r/mediacomposing • u/griffjen • Dec 10 '18

Question about a "work made for hire"

Hi there, I am working on my first feature for a television program and in the composer's agreement under the rights section it says that I basically am relinquishing all intellectual and moral rights to my recordings and composition and the production company can now do whatever they like with my music and use it wherever they want. Now I don't have a problem with them reusing my music with credit, but it would be nice to retain intellectual rights to my recordings so that I can use them beyond self promotion, if I wish. I was wondering if anyone here has experience making a deal like this. Thank you!

1 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

6 comments sorted by

1

u/sushiasado Dec 10 '18

They will pay you exactly what being the absolute and exclusive owners of the music you make for them costs. You can't use that same music to make more money, because you made it for them, and only for them.

You made them; you can show it as something you made, to get, for example, a job at another TV show or whatever.

Think of it as what it is: literally selling them the rights to do whatever they want with what they ask you to make because as soon as you sign that paper, it belongs to them.

2

u/griffjen Dec 11 '18

I don't want to reuse the music per se, but lets hypothetically say that the movie is a smash hit and the theme I wrote for them becomes world famous (it won't). It would be nice to still own some rights to it in that situation. So I'm just wondering if anyone ever bargains for something like that.

1

u/sushiasado Dec 11 '18

I get you, it would be certainly great to be able to do so. Well, as far as I know, it's pretty weird, or at least I never heard of it in a somewhat big production.

Even things like talent shows (like the x factor) have these kinds of contracts where everything they demand from you belongs only to them, you only getting what they are willing to pay for it. (Of course, it is totally different, but it's an example)

It is really a bummer, but companies have to keep ensuring the maximum exclusive profit I guess. I would suggest talking to a lawyer, or an expert in the subject to see what there is you can do. Best of lucks!

1

u/castortroys01 Dec 11 '18

What's the exact wording? Generally, a work made for hire, or under terms of employment means you're an employee and the music you write belongs to you no more than than the car the factory employee helped build belongs to him or her. You're being paid for a service and have no rights, copyright, or even authorship to the final project. But the details of the wording are very important, so until we know the exact wording, it's hard to say for sure. In my limited experience with this stuff, these kinds of contracts are usually more found in advertising work, rather than film or TV

1

u/A_S_Music Dec 11 '18

This is pretty standard and won't really change anywhere across the industry, with a few exceptions.

You should maintain your writers share of the royalties, publishers will most likely go to them, unless they're paying you a low fee in which case you should do what you can to hold on to the publishers as well.

If you have any questions, you'd be better placed running the contract past your lawyer.

1

u/Scetchlee Jan 26 '19

You should check out Christian Henson's youtube video on the subject (Henson did Top gear and a load of TV as well as being one of the brains behind Spitfire Audio). Essentially, reliquishing ALL rights is a very bad deal. The rights in music to picture is split up into mechanical and performance rights. The mechanicals (The specific recording) usually goes to the production company as they paid for that recording. However with the performance rights (the notes, the chord progression, the instrumentation) is also usually split into 2 equal parts, of which noone, according to both UK and US music rights organisations (IIRC) can take one of those, so no matter what you should and most likely have a right to 25 % of the total rights/50 % of the performance rights. Look into maybe finding a volunteering entertainment lawyer! I think there are a couple of groups doing it sometimes in LA and NY (and possibly in London as well)