Music Forums

For the more experienced/pros, there is another agreement setting called "custom agreement" option, where you can write your own agreement. But in general, for most of us, I would just write the additional info into the project brief (or description). And yes, I would say it should be done before accepting auditions.

If you are serious about it, then you could pm to anyone who is auditioning to reconfirm their understanding etc. And the real serious people would want to get a signed agreement before working together :)

About the Creative Commons licensing, you should really research this a bit so that you know more about what it is and how it works so you can at least be aware of the risks. But a couple of key things just to get you thinking:

1) Once a track is posted online as CC, that license is non-revokable. Yes, you can ask them to take it down, but they can refuse and you can do nothing. And, if other people have already downloaded a copy then they can just upload it themselves and post it under CC again and you can't do anything about it. So if it were so good that it was worth big bucks, it may already have gone viral.

2) CC means people can use your music for free (though there are different license types).. a savvy music sup may already have done their research and found your song is freely available to download and use. Why would they then approach you and offer to pay big bucks?? However, saying that, I would expect the bigger shops would still want to just to mitigate the risk of legal entanglement (it can be hard to prove that you downloaded a track under a CC license).. but the point is, if the pizza is offered for free, then why would you go into the shop and try to pay for it? Or at the very least, it gives them a bargaining chip which means maybe you're no longer talking about big bucks.

CC is a blessing, but can also be very dangerous. Research it and understand it, and then consider that many artists just do music for some fun and the first thing that they will do when a song is finished is to post their music online for their friends to listen to and download, probably under a CC license. If you want to be able to avoid this, you either need to own it, or make it clear upfront what your intentions are and make sure everyone is in agreement.

Did someone mention pizza? Sorry, you can't just freely throw around that word and expect me to be silent, geez. ;)~

Shannon - don't be afraid to collaborate. I know it can be a little frightening as well as annoying having to chase collaborators down to get permission, etc... But as Lee & Steve mentioned, when you start a project just clearly state your intentions in either the description or brief and you're good as gold.

Work for hire will always be the easiest option, but realistically - if you decide to do only WFH projects, you'll be mortgaging your house by the end of the year because that will get expensive really quick.

Another option would be to start a work for hire and offer lower prices, but also state that the collaborators will own a certain percentage in the sound recording. So if you pay someone $25.00 to lay down a vocal & give them 20% of the sound recording - should you get that song licensed, they will get 20% of what you make. Not a bad deal if you score a $10,000 license. :)

I love that this post includes potentially making $10,000 and getting free pizza :))

Go big or go home, isn't that what they say? I love that Raven is never too busy for pizza! I see that Vuya is a moderator. Does that mean I can start sending him my annoying 10pm PMs & give Raven & MC a break for a while? ;)

Hmmmm, they didn't mention that part!

Anytime Shannon, I'll help if I can :))

Small print, man, it'll getcha every time. ;) That's why I'm so meticulous!

I'm going back to check the t/c's.......

Haha!!!! ;)

Don't forget to dot your i's ;)