Band breakup

What is the name of your state? Texas

I am in a band and am the sole owner of the name and logo.

My band recorded a CD, which was released in January 2003. Since its release, three of the members either have quit or have been fired. (And, these three are not supportive of the band as it is now.)

I own the sound recording and all the CDs for merchandise sales. I was wondering if I would still be able to sell the CDs even though these three were on it. (I am planning to pay them performer royalties after paying off the CD manufacturing costs.)

What should I do?

"I own the sound recording and all the CDs for merchandise sales. I was wondering if I would still be able to sell the CDs even though these three were on it. "

Yes

"(I am planning to pay them performer royalties after paying off the CD manufacturing costs.)"

Good idea. You only really need to do this is the other band members have some ownership in the copyright of the musical work or the sound recording (or both), which they will if they contributed to the work and you haven't otherwise contractually agreed that you alone own the copyrights. Even if you do contractually own the copyrights, by paying royalties you may forestall a lawsuit later on!

"What should I do?"

Exactly what you are doing. What you might want to do is ask each of the former band members to relinquish any copyright ownership they might have in the sound recordings or the musical works in exchange for the royalties; that way, if you want to re-record or perform the songs in a new band or whatever later, you won't have to worry about ghosts from the past looking for a part of the action! If you do do this, get everything in writing!

Thanks for the help.

I thought that I had covered everything, but I just wanted to be sure... (One former member is being difficult!)

The copyrights of all the songs are either owned by me alone or by me and a former band member together (not any of these three and 'he' has given me permission to do with the songs as I wish). He and I actually created each member's part to play, so these three had no part in CREATING the song--just recording it.

I want to be fair to the three former band members and make sure that they get a cut of the royalties for playing on the CD, but one former member is making it very difficult to remain civil.

This summer the band is going to record a new CD--new tunes mixed in with some of the old tunes, but all played by the new band members. (Then, the old CDs will become coasters and I won't have to worry about it.)

MP3 clips

What about MP3 clips taken from the CD? I have some short clips posted on my band's website, including one that streams when you open the site. Are MP3 clips a problem even though I own the sound recording?

Re: MP3 clips

deniserene12 said:

What about MP3 clips taken from the CD? I have some short clips posted on my band's website, including one that streams when you open the site. Are MP3 clips a problem even though I own the sound recording?

Click to expand...

ANY performance and distribution. And I hope you are the ONLY person who wrote the music and lyrics. Because if you didn't then you're in a world of hurt.

"What about MP3 clips taken from the CD? I have some short clips posted on my band's website, including one that streams when you open the site. Are MP3 clips a problem even though I own the sound recording?"

If you really own all of the copyrights, then you can do whatever you want to with the MP3's. However, remember that a song in MP3 format (or on a CD) actually has 2 copyrights associated with it -- one for the "sound recording," which is the actual performance that you record, and one for the "musical work," which is the actual song. As long as you own BOTH copyrights, you are in the clear.

And it doesn't matter if you co-own the copyrights either. Any one owner of a copyright if free to reproduce, distribute, perform, etc., the work, without having to get permission from the other owners, as long as any profits made from the use are distributed amongst the copyright owners, and as long as the one ower does not "waste" the copyright -- that is, reduce or eliminate the value of the copyright so that the other owners can't get anything out of it.

I know that's a little long-winded, but I hope that clears up your questions!