Darrin McGillis Productions

The two key concepts involved in "protecting" the name of a band are "territory" and "priority". Territory means the area where you use the name, e.g., Miami, Florida, Mid-West, United States, world-wide, etc. Priority, as the word implies, involves who uses the name first. These two concepts work together to limit the scope of protection for a name. If you started using your name first, you can prevent others from using it. However, the law allows you exclusive use of the name only in the area where you have used it. For example, if you started playing the Miami area in 1995 and never played or distributed music outside the Miami area, you could not prevent a band from using the name in Florida. However, they could not use the band name in Miami since you were the first to use the band name there. You also may acquire the rights to your name for Miami in 1995 and nation-wide in 1999 when you release your first record for a major. If someone started usin...

If you look at any of the jackets on your CD's or tapes, you will notice various bits of information. Although the content often differs, many of the same things are on every jacket. It should not surprise you that these things should also go on your tape. However, what is necessary and what does it mean? First for the cover. The only things which should go on the cover of your tape or CD are the band's name and the title of the tape, along with any artwork. Now for the good stuff: What goes on the back cover or J- card insert? The first thing to consider is credit. You obviously want to give yourself, "the band", credit for the record. As for crediting others, that depends on contracts. If you have a contract with a producer, it will surely include a clause whereby you must give him credit on the jacket. The same may go for the recording studio, manager. Receiving proper credit is very important in the entertainment industry. However, the only legal obligation to i...

Most bands play live. Whether you play live shows infrequently or on a regular basis, you should consider a written contract when playing live. A contract can be very simple. It does not have to be full of legal mumbo jumbo to be a contract. It can be as simple as "Band agrees to play on July 17, 2001 for one hour for $3,000 at Venue X." That is sufficient to be an enforceable contract. At a minimum, a contract should have the following elements. First, it should be in writing. An oral contract may be valid, but it is very difficult to enforce. The expression, "an oral contract is not worth the paper it is written is on" comes from experience. Therefore, I highly recommend getting the terms in writing. Second, it should be signed by both parties. This means the agent or venue owner and one member of the band. Each band member has authority to bind the entire band in a partnership. The following terms must be in the contract to be enforceable. First, it must spec...

A band is a business. The more you treat your band like a business, the more likely you are to succeed in the industry. There are essentially three forms a business can take. First is a sole proprietorship. If you are a solo artist, this is the route to take. However, if you are a band, this form is unavailable for obvious reasons. Therefore, your choices are between a partnership or a corporation. There are a few other forms businesses can take, limited partnerships, limited liability companies, etc., but they are too complicated to address here. A corporation is an interesting concept. The way it works is you create a company which is owned by stockholders. This stock is not traded on the Stock Exchange, but owned by the band members. In the entertainment industry, a band which incorporates forms what is know as a loan-out corporation. What the corporation does is contract with other parties for your services. For example, if you have a loan-out corporation and you get a record dea...

Not enough bands realize that their band is a business. Some band members may be familiar with business practices, but my experience has been that most are not. Therefore, this column will address what to do when you start a business. The very first thing a band should do is get a business license from the county they live in. A business license is also called a "fictitious name certificate" or a "doing business as" (d/b/a) license. What this certificate does is tells the world that X,Y & Z are doing business using the name "The Band". The procedure for obtaining a d/b/a license is through the County Clerk. They will require an application and a small fee. Generally, another legal requirement is that you publish your application in a newspaper for 3 weeks. Most newspapers do this in their legal classified sections. The newspaper will publish your d/b/a license and it will read something like this: "LEGAL NOTICE: X,Y & Z are doing business as...

This answer to this question is not as simple as you may imagine. First, you have to narrow the question and ask which copyright? When a band records a demo, they have two copyrights. The first copyright is in the words and music of the song. This is the copyright which most people think of when they talk about copyrighting a song. The second copyright is in the recorded version of the song. This is known as the sound recording. So when you record a demo, you have two copyrights: one in the words and music and the other in the sound recording. If you were to re-record a song, the copyright in the words and music would not change (same song, right?), but you would have a new copyright in the new sound recording. Back to the question of who owns the copyright to the new demo. Let's deal with the copyright to the sound recording first. All the people who contribute to the recording have a claim to the copyright to the sound recording. In reality, however, the person who pays for the...