Live and Local, your free winter music festival runs from 19-26 August across the City of Port Phillip. One of the must see sessions for any artist this year is called the ‘Muso’s Guide for Living Lawfully’
As a preview to the session, the fine folks at Arts Law Centre of Australia have sent us this list of the top 3 things muso’s need to know before releasing your music.
Three Things Musicians Need to Know Before Releasing Their Music
1. Have Your Agreements in Place
Contracts and agreements might seem extremely boring and/or serious but they really are the best way to make sure you’re getting a good deal for yourself and to make sure you are protected in case anything goes wrong. We love when clients come to us with their agreements in writing because it means there will be clear ways we can help them enforce their rights and resolve the issue. Any working relationships you have with others around your music should be clear: band partnerships, recording studio arrangements, session musicians and distribution deals – get it all in writing!
2.Know your rights, who owns what?
Song writing can be a solo activity or a collaborative effort. In some writing partnerships it’s clear who writes the musical work who writes the lyrics. Alternatively, it may be that each person has made an equal contribution to the authorship of the particular musical work or lyrics so you want to allocate different percentages of ownership and shares of revenue. Before you release your music into the world make sure you know who owns what rights in each song to avoid difficult conversations later down the line…
3. Register with collecting societies to collect your royalties
Get to know how to make money from copyright licensing. Registering with collecting societies is crucial so you can get those royalties once your music is out in the world. APRA|AMCOS collect royalties for the performance, communication and some reproduction of musical works and lyrics and pays the copyright owners in accordance with the distribution polices of APRA|AMCOS. APRA|AMCOS also has relationships with international collecting societies so they collect royalties from the overseas use of the work of their members. PPCA provides licences covering the public performance of sound recordings and collects the licence fees from broadcasters and businesses publicly playing recorded music or music videos, and distributes the money to copyright holders. This is a revenue stream you do not want to miss out on, especially when your song is being played in every café in the country.
For more information on the ‘Muso’s Guide for Living Lawfully’ session click here
For the full festival line up, click here