Turning instrumentals to songs

[Musicmatters]

So i was recently contacted by a singer who wants to make a song out of one of my instrumental tracks. I would retain ownership of my original and 50% of the new version (with vocals). Does not seem like a bad deal. Anyone here with similar experience, thanks

[Art Munson]

I don’t see a problem with that.

[Musicmatters]

Thanks Art, the singer is quite good actually. Another revenue stream for existing tracks and a different market too I would imagine.

[Rob (Cruciform)]

If the song bed (instruments minus vocals) is not substantially different to the original instrumental, then I would think both the song and the original would still be viewed as a single composition?

If you were then to sign the original instrumental to one library and the song to a different library, you could well end up in hot water unless they are both non-exclusives.

If the original is not going to be substantially changed I would think about cutting them in 50/50 all around and treating the original as an instrumental version of the song. Especially if the original has not been a big earner for you.

Or just do a sound-alike of your own cue that the vocalist can then work with.

I’m working with a singer on a collection now. She’s writing the melodies, some of the lyrics, or editing lyrics I have, doing textural vox, etc. We’re going equal credit on everythings. I can’t put a tangible value on her input and what she brings is definitely going to make the collection far, far stronger than what I could do on my own.

Whatever you do has to be right for both of you, but don’t get tripped up into a situation where you could be in copyright breach on your own music by having two substantially similar pieces (one vox, one not) in two libraries where one is exclusive.

[yzzman1]

Really interesting topic and Rob has some great points to consider. Nonetheless it sounds like a win if you like what the singer does. Very cool.

[Musicmatters]

Thanks Rob, for your thoughtful comments. This song was picked up by the singer on a NE site and the new version will also be NE. The only negative I can see is that this track will be tied up in perpetuity with the vocals and also that I would not have any creative control over the vocal track. But overall it seems like a good deal.

[anon]

You might want to ask the singer how they plan on distributing their final product. If they are going to sell it as downloads for personal use there’s a good chance that your music will end up in the youtube contentID system.
This might negatively effect your ability to license the track as an instrumental since her version will trigger copyright flags on YT videos (the CID system can of course identify your music underneath any vocal track).
Might be good to add a clause in your agreement that says “you may not claim complete ownership of the underlying music for monetary gain” or something.

[Art Munson]

Rob brings up some great points and thought it through better than I did!

[Author]

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