For when you commission a beat, an arrangement, lyrics, a jingle, a mix or a cover artwork and want the rights to be yours once you have paid. You describe the work and what it is for, the deliverables, the date and the fee, and the creator 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.
You describe the work, from a song or an arrangement to lyrics or artwork, and what it will be used for. The creator makes it personally and cannot hand it to someone else without your written consent. The stated purpose does not limit the rights you receive.
What is delivered and in what format, by default the final 24-bit WAV files, the stems, the lyrics or sheet music and the project files, and the delivery date.
You have 10 business days to approve or ask for changes within the commission. The rounds of revisions included are set by you (two by default); more cost extra. If you do not answer in time, the work counts as approved.
The creator assigns you, exclusively, the economic rights in the work: reproduction, distribution, public performance and broadcasting, streaming, adaptation and remixes, and synchronisation with video, ads and games, with the right to license them to others. By default worldwide and for the full term of copyright. Where the law allows, it counts as a work made for hire.
The rights pass when the fee is paid in full. Until then you can only use the work to evaluate and approve it, and if the deal ends because you did not pay, the rights stay with the creator.
Rights the creator already entrusted to a collecting society as a member, and the remuneration the law reserves to authors, stay with the creator, who keeps collecting them. Otherwise the creator registers the work in line with the agreement.
Sounds, samples, templates and tools the creator already had stay theirs; they must tell you which ones are in the work and give you a licence to use them as part of it. No third-party samples or library sounds whose licence does not allow the use, unless you approve them in writing.
The creator keeps the moral rights and is credited where authors are usually credited. They accept the edits and adaptations the intended use reasonably needs, without harming their reputation.
Fee and payment terms (by default 50% on signing and the rest 10 days after approval), the creator’s warranty that the work is original and free of exclusive deals that block it, mutual indemnity, cancellation paying for the work done and refunds for what was not delivered. It is a contract between independent parties, not employment.
It is one of the everyday documents in the contracts musicians sign. If the person also writes part of the song as a co-writer with a share, agree it in a split sheet instead, and if you only need a beat for one song, a beat license may be enough.
Upload your next contract or start a split sheet today, and get your deals on paper.
