What we handle.

Most of what a music contract decides comes down to five things you either keep or give away.

Side B. What you keep.

1
Masters. The finished recording. Whoever owns it controls how it’s sold and licensed.
2
Publishing. The song under the recording, which earns its own money every time it’s used.
3
Your name. Once you play shows and sell merch under it, a band name works like a trademark, so it needs an owner on paper.
4
Your share. The percentage of each dollar that comes to you, set long before the first statement.
5
Your exits. The clauses that say when the deal ends and what comes back to you when it does.

Below is one example clause for each kind of work we do, written by us. Your contract will have its own wording, and only reading it tells you what it does.

Record deals

A record deal trades part of your future income for money and help now. Label deals, distribution deals and 360s, where the label also takes a share of your touring and merch, each make that trade differently. Many small labels pay you half the profits instead of a royalty, after covering what they spent. Either way, the question is what comes off before you see a dollar.

All Advances and all Recording Costs shall be recoupable from any royalties payable to Artist under this Agreement or any other agreement between Artist and Company or its affiliates. No royalties shall be payable to Artist until all such sums have been recouped in full. Advances are nonreturnable except as provided in Paragraph 14 (Failure to Deliver).

Example wording from a recording agreement.

Our note

An advance is money paid up front against your royalties, and recoupment means the label pays itself back from those royalties before it pays you. At an 18% royalty on what the label takes in, a $20,000 advance is covered after about $111,000 comes in. Add a $15,000 studio bill and it’s about $194,000, while the label keeps its own 82% from the first dollar. Phrase 2 is cross-collateralization: money still owed on one deal comes out of what you earn on another. “Nonreturnable” means that if your royalties never cover the advance, you don’t pay back the rest yourself, unless you fail to deliver the records.

What we’d ask for instead

We’d ask that advances recoup only from royalties under this deal, and that recording costs be capped at a budget agreed before anyone books the studio.

Dana Kovach reads record deals. A contract read is a flat $650.

Publishing

Publishing money is what the song itself earns, apart from the record. It includes performance royalties, collected by a PRO (a performing rights organization such as ASCAP or BMI), and mechanical royalties, owed each time a recording of the song is sold or streamed. Sync fees, paid when a song is used in film, TV or ads, are publishing money too. A co-publishing deal gives a publisher part of your songs in exchange for an advance and someone to pitch them.

The Term shall consist of an initial period of two (2) years and shall continue thereafter until Writer has fulfilled the Minimum Delivery Commitment. Publisher shall own an undivided fifty percent (50%) of Writer’s interest in all Compositions written or co-written by Writer during the Term, for a Retention Period of the full term of copyright in each Composition, including all renewals and extensions.

Example wording from a co-publishing agreement.

Our note

The two years is only the shortest the deal can run. In most deals we see, the term runs until you deliver a set number of songs. A song written with two other people counts as a third of one, and some deals count only songs a label releases, so it can take years longer than two. “The full term of copyright” means the publisher keeps its half of your share of those songs for as long as copyright lasts, which in the US is until seventy years after the last of their writers dies. Federal law lets writers take back a transfer after thirty-five to forty years, but only by sending formal notice inside a set window.

What we’d ask for instead

We’d ask for a firm end date, whatever the song count, and a reversion that returns the publisher’s share a set number of years after the term ends, sooner for any song it never placed or released.

Dana Kovach reads publishing deals with Priya Raman, by the hour with an estimate first. A split sheet, the signed page saying who wrote what share of a song, is $95 a song with royalty registration included.

Band agreements

Most bands never write anything down, and that works until someone leaves. A band that plays for money and splits what it makes can be treated as a partnership under Ohio law, even if nobody meant to start one. Without an agreement you can prove, profits split evenly and any member can sign deals for the band. Agreement or not, every member can be on the hook for the band’s debts unless the band forms an LLC. This clause is the kind we see when one member writes the agreement for everyone else to sign.

The Group Name and all goodwill associated with it are owned solely by the Founding Members. A Member who leaves the Group for any reason shall have no right to use the Group Name or any confusingly similar name. The remaining Members shall pay a Leaving Member his or her Percentage Interest in the Net Assets, as determined by the Founding Members in good faith, in twelve (12) equal monthly installments.

Example wording from a band agreement.

Our note

If you joined after the band started, phrase 1 means the name was never yours, however long you’ve played in it. “Net Assets” usually means the money in the account plus shared gear, minus what the band owes, so a band whose van is worth less than the loan on it can owe a leaving drummer close to nothing. And the people valuing a leaver’s share are the same people paying it. The songs are a separate question: whoever co-wrote a song keeps their share of it after leaving, unless they signed it over.

What we’d ask for instead

We’d put the name in the band as a whole, or in an LLC that every member owns, and set the payout by a formula everyone signs now.

Marcus Vela writes band agreements with the whole band in the room, for a flat $900.

Royalties

Royalty statements are written by the people paying you, so they are worth checking against your contract. The usual mistakes are a wrong rate or a deduction the contract doesn’t allow, and a song nobody registered may never show up on a statement at all. Most contracts also give you a fixed window to object, and that window is the first thing Priya checks.

Each statement rendered by Company shall be binding upon Artist and not subject to any objection for any reason unless Artist gives specific written objection within two (2) years after the date such statement is rendered. Artist may audit Company’s books relating to Artist’s royalties once per calendar year, on thirty (30) days’ written notice, at Artist’s sole cost and expense.

Example wording from a recording agreement.

Our note

Under this clause, a March 2025 statement that underpaid you $1,800 becomes final in March 2027, whether or not anyone noticed, and the $1,800 stays with the label. Courts often enforce deadlines like this one. Checking the label’s own numbers means an audit of its books, which can cost thousands of dollars in accountant time, and under this clause you pay for it even when the audit finds money.

What we’d ask for instead

We’d ask for three years to object, and for the label to pay for the audit if it finds an underpayment of more than 5%.

Priya Raman reviews one payer’s statements from the last two years with Dana Kovach, for a flat $350. An audit is 25% of what’s recovered, with the terms and any costs you could owe agreed in writing first.

Venues and shows

The terms of a show contract decide what you take home. We look at two lines first: the radius clause, which stops you from playing nearby before and after the show, and how the door gets split when you settle up with the promoter at the end of the night. We read these for bands and for rooms, and if we already work for the other side of your show, we tell you before anyone reads your contract.

Artist shall not perform, or permit any performance to be advertised, within seventy-five (75) miles of the Venue for sixty (60) days before and thirty (30) days after the Engagement without Promoter’s prior written consent. Promoter shall pay Artist a guarantee of Five Hundred Dollars ($500) versus eighty percent (80%) of Net Receipts, whichever is greater. “Net Receipts” means gross box office receipts less Show Expenses as itemized on the Settlement Sheet.

Example wording from a performance agreement.

Our note

If the show is in Cleveland, seventy-five miles takes in every other room in town, plus Akron and Canton, so a local band can’t play at home for three months. As for the money, say you sell 180 tickets at $15, so the door is $2,700. If expenses come to $1,300, Net Receipts are $1,400, and 80% of that is $1,120, which beats the $500 guarantee. While you’re above the guarantee, every $100 of expenses costs you $80, and this wording lets the promoter write the expense list after the show.

What we’d ask for instead

We’d ask for a radius that fits the size of the show, with room for festivals and in-store sets, a capped expense list attached to the contract and receipts for those expenses at settlement.

Marcus Vela reads show contracts for a flat $250.

Send us yours.

We’ll tell you what it does and what we’d ask to change. The first call is free and takes about twenty minutes.

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