I Was Offered A Publishing Deal BUT I have some questions...

Alright, first off I don't have a contract that I would give him but his manager will send me one and he was asking me what I wanted on the contract. As far as, name credits and points on the album. Now I think points on the album means royalties I'm assuming if the album sells or is downloaded but I don't have publishing though. I think I'm in a good situation but no prepared for it. I've been making beats for about 2-3 yrs now on the mpc2000xl.. before it was just a hobby on the pc. But I've made tracks for cats in the industry that have been on mixtapes and that's it. The business side is where I'm lacking unfortunately and I don't want to lose an opportunity here but also I have to sign the contract. So if it's not right, I wouldn't sign but anything would be great at the moment.

If someone is really familiar with this, I'd appreciate some info and help regarding this. What I should do? What should I look for and or ask?

I'm going to have a lawyer look it over when I receive it but he's asked me what I was looking for on the contract so they can solidify the deal and to be honest.. I'm really not sure.

Thanks!!

- Joey Bags

To get publishing you need to be owner of the copyright. That means that if you sample ANYTHING you cannot claim publishing on that.
You also must belong to a society to be repped as a WRITER. the 2 societies in USA are BMI and ASCAP. You will need to make 100% sure that the bastards at the major labels (Sorry I was with SONY and I know the "game") give you WRITERS credits on your work. Also if you sign with a major they will always want to handle the publishing for you and pay you a split. Why? because thats where the money is at (IF and ONLY if your works get airplay or TV or Film play)
Hope this helps al little
Freddy Fresh
www.myspace.com/frefresh
www.freddyfresh.com

Woah, that's some real helpful info Mr. Fresh.

And lemme just say that seeing you play in Australia was brilliant! It was years ago but when all the other dj's flaked, you stayed on and rocked the shi.t, so thank you so much for that!

That means that if you sample ANYTHING you cannot claim publishing on that.

Way to give out false info. Dude best bet is to get a good entertainment lawyer to break it all down for you. I'm way too tired to right now.

blkyankee wrote:

That means that if you sample ANYTHING you cannot claim publishing on that.

Way to give out false info. Dude best bet is to get a good entertainment lawyer to break it all down for you. I'm way too tired to right now.

BLK, please rest up and give us the lowdown on copyrighting sampled material, because it seems you know something i have been dying to know!!

~Thx

JoeyBags wrote:Alright, first off I don't have a contract that I would give him but his manager will send me one and he was asking me what I wanted on the contract. As far as, name credits and points on the album. Now I think points on the album means royalties I'm assuming if the album sells or is downloaded but I don't have publishing though. I think I'm in a good situation but no prepared for it. I've been making beats for about 2-3 yrs now on the mpc2000xl.. before it was just a hobby on the pc. But I've made tracks for cats in the industry that have been on mixtapes and that's it. The business side is where I'm lacking unfortunately and I don't want to lose an opportunity here but also I have to sign the contract. So if it's not right, I wouldn't sign but anything would be great at the moment.

If someone is really familiar with this, I'd appreciate some info and help regarding this. What I should do? What should I look for and or ask?

I'm going to have a lawyer look it over when I receive it but he's asked me what I was looking for on the contract so they can solidify the deal and to be honest.. I'm really not sure.

Thanks!!

- Joey Bags

man, hit up the big homie jazzy d (aka gangsta granny off the old WC mad circle shiet) [email protected] or his myspace.com/jazzyd