Under the laws of Intellectual Property in Nigeria, creative service contracts like music producer agreements come with a lot of legal implications and come in many variants.
This article will be focused on the topics of :-
– What music production contracts are.
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– The different types of music production contracts available in Nigeria.
– The requirements of a valid music production contract.
– The legal effect/implication of each type of music production contract in Nigeria.
What is a music production contract?
A music production contract is an agreement for the delivery of music production services (including but not limited to composing, licensed sampling and synthesization) between one party known as a music producer or a producer and another party which can either be a musical artiste, a music record company, or any other individual or company that would qualify as a client.
What are the different types of music production contracts in Nigeria?
There are several types of music production contracts namely :-
– Producer/Record Company Contracts :- These are music production contracts that are usually paid for on an upfront & one-off but renewable basis by a record company.
– Publishing Split Sheet Contracts :- These are contracts for back-end consideration in place of upfront payments to the producer to be advanced for music production services.
Such agreements are to be documented as split-sheet percentage sharing formulas between the producer, the artiste, and the record company for earnings from royalties, publishing rights, neighbouring rights and masters recording sales among others.
– Sync Licensing Agreements :- These are agreements for the licensing by a producer where he’s a part or full owner of the copyright of a creative work allowing his content to be used in an audiovisual format such as advertisements or movie soundtracks.
What are the requirements of a valid music production contract?
To be valid and enforceable music production contract must meet the following requirements :-
– It must have a set of defined parties :- This means that in cases where a client in a music production agreement is a label or record company seeking production services for its signed artiste, it is proper to have the agreement signed with the record company rather than the artiste.
– It must clearly define the services to be rendered by the producer.
– It must clearly outline the production process utilized by the producer.
– It must clearly state who has proper ownership of all intellectual property rights following any output produced under the contract.
This agreement must also not be contrary to public policy and statutory provisions on copyright law which expressly state that individual ownership of copyrights are to last for life and 70 years afterwards.
– It must clearly state appropriate dispute resolution measures in place.
What are the legal implications of each type of contract mentioned in this article so far?
Each type of music production contract comes with the following implications:-
– Producer/Record Company Contracts :- Agreements of this nature come with the major implication of usually stripping the producer of any right to copyright ownership of material produced pursuant to the contract, placing him strictly in the category of an independent contractor.
– Split-Sheet Contracts :- Typically the most commonly used musical production contract, split-sheet agreements carry the legal effect of rendering a producer a part-owner of all Copyrights created by such an agreement, placing him in the category of contracting partner.
– Sync Licensing Agreements :- Agreements of this nature render the rights of the producer enforceable where his musical output is delivered or used in any audiovisual format without his permission.