Aaron Foreman asked:


Music is such a pleasurable activity, that nobody wants to believe that there could be any downside to using it to earn cash. When money is involved music becomes a business. Wherever there is business involved, there are always legal concerns. This is where music contracts come into play.

Frequently musicians are distracted with developing their skills and they end up waiting until things become really serious and they finally realize the size of the music industry. What may start out as a group of buddies jamming together on the weeks could make you a celebrity. Before things get really serious, it is a good idea to put an agreement in writing by making a contract.

It doesn\’t matter if you have your friends working with you, contracts are still important for protecting your interests. When people begin to work professionally disputes can arise over who owns what. Unfortunately this happens often with unexperienced people and the business can fall apart. A profitable music business is lost even though these issues might have been simply avoided.  If a contract had been established perhaps there would have been no problems.

Having a contract agreement does not imply a lack of trust, it simply means that you are explaining facts of your working relationship in writing. Music contracts come in many different varieties that can be determined amongst several parties.  The parties involved may be musicians, agents, or perhaps record companies. All these parties may profit or lose from the working relationship.

The bottom line is that any parties working together, can only guarantee that their wishes will be honored by writing your business dealings in a contract.  This is the simplest way that everyone will have the same idea of what they are getting in involved with from the start because it is clearly defined.  This is also a important suggestion because you can\’t always defend your position in court by referring to an oral contract.



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Aaron Foreman asked:


Contracts are essential in the entertainment business.  Contracts are extremely important because many entities may be doing business together.  If nothing was written down, nobody the people involved might fully agree with other to all the terms of doing business and in a court of law, oral agreements may not be enough to support your case with he said she said about the terms of your working relationship.  When you are working to make money it is only sensible that the businesses and individuals working together should to protect their rights should something happen.

Despite the fact you may come to an understanding orally as to the terms, you should always establish the understanding in writing. There are many reasons why you should get the agreement in writing. First, a written contract serves to memorialize the agreement between the people involved. As time passes, the parties might have differing memories as to what makes up their agreement. Getting it in writing ensures there are no disputes over what the terms of the contract are.

Written contracts are many times more likely to be enforced by a court in during a dispute or material breach. Oral contracts are not always enforceable and in some states oral agreements are not even legitimate agreements.  But should a judge decide a case in dispute, a judge is often more likely to enforce the terms of a written contract than an oral agreement.  Essentially, in the entertainment industry, there should always be a agreement in writing.  A agreement in writing doesn\’t have to be complicated and doesn\’t necessarily always have to be drawn up by an attorney. In fact in many cases, you can simply use a basic contract in writing.  A good way to find a basic written agreement is to download one from a contract website.

The services of an attorney can be really expensive and may not be necessary for some initial written agreements such as those between in music group that are just want to make some money from music.  However you should get a lawyer to review the agreement if your situation is complex or if you will be doing business with a large business.  However it is up to you if you want to hire an attorney.  Even if you do choose to hire a lawyer you should still download a basic written agreement from a contract website to ensure that your attorney covers everything you want in your written contract.



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