ELI5: [Law] What happens to music rights when music artists sell their music catalog? What about performing their songs at concerts? Future releases?

Submitted by Outrageous-Door8924 t3_11b56nj in explainlikeimfive

Over the last couple of years, more and more music artists have sold their music catalogs to (mostly) the big record labels. Bob Dylan, ZZ Top, Justin Bieber, Bruce Springsteen, David Guetta, etc. But what happens to the artist's rights in regards to his/her future? Are they allowed to play their songs at concerts at least? What about future releases?

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tdscanuck t1_j9w2cxq wrote

It all depends on exactly what they sold and what went into the contract.

In theory they could sell any combination of rights. They might be selling the entire catalog and all the rights that come with it, or it might just be a subset. For example, "You can play and sell any of my songs you like, but I reserve the right to perform any of them live whenever I want." Or "You have full rights to everything I've written up to now, but no claim at all on anything I do in the future."

Like any contract, it's almost infinitely negotiable.

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furtherdimensions t1_j9w27j3 wrote

This is 100% governed by the contract of sale. There's 0 way to answer that question because all the things you're asking are all negotiable aspects of the contract. Without having read the specific contracts in question there's no way to answer it.

The only real answer that can be given is "it depends on how the contract was worded"

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Outrageous-Door8924 OP t1_j9w73g1 wrote

I had a hunch that the answer would be, "It's not entirely black and white", but felt like asking anyway, because I'm not at all operating in the field of law myself. Thanks for explaining and confirming.

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furtherdimensions t1_j9w7v3s wrote

Yeah intellectual property agreements are a lot more complex than real property agreements because real property agreements deal with something tangible. There's a "thing". A house. A car. A book. A piece of land. There's a tangible, identifiable, physical thing in place here. And those contracts are really "who gets to do things with the thing" and break down a lot easier.

Intellectual property gets way more complicated because you're involved in the sale of an idea.

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schoolme_straying t1_j9w3ayq wrote

There's a license agreement negotiated. Existing rights are grandfathered in and remain as they are.

It would be a very inept negotiator who didn't carve out performance rights for the songwriter.

The leading company in this field is Hipgnosis founded by Nile Rogers (Chic etc) and a forgotten by me music entrepreneur. Their USP is that most musicians are not entrepreneurs and Hipgnosis buy the rights in exchange for a guaranteed income to the artist.

Hipgnosis are not a record company or music publishing house.

The difference between Hipgnosis and mafia finance is that Hipgnosis has earned the respect and trust of major artists.

There's a current trend in music of reheating old hits and remaking them based on TikTok trends that is the sort of thing Hipgnosis are all over. Promoting their artists and songs

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Outrageous-Door8924 OP t1_j9w76b1 wrote

Hipgnosis is something I never heard of prior to your comment. Thanks, I'll check it out.

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schoolme_straying t1_ja0wwlq wrote

Just heard this massive choon

That word "interpolation" is the trend to dress up old songs in new clothes. This sort of creative endeavour is the sort of thing the Hipgnosis guys are totally across extending the shelf life of their original artists works.

Interpolated into “Players” is “The Message” by Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five, which was released in 1982 and proved to be one of the earliest hits in the history of rap music. Also acknowledged as being interpolated is “Nasty Boy”, a track Biggie Smalls dropped in 1997.

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Outrageous-Door8924 OP t1_ja11mmv wrote

Interesting. I suppose that might explain the almost extreme abundance of cover versions of old hits, over the last few years, in the EDM community.

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schoolme_straying t1_ja12ha4 wrote

I can't remember where I heard it said, but someone says "If something makes no sense to you, look at the money flow, it will make sense then"

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