Once upon a time in a land far far away, record labels only owned the rights to an artist’s music albums and sound recordings. In today’s world this fairytale only exists for the most renowned artists such as Coldplay, Norah Jones, or Jay-Z who have the star power to leverage their deals. However, for the new breakout artist or breakout band waiting to be discovered by a major label, you will be introduced to the Land of 360.
In today’s music environment it is unlikely that a new artist will be able to sign with a major record label without signing a 360 Deal. 360 Deals emerged in the music industry as major record labels began to see a decrease in profits as a result of digital downloading, new distribution models, and massive drops in CD sales. Continue reading…
There are 2 types of copyrights a band/artist receives when they record a song:
Section 102 of the Copyright Act provides that “Literary Works” and “Sound Recordings” are copyrightable.
Therefore when you look at a CD cover you see two symbols, one will be a circled “C” and one will be a circled “P“. The “C” represents ownership of the copyright in the lyrics, notes, and the musical composition. The “P” represents ownership of the copyright in the master recording or phonorecord. Generally, when you sign a record deal the record label will own the master recording, or the “P“, and the artist/ songwriters/ musicians/ publishing company will jointly own the “C” (before the advent of the 360 Deal).
What do vinyl records, 8-tracks, cassette tapes, the VCR, and the CD have in common? In a few years they will all be antiques, destined for private showings at museums. They will be replaced by the thumb drive, the Ipod, the Android, the Blackberry, and all other types of media holding devices. Alas, it is now time to move on to an age where an Android phone is a boom box, where Pandora and Grooveshark.com are radio, where I-tunes is Virgin Records, and where laptops are recording studios.
