Rights in the artist's name and brand
Lesson time: (1min 26sec)
Judge Jules explains the rights to your name and brand a record label asks for, and why these need spelling out in the contract rather than left to assumption.
Course preview
This lesson is part of the course Legals & Deals: The Basics of The Music Industry
Watch a preview of the full course below.
Lesson transcript:
Understanding Your Rights as an Artist
The third right that we touched upon that, as an artist, you will need to grant to your record label is the right to use your brand.
What Is a Brand?
- The brand per se is not a copyright.
- It is best described as an unregistered trademark.
- Unless, of course, you have a registered trademark, which is a subject in its own right and relatively expensive to pursue in a record deal.
Granting Rights to Your Record Label
Not only will you be granting rights in your track, but you will also be:
- Granting rights to use your name to promote that track.
- Including rights related to your logo (if you have one).
- Providing your biography and photos.
It's crucial that these elements are not left to supposition or implication. They need to be explicitly included in the contract.
Avoiding a Land Grab
It's important to ensure that there isn't a land grab on the part of the record company when using your name.
For example:
- A really valuable right, as we all know, is art merchandising.
- The last thing you want to do is grant your label the right to use your name, your image, or anything relating to you in any form of merchandising context.
This must be kept completely out of the deal unless the contract is carefully reviewed to avoid such situations.
Sometimes, it can be very easy for the record company to lay claim to such rights, which, in my view, is an unacceptable land grab.
About the instructor
Jules O'Riordan has over 30 years of experience across the entire spectrum of the music industry. This includes nearly a decade as an A&R for the Universal umbrella of labels, 15 years as a presenter on BBC Radio 1, over 150 record releases and remixes in his own capacity as a recording artist, plus a 30-year career as one of Britain's best-known, globally-travelled DJs (Judge Jules), with over 5000 gigs under his belt, plus extensive experience as an event promoter and artist manager at the highest level. Suffice to say, Jules knows the music industry inside-out, and his clients regard him as a trusted advisor for whom no legal or business affairs challenge or problem is too large or small. Jules has been a lawyer for 10 years. His practice takes in the entire breadth of the music-focused entertainment industry. His legal and deal expertise includes management, recording, publishing, distribution and label services, music-based apps, games and tech projects, production deals, producers, featured artists, endorsements, merchandising, neighbouring rights, TV/film scores, live performance, events and venue agreements, plus copyright and rights infringement and many other disputes. Jules's clients include artists, management companies, record labels, songwriters, event promoters, producers, music tech businesses, production companies, live agents, music publishers and DJs. He has spoken on many panels and seminars including ADE, Brighton Music Conference and AIM events, and has been a guest speaker on legal issues across a number of on and off-line media outlets, including BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Introducing, Financial Times, The Sun, The Times and Mixmag. Jules speaks fluent Spanish. Who better to demystify the contracts and deals every musician eventually faces? In his course, Jules turns three decades of hard-won industry knowledge into plain-English guidance, so you can understand the business side of music and protect your work long before you sign on the dotted line. read more