Hi!
I want a UK singer to sing in my song (I'm the author of the music and lyrics). He will record the vocal in his home and will send me the tracks. Then, I'll produce the song and want to release it myself or find a label which will release it.

1) Could you describe what formalities need to be done when collaborating with a vocalist?

2) What contract should I sign with the vocalist? (do you have some 'example contracts' on that situation?)

3) If we both are just starting, should I pay the vocalist some money, or should he record the vocal for free? (hoping that he'll get some royalties if the song is played e.g. on the radio)


Thanks in advance for your help guys!

cheers!

 

This sounds familiar to me, as I've done these kinds of collab pretty often.
Here's what I'd say / how I did it:
If the song was written / composed solely by you and the singer "only" sings, his work falls under the so called "neighboring rights".
That means that the "rights" of the vocal-performance itself will always remain at the singer, because he had the "work" when standing behind the microphone.
You can make a contract of whatever form, in which you declare, that the singer must transfer these (neighboring) rights to you.
Otherwise you can't even release the song actually - due to missing rights.
In the worst case the singer even could prohibit you to play / stream / publish the song afterwards!!

About the payment I can say / recommend, that when you are just starting and have no idea about if it will be a best-seller, chartbreaker or a total flop, it'll be wise to simply share the income. Don't make a one-time-payment, if you don't know what's to expect.
I've done projects, where the singer received 50% of my royalties, but also had projects where I just gave 30%. Should depend on "how much" there was to sing. For instance: If there is just a simple line, which is repeated throughout your production (club track), it wouldn't make sense to give away 50% of your royalties, as in this case the music stands in the foreground.
But if it's a whole song (with verses, chorus, bridge), which totally "lives" of the vocal performance, 50% should be a good point to start with...
Most important thing is, that you declare all these things in a contract.

Hope this helps you!

 

I hate all these formalities (although I know they have to exist in a world like ours). It is too complicated for us to understand. However, the sentence I quoted might be impossible in Europe. Both, artist's and neighboring rights are considered copyrights, and you can't give away a copyright - it is naturally yours in Europe.
On the other hand, you do have the right to publish such a song, but, as you said, the singer has the right to prevent it. For example, if payments weren't negotiated.

In the end it might just be a matter of trust. If both want to be published - they'll find a way.

 

The law is different in the US. You should use a service based in the US because it makes everything easier : all of them operate in a "work-for-hire" legal framework. It means you pay a fee and the singer waives any royalty/right.
Why would they do that? Because most of the time, it is better to get paid $200 to sing on a track than expect some future very small/unlikely royalties.

However in Europe, these kinds of waivers are not legal. Music law in Europe is a pure crap (basically designed to pay GEMA, SACEM, etc instead of creators). So if you are in Europe and work with the vocalist directly without a US intermediary, you should not pay her anything as she will receive rights from rights societies (theoretically, because in reality these societies collect money to pay themselves and their friends with subsidies).

 

So in Europe the vocalist cannot waive her rights and will have to preserve her right to receive the royalties.

But she still has to give me some written permission to use the vocal track she recorded at her home, so that I can use the vocal in my song and do whatever I want with the song (release it, sell, perform publically etc), right?

So what clause should I include in the contract to get that permission from the vocalist?

 

You will need a "transfer of rights"-contract (excluding copyright). I found a model contract that you could use as a basis:
http://www.musicaustria.at/wp-content/uploads/release_of_artistic_rights.pdf

 

to sum up:
- in Europe, you cannot pay a fee in exchange of rights, but at the same time vocalists are not paid enough because rights are usually extremely small (a % of a % of what Spotify pays...), everybody is losing
- in the US, the vocalists are paid, and the producer is like an investor who has defined costs and a budget, and is prepared to lose everything if the music does not earn much (often) -> everybody is kind of happy

At the same time in Europe, you don't have poor debates about what royalties should the owners of blurred lines pay to marvin gay heirs because a jury has decided that the rhythm is too similar or some crap

What I can suggest to you if you are in Europe is to hire your vocalist through an online service based in the US, with US terms of use, such as airgigs.com, supremetracks.com, studiopros.com etc
This will avoid any legal problem for you and no need to talk contracts. Just read the terms and conditions that the vocalist accepted. The seller gets your money but gives you the recording.

Btw, vocalists in the US are smart to accept such deals: they should even sing for free, because if the song becomes a hit, even without royalties on the recording, they will become famous, get performance contracts, other new songs where they will be able to ask for a share of the royalties etc etc.

 

Hello everyboy, thanks for all the explanations..one question? what happens if the vocalist just sings in demos that will be used to show the songs and not to be released? in this case we just signed a contract with a % of future rolyalties if the song is finally placed..is it needed to sign the rights transfer thing?

 

Why waking sleeping dogs? If you already made a contract, stick to it.

 

Hello everybody. My question is: how a contract has to be made, when is a long distance collaboration? I mean, different country, even different continent.

 

Thank you
ShadowOfTheZ for this "changing life advices"... Things gonna be very simple for me now

 

1) Did the vocalist get any payment for singing in the song?
2) Will the vocalist get a share of author's royalties despite the fact that the vocalist didn't wrote the music/lyrics? If yes, what percentage?

 

Hey there.

I get the impression that you've found your singer and you're simply asking about the formalities here, but I can sing your song for free if you'd like. I do not want any money or royalties, it's just a pleasure for me. Though I'm not British so my vocal will involve more of an American accent and I'm male BTW.
If that's OK with you, I can record a session and send it to you and you can use it however you like and then I can also write a letter transfering you the so-called loyalty rights or whatever. I don't want anything. Plus you simply don't use my recording if you don't like my singing.

So that's up to you. Cheers.

 

Hi Decksound, any demo track?

 

Hi Delord, here is a quick demo of my voice: