Darrin McGillis Productions

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...

If someone approaches your band willing to "shop" your tape, there are many questions you should ask. First, though, the term shop needs some explanation. When someone shops your tape, it means that they take a copy of it and try to get you a record deal. Basically, people who shop tapes claim to have some contacts that may be able to land you a record deal. Great you say, someone to help me get a record deal! Not so fast. First, people don't shop tapes for free. Never pay someone to shop your tape. Shopping a tape is speculative in that it is a gamble. No one can guarantee they can get you signed. A true shopping deal will pay the person out of future royalties from the deal they secure for you. If someone shops your tape and gets a record label to sign you, they will want a percentage of the income from the record deal. This is standard. What varies is the percentage. Some people are scrupulous and take only what is fair. Others over-reach. What is fair compensati...

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...