Does the studio my wife recorded in claims producer rights?
key to the locks
Posts: 37
I was hoping someone on here would know about this. My wife began writing music and wanted to record a few songs. She went to a local studio I had used in the past(it's out of a guys home). She recorded three songs with guitar and vocal tracks. He added backup guitar to one song. His mixes she brought home were terrible. She asked if she could sit in when he mixed to give feedback and he said it made him nervous to do it in front of people which made me think he doesn't know what in the hell he is doing. Ultimately they were so disappointing she decided to stop recording. Three months later she has found a new studio and wants to finish. She called him for the masters. He said is would be another $250 to convert the master tracks(about 30) to the format she needs and that he was talking to a friend in the music business and he has producer rights and if something becomes of her songs they would need to do a contract.
My feeling is she paid for the following services: for him to record her original music, as a studio musician for the backup guitar part and for mixing the recording. Anyone know if he has any rights as far a being the producer? She is thinking about just scraping those tracks and starting from scratch with the new studio.
I don't know if this guys doesn't know what he is doing or if he is holding her music hostage. It seems we paid him to record these songs and he can't give us masters without more money? She actually had a manager get with her and begin to look at fairly large gigs for her so if the small chance something becomes of this can he do anything with those recordings without her consent? Should she ask him to delete them if she can't have them?
Any thoughts or opinions would be helpful.
Gregg
My feeling is she paid for the following services: for him to record her original music, as a studio musician for the backup guitar part and for mixing the recording. Anyone know if he has any rights as far a being the producer? She is thinking about just scraping those tracks and starting from scratch with the new studio.
I don't know if this guys doesn't know what he is doing or if he is holding her music hostage. It seems we paid him to record these songs and he can't give us masters without more money? She actually had a manager get with her and begin to look at fairly large gigs for her so if the small chance something becomes of this can he do anything with those recordings without her consent? Should she ask him to delete them if she can't have them?
Any thoughts or opinions would be helpful.
Gregg
Post edited by Unknown User on
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I'm far from qualified for giving anything close to legal advice, but just to clear that up: Is there any kind of signed contract?
http://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ip/wppt/trtdocs_wo034.html#P116_14018
They also have the actual copyright (and neighbouring right - your case) laws of your country (US I assume) under the collection of laws link.
yup. there are plenty of us on here that have recorded & i'm sure we'd all be willing to help out in any way that we can.
www.cluthelee.com
www.cluthe.com
1) Without a contract, the guy at the studio doesn't own anything with respect to the songs or recordings. There used to be a lot of screwy contracts in the business where people like that could get a songwriter to sign something away inadvertently in the contract. But without a contract, he doesn't have rights to anything with those songs.
2) Without being specifically hired as a producer (he was hired as an engineer), he has no claim to producer credit. It isn't uncommon for the engineer to also be the producer, but that relationship has to be specified.
3) Without a contract, your wife doesn't really own the recordings she did there. It's unfortunate that you didn't get copies of the multi-track session (if he's recording in digital, then it's as simple as burning DVD-R's of the data files, or copying onto an external hard-drive). She got a mixed 2-track which is all she asked for at the time, so he doesn't technically owe you the multi-track files. He's being an asshole about it, certainly, but he's within his rights to negotiate whatever price he wants for those additional services that were never discussed before-hand.
4) If the tracks were so terribly mixed in the first place, it's highly likely that the quality of the actual recordings are so terrible that it wouldn't be worth it to salvage those recordings. You'd be much better off starting from scratch with a competent studio, and I'd be sure to get a contract that you can read and sign before starting.