Smart people only.

[dae_rawk]

Dear friends,

Can somebody educate me on what legal issues I should cover before selling a beat? I'm about to sell my first, and I just don't want to get fucked over on legalities or anything. I assume that I should copywrite my beats beforehand...so what's the price? Let's say I have a CD with 20 beats on it, and I want to get them all copywritten, will they copywrite the whole thing for me, or do I need to get each instrumental individually copywritten? And after I officially "own" the rights to my piece of music and want to sell it, what kind of contract should I use for the transaction? Is there some link online I can use to get a .pdf format of this contract?

Also, what are all the differences (legal) in selling the rights to a beat as opposed to leasing it? If I sell the rights, do I still deserve credit for the beat? Can I use it myself without being sued by the party I originally sold it to?

Thanks in advance to anybody who is of any help to me. It will be greatly appreciated. Peace.

 

[Ash Holmz]

to copywrite beats efficently make a data disk containing snippets of many beats as you can find ... name it dae rawk beats vol 1 and pay 30 bucks and mail it to the copywrite office along with the form..... all the beats on the disk will be copywrited.

As for your legality issues .. its all in the contract that you write ... whatvever the contract states .. you get...

most of the time if you lease a beat you keep all rights but you are selling them permission to use your track on a particular realease..

look around the threads i think someone posted a link with all types of music contracts..

 

[Fade]

Check here:
https://www.illmuzik.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9814

 

[sammy beats]

if it's a good beat, lease it don't sell it, cause once you sell the rights to it, you have to ask for permission to use it again. Also anyone else that uses the beat will pay the person that you sell it to.

So say you sell it person X and then person Y uses the beat after you sell it. Person Y would pay person X to use the beat, not you. If you can get away with just leasing it, do so.

 

[dae_rawk]

Cool, thanks a lot for the replies.

I was wondering if anybody here knows of a copyright agency that I can mail my tape to, because the one near where I live is telling me some bullshit..."$100 for the first HOUR, and then $230 for registration fees." Which I don't want to fucking pay, because everywhere I read on this site it says $30 to copyright the whole damn disc. So if somebody can hook me up I would appreciate it. Peace.

 

[dae_rawk]

Oh, also, I'm a bit confused about copyright laws in regards to having samples in my beats. Can somebody just tell me with "yes" or "no" whether I can get a copyright on my beat if I used a sample?

The thing is, I want to copyright my beats obviously, so that I won't get my shit jacked and whatnot. But at the same time, if I'm going to have to pay mad royalties and whatnot to some major label whose artist I sampled, would it just not be worth it to copyright? Because the fact is, I'm really just the small guy right now who's looking to sell a few leftovers to pay rent, I'm not expecting to put my kid through college off my beats. And anyways this isn't going to generate any huge profits or anything, although I'd still be interested in copyrighting my stuff if it's possible, even though I do use samples. Anyways, I look forward to everybody's advice. Thanks.

 

[Chrono]

i only know the generalities but all samples should be cleared. you can always sneak the samples into your mix and get it copyrighted.. but if someone who owns it hears it they could sue. If your beats are going on the radio then you should clear them i guess.. but then i also heard copywright(from old mhz) mention that RJD2 doesn't clear anything. I saw a special on this last week on cnn and there is a movement of musicaians who are trying to make it legal to use samples

 

[Ash Holmz]

Oh, also, I'm a bit confused about copyright laws in regards to having samples in my beats. Can somebody just tell me with "yes" or "no" whether I can get a copyright on my beat if I used a sample?

The thing is, I want to copyright my beats obviously, so that I won't get my shit jacked and whatnot. But at the same time, if I'm going to have to pay mad royalties and whatnot to some major label whose artist I sampled, would it just not be worth it to copyright? Because the fact is, I'm really just the small guy right now who's looking to sell a few leftovers to pay rent, I'm not expecting to put my kid through college off my beats. And anyways this isn't going to generate any huge profits or anything, although I'd still be interested in copyrighting my stuff if it's possible, even though I do use samples. Anyways, I look forward to everybody's advice. Thanks.

yeah u can copywrite a beat with a sample .. do u think the copywrite office sits down and listens to evry song being copywrtitten?? haha .. releasing material is a diffrent story... but still .. let the person you sell the beat to worry about clearing the sample.. if they release it ..then its there problem.. plus you are under the radar like most of us so no agency are checking u for uncleared sam,ples you gotta sell a decent amount of records to get caught

ps; its costs 30 bucks to copywrite a d ..whats this 100 an hour your talkin bout... 30 is a small price to pay... especially considering you can fit alot of material on one disc

 

[djswivel]

www.copyright.gov

thats where u need to be at....Use the PA form. Mail in with your $30 and your good to go. Expect your copyright forms back in the mail in about 3-6 months.

 

[Alphabet]

Great advice Holmzini, you obviously know whats up, just had to put that in there because I see a lot of people who are not on top of this game like they should be

 

[bknot1]

her is doin a sound recording..he should use the SR Form to copywrite his music..