Who Owns Copyright to a Recorded Demo?

My group just recorded a demo, who owns the copyright?

By: Michael P. McCready, Esq. (Open Post)


(Articles written by Michael P. McCready, Esq. and reprinted by permission from www.music-law.com)

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This answer to this question is not as simple as you may imagine. First, you have to narrow the question and ask which copyright? When a group records a demo, they have two copyrights. The first copyright is in the words and music of the song. This is the copyright which most people think of when they talk about copyrighting a song. The second copyright is in the recorded version of the song. This is known as the sound recording. So when you record a demo, you have two copyrights: one in the words and music and the other in the sound recording. If you were to re-record a song, the copyright in the words and music would not change (same song, right?), but you would have a new copyright in the new sound recording.

Back to the question of who owns the copyright to the new demo. Let's deal with the copyright to the sound recording first. All the people who contribute to the recording have a claim to the copyright to the sound recording. In reality, however, the person who pays for the studio time usually, through a contract, owns the copyright in the sound recording. If you have a record deal, the record company will pay for the studio time to record the album and the record company will own the copyright to the sound recording. The songwriter will still own the copyright to the words and music, but the record company will own the sound recording. If the group pays for the studio time, then anyone who contributes to the sound recording would own the copyright unless there was a written contract to the contrary. In summary, if a band records a demo, the musicians who play on the demo jointly own the copyright to the sound recording.

Now to who owns the copyright to the words and music. Whoever contributes to the writing of the song has a claim to the copyright. The Copyright Act considers everyone who contributes to a song to be a joint author. It does not matter how much or little you contribute; if you participated in writing the song or recording the song, you are a joint owner of the copyright.

The Copyright Act states that each co-author has an indivisible share to the entire copyright. This means that each person owns the entire copyright. The copyright is not divided into portions according to the contribution of each author. The primary reason behind this is how can you decide who contributed what? Joe did the first verse and part of the chorus and Sara did the bridge and guitar solo and . . . you get the point. It is impossible to divide a song up in this manner. An analogy lawyers like to use is when you scramble an egg, you can't separate it.

This form of joint ownership can have some interesting consequences. For example, each co-author can do what they want with the copyright as long as he pays the other owners their pro rata share of the proceeds. One group member can license the song to anyone so long as he splits any money he received with the co- owners. Further, one copyright owner cannot stop another from using the song in a particular way if he disapproves. Each author can do as they please. The only exception to this is the work for hire doctrine. A person can write a song and never own the copyright under the work for hire doctrine. Therefore, absent a work for hire contract, all the persons who contribute to writing the song own the entire song equally.

Ownership of the copyright to a song can be very lucrative. It is the songwriters who receive money from publishing. Publishing money comes from licensing your song to others for a fee. It is for this reason that groups should have a partnership agreement which specifies who owns and controls the band's songs.