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I have an orchestral work in an online publishing sheet music store, Sheet Music Plus it’s also recorded with a live orchestra. A music library is interested in the recording as an exclusive contract. Are there any conflicts of copyright if I am selling sheet music, orchestral, band and piano versions and licensing the music with an exclusive library?
I want to be able to have piano and ensemble versions of all my work for sale as sheet music as well as being in libraries for sync options
Thank you for advice
NanI don’t know for certain, but I THINK if you explain it to the library and only sign them exclusive rights to the new master recording it would work. They may want to forbid you from issuing future mechanical licenses for the tune. In other words, no one can record a performance of your tune even if they bought the sheet music.
Again, I don’t know. I’m only speculating based on a publishing course I took many years ago.
I have a feeling MichaelL is going to beat me up for this post, ha.I have a feeling MichaelL is going to beat me up for this post, ha.
HA! No, there will be no “beating up” here! 🙂
The lawyerly answer is, “it depends.” In this situation everything hinges on what you mean by exclusive, a term which has several meanings in the library world these days.
If you are talking about an “exclusive” library where no actual transfer of copyright ownership (in writing) occurs, the argument can be made that the license may not extend to sheet music. In this scenario, you are actually granting the library an exclsuive perpetual license.
If, on the other hand, this is truly a traditional exclusive deal, like a work for hire agreement in which you transfer ownership of the copyright in the underlying work to the library in writing, then you would no longer have any of the bundle of rights associated with that work and you would be infringing on the library’s copyright if you tried to sell sheet music of the same work.
Almost anything can be written into a crontract if all the parties agree. It is possible to register the copyright for a sound recording only without claiming ownership of the underlying work. For example, “White Christmas” has been recorded hundreds of times. The copyright for “White Christmas” has not transferred with each new recording but the record label/artist/rights holder can register the copyright for the new master recording (disclaiming any rights in the underlying work)
For the reasons the Alan suggests, the library interested in your composition may not be agreeable to such an arrangement, even if there is no actual transfer of copyright ownership.
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