Artist Development Stages and Relevant Contracts

AVENANT LAW

Artist Development Stages and Relevant Contracts

The music industry has multiple contracts dealing with a variety of matters such as copyright licensing, appointing of managers and agents, hiring of musicians and producers, collaboration and songwriting agreements, to name a few. The amount of industry roles and types of rights can make the industry seem very complex for those new to it.

Certain contracts will normally appear or be needed at the start of the artist’s career while others will come about once the artist has developed their songs and persona and starts to attract the interest of agents and music industry companies.

This flowchart attempts to describe the music industry in relation with the different stages of development of artists and their career journey, starting from the moment the musicians meets with other artist to write and perform music, moving to the time when music managers and agents get involved to assist development and progressing to the stage where the artist is signed to record and publishing labels for bigger scale exploitation and commercialisation of the songs and image.

Drafting of clear and balanced contracts are recommended for any and all of the stages below.

Below we present a linear scenario of artist development where steps are taken subsequent to each other. In real life, development is not linear but complex and divergent with many things happening simultaneously on different fronts; all depending on the artists’ capabilities and interest and also on the opportunities that become available to them.

Stages of Artist Developement

In general terms:

Contracts in the Development Stage are signed with other individuals of similar bargaining power such as other artists, producers and promoters;
Contracts in the Industry Agents Stage are signed with experienced freelance professionals or smaller service companies; and
Contracts in the Music Companies stage are signed with established and registered companies.

DIY Development Stage	Agents Stage	Consolidation Stage
Session Musician Contract	Distribution Contract	Record Label Contract
Producer Contract	Regional Live Agent Contract	Publishing Contract Non-Exclusive
Band Agreement	Synchronisation Agreement	Publishing Contract Exclusive
Sound Engineer Contract	Music Management Contract	Worldwide agency for lives shows
Joint Songwriting Agreement	Artist – Promoter Contract	Worldwide agency for brand partnerships
Remix Contract	Author Rights Society Contract	Sponsorship Contracts
Photography Contract	Neighbouring Rights Society Contract
Videography Contract
Artist – Venue Contract

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