Interested in trying to license some albums, but have licensing/contract questions

[bevilacq12]

I'm interested in licensing a few albums that currently lack physical releases. I don't have any expectations of profiting from this - it's just something I want to do, and if it ever even breaks even, that's just a bonus. It'd all be very niche artists, so I wouldn't be approaching labels that would have their own licensing structure - it'd be more approaching small independent artists, and the onus for structure / documents would be on me presumably.

I would primarily be paying a lump sump of money to an artist to license their music for X copies, and then I'd manufacture and sell those X copies. I'm trying to figure out what legal responsibilities would be involved (mechanical licensing, etc.), and I also want to create a professionally worded document for my contract with artists. I want to protect myself, yes, but I also want to make the artist comfortable that they are protected as well. I have absolutely no intentions besides manufacturing and selling the agreed-upon X physical copies, and I want that to be clear so there is no suspicion of the potential for their music to be exploited in any way.

I know this forum used to be involved with that kind of thing. Does anyone have experience with this, or know of a good resource or template for something like this? Thanks.

[DarrenMcCall]

Following for the same. Worst case we can figure this out together 😎

[MrScorpio]

interested in following this thread. I've been making some video game remixes and might like to release them on vinyl at some point.

[TheWindBlower]

The owner of Wiretap Records, Rob, seems like a really cool guy and has tweeted about being willing to help other people start up labels and what not. It might be worth reaching out to him to see if he has any advice or thoughts about this. He's got an email on the label's site.

[One Hundred Fifty-Two]

My honest advice is don’t try. 
 

unless you are willing to commit to taking on the hours of a second job and not only not making a profit but realistically losing a couple thousand dollars per release. 
 

if you are still interested there are a couple people here that run labels that could probably help, but I’d guess their initial response will be the same. 

[MrScorpio]

18 minutes ago, Tidal Wave said:

My honest advice is don’t try. 
 

unless you are willing to commit to taking on the hours of a second job and not only not making a profit but realistically losing a couple thousand dollars per release. 
 

if you are still interested there are a couple people here that run labels that could probably help, but I’d guess their initial response will be the same. 

What's your opinion on remix albums? Zelda & Chill definitely inspired me. Would love to put out an album of remixes for some old SNES or NES soundtracks.

 

 

Here's one of my remixes if anyone wants to scope it:

 

Edited January 11, 2021 by ROVVLES

[bevilacq12]

16 minutes ago, Tidal Wave said:

unless you are willing to commit to taking on the hours of a second job and not only not making a profit but realistically losing a couple thousand dollars per release. 

I appreciate the warning, but that is honestly exactly my expectation. I want to get involved, and there are some releases I want to see that I don't think would ever happen otherwise, so I'm happy to buy in with money and time.

[skidroje]

If you end up getting the rights and press The Exit- New Beat, I'll pay $100 for a copy.

[1876records]

4 hours ago, skidroje said:

If you end up getting the rights and press The Exit- New Beat, I'll pay $100 for a copy.

seconded

[One Hundred Fifty-Two]

16 hours ago, ROVVLES said:

What's your opinion on remix albums? Zelda & Chill definitely inspired me. Would love to put out an album of remixes for some old SNES or NES soundtracks.

 

 

 

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Here's one of my remixes if anyone wants to scope it:

 

Sounds even tougher than licensing and pressing a record. 

[V3XED]

I know that Nintendo has a reputation for being very litigious, and oldschool about licensing, digital rights, etc.

I would love to see it happen as well, but anything dealing with their properties is likely to be extremely difficult to do legally

 

[kylet]

My first release was a licensing deal. It sort of just all fell into my lap. I was friends with a bunch of bands from booking shows and touring. I had a lump sum of change fall into my lap (got hit by a car on my bike and their insurance bought me a new bike and paid me $3,000 not to sue). I was 20 or so at the time and didn't know what else to do with the cash. It was before the vinyl boom really happened so lots of smaller labels weren't interested in vinyl yet. I booked a show for a friends band about a month or so after I got the cash. He was complaining his label had no interest in pressing their upcoming record on vinyl (he knew I was a huge collector), and I was like well I happen to just get a  decent amount of cash, let's make this happen! He put me in touch with the label. The label was excited to have someone else deal with a "non home run type vinyl release". The label asked for 10% of the press and to give another 10% to the band.  No extra cash for licensing or anything. The label actually helped me figure a lot out because at the time I knew nothing about pressing a record. they also fully pushed that we were taking care of the vinyl in all the PR and didn't ask for any money for any of that (which I'm sure he had to pay for). So I had 80% of the press left to sell and recover my money, which I did. Had a run for about 8-9 years running the label, put out 21 records. The first record was the only thing I ever licensed though. I never officially hung it up. Just started having kids and running a more profitable business so my priorities kind of shifted. 

My advice to you would be reach out to the bands first and see if they're interested. They probably either own the rights or can put you in touch with the people who do. You never known, may get someone like I did, who is just happy to see music they're involved with out on vinyl and not have to deal with the hassle themselves. 

Good luck!

[floyd_z]

Also press XXYYXX - XXYYXX on vinyl, I would easily pay $100, but I think the whole reason it never got pressed was because of some of the samples....

[MrScorpio]

7 hours ago, V3XED said:

I know that Nintendo has a reputation for being very litigious, and oldschool about licensing, digital rights, etc.

I would love to see it happen as well, but anything dealing with their properties is likely to be extremely difficult to do legally

 

There's a good number of vinyl releases with Nintendo music out there though. ShipToShore and RespawnedRecords in particular have quite a few licensed as well as remixed albums. Probably not the best place to start as an independent musician, but it's on the bucket list.