For when an artist or independent producer owns the recordings and licenses them to a label to release them, instead of selling them: what the label can do, when it has to release, the royalty, the advance, the statements and when the rights come back. You fill in the tracks and the numbers, and the label signs online. In English or Spanish. Starting from a template uses no credits.
TONTRIA Law guides you and drafts your documents. For a lawsuit or a big negotiation, consult a lawyer.
The artist stays the owner of the recordings; the label only gets a licence for the term and territory. The label gets no rights in the songs themselves (the compositions), and every right not written into the agreement stays with the artist.
The masters listed in the schedule with their ISRC, plus the edited, instrumental and radio versions you deliver. The label can release them on download, streaming, video and social media services, promote them with excerpts of up to 60 seconds and manage the ISRC, UPC and Content ID.
Exclusive or non-exclusive, the world or the countries you write in, and a term counted from the release date (five years by default). Sync in films or ads, physical formats and compilations each need your written approval.
The label must release on the agreed date or within 90 days after, and keep the tracks available for the whole term. If it doesn’t, you can end the agreement with a written notice and the rights come back to you.
A percentage of what the label actually receives for the tracks (50% by default). Only the deductions you write in come off first, by default just the digital distributor’s fee; any other cost needs your written consent.
Optional. Any advance is recouped only from the royalties of this agreement, never from other deals (no cross-collateralisation), and you never have to pay back an advance that hasn’t been recouped.
Statements quarterly or as agreed, within 30 days of each period, by track, platform and country, paid in the same period. You can audit once a year with 30 days’ notice; if you were underpaid by more than 5%, the label pays the difference, interest and the audit.
The label can use your name, image and bio as approved by you, only to promote these tracks and never to endorse brands. It puts the credits you give on every platform and can’t edit, remix or shorten the tracks without your consent.
You warrant that you own the masters, have the performers’ consent and cleared every sample; the label, that it won’t buy or allow fake streams. A breach not fixed within 30 days of notice, including late statements or payments, ends it. When it ends, the rights revert and the label takes the tracks down within 30 days.
How record deals work, recoupment and when a label also takes a share of shows or publishing: what a 360 deal is. Before releasing a track with co-writers or a producer, settle the shares in a split sheet.
Upload your next contract or start a split sheet today, and get your deals on paper.
