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For the best indie music from indie artists, click, and follow Indie Hype Unda The Hat. This week, The Curtis Family C-Notes. Send the names of hot Indie artists to Unda The Hat, if we dig ‘em, they take the number one spot on the playlist. Please, like the page and share it.
This week, Work for Hire - Let’s go -
The new thing now is everybody has a collab, tiktok, IG, YouTube, Spotify playlists, the collab is everywhere. And collabs can be a beautiful thing; they can expose artists to new audiences and that’s always a good thing. However, when you’re working with a group in a studio or sharing wav files things can get tricky when it’s all said and done and the question of who owns what has everyone staring at each other like 👀 Enter the Work For Hire Agreement or WFH.
A WFH agreement means that if you hire a musician, or producer, or arranger, singers, tambourine shakers, foot stompers, to be a part or collab on a project or session, you own the copyright of the finished piece and you are considered the legal author of the work.
Let’s say you, as an artist or songwriter write the song, but you don’t know Pro-Tools, Fruity Loops or other studio programs, and you hire someone who does, you might want to consider paying them upfront. This way you pay for their services, let them sign a WFA agreement and you are covered. Legally, they can not come back later to lay claims on the copyright because they have been given a pay-out.
Ok let’s say you are the producer, and want to hire everybody and own the copyright. You will need to ask everyone who contributed to the creative process to sign a WFH agreement. More than just the people that sing and play, but the engineers and production team. If they touched it or breathed on the project in any form or fashion they need to sign the WFH agreement. Oh, and not a day or a week later, right then. Get into a habit of taking copyright forms or pulling it up on your tablet right then and there. Don’t procrastinate. Get’er done!!
This week's #IAOTW - Independent Artists Of The Week is The Curtis Family C-Notes, the amazing full family band (mother, father and 5 children) from San Francisco. Look out for their new project releasing June 8th, and presave it now, just click “Awaken” which is the anniversary of their television debut on AGT. Click on their name, scroll down, click the picture to find out more about this incredible family.
For more information on this or to hire Unda The Hat as your brand or label consultant send a message via undathehat.com. See you next Tuesday.