in, which are typically the most lucrative. The rapper has a composition in his lyrics, too; I'm pretty sure that, in the absence of a contract, a recording of him rapping over your beats constitutes a joint work which you would share publishing rights to equally.

And yes, just about everything is negotiable; you can split up rights any way you like. And the creative commons movement is designed to encourage free distribution and noncommercial sharing, so if that's what you're after, go for it. But if you want to sell a product for a reasonable price and still retain the ability to make more money off of it if that chance arises, you're much better off going the route aquaman suggests.

Again, I'm not a lawyer, and you'd do well to get good legal advice, but you should be able to do a little research and create what you need on your own. A great starting point for the research would be Don Passman's "All You Need to Know About the Music Business." It covers all this and a lot more, and it's considered the go-to resource for the basics on music-related law by experts and novices alike.

[@?,*???&?]

Those last two points are good, especially Aquaman's - publishing is always where the money is.

I agree with this. But at the level this guy is talking about, the artist is not even releasing 'legitimate' bar-coded product. I certainly would not expect this artist to be able to amply promote a 'mix tape' to the point of the guy writing the beats seeing ANY money at all from it.

This is wasted energy on something that will never pay.

[bickle]

Again, it is energy well-spent on a simple means of protecting the possibility of getting paid in an admittedly unlikely situation. Do you know what the best thing about having a good contract is? You can use it over and over and over. Once he's done this research and drafted something - maybe a few hours "work," if you can call it that - he's set for every time he sells a beat.

It would be crazy for the original poster not to do this, and even crazier for him to fail to learn about his rights and how to protect them. Those rappers will probably respect him for it, too, and they'll be glad to have everything out on the table.

[Gentleman Jim]

I could be wrong, but I think Jeff is saying the waste of time is making the beats in the first place, whereas bickle is thinking that Jeff is saying the waste of time is pursuing a legal arrangement or contract.

Jeff? What say you?

[@?,*???&?]

I could be wrong, but I think Jeff is saying the waste of time is making the beats in the first place, whereas bickle is thinking that Jeff is saying the waste of time is pursuing a legal arrangement or contract.

Jeff? What say you?

It's a waste of time even bothering to put in time on something like this that you will never see a backside from.

Choose your battles.

[Gentleman Jim]

Ok, I know I'm being thick here, but what specifically is the "something like this" you're referring to? Please spell it out in small, direct words for those of us who never stopped eating paint chips.