Song Demo

[Taurus1999]

About 17 years ago I had a demo production company produce a professional demo of one of my songs. I do not believe that that production company is still in business. my dilemma is that I want to take the demo and post it to a streaming service but I don't know how I can do that since I did not perform the demo

 

[Nekujak]

Did you pay the production company to create the demo for you. Did you have any kind of contract or agreement with them? Are you obligated to give them attribution?

Typically, this kind of situation would be considered work-for-hire, meaning you retain full ownership of the song and are simply hiring some people to produce and perform it. If this is the case, it's still your song, you're still the copyright owner, and you can publish it however you wish. You could even do it under a fictitious band or performer name, or you could simply use your name.

I don't think anyone's going to be upset that you didn't actually perform the song. I mean it might be a problem if the song becomes a #1 smash hit and you run into a Milli Vanilli situation when you need to lip sync it during live performances But the odds of that are too miniscule to be a real concern.

Hope that helps.

Disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer. The above is just my best guess. If you want a definitive answer, you might want to get professional legal advice.

 

[Taurus1999]

I did pay them to produce the demo. I can't remember if there's anything about performing rights of those who produce the demo or anything like that. It's been quite a few years ago.
My main purpose was to have the demo to send to publishers. I used to use a book called songwriter's market, which would list publishers that accept unsolicited submissions. But I don't even think that book is around anymore.

 

[Polkasound]

My gut thinks it was a simple work-for-hire agreement, since the whole point was for them to create an audio recording that you would have the freedom to distribute. BUT... there's this:

I can't remember if there's anything about performing rights of those who produce the demo or anything like that. It's been quite a few years ago.

There's always that small chance they added a clause to collect artist performance royalties, or even retained the master recording copyright to the demo. Doubtful in my opinion, but possible. I think you're 99% safe digitally distributing the demo, but to make things 100% safe, you'd want to find that paperwork and reference it for clarification.

 

[Taurus1999]

My gut thinks it was a simple work-for-hire agreement, since the whole point was for them to create an audio recording that you would have the freedom to distribute. BUT... there's this:


There's always that small chance they added a clause to collect artist performance royalties, or even retained the master recording copyright to the demo. Doubtful in my opinion, but possible. I think you're 99% safe digitally distributing the demo, but to make things 100% safe, you'd want to find that paperwork and reference it for clarification.

I would still like to get the song to a publisher. Is there any publishers out there that anyone knows of that are willing to accept material that is unsolicited? I know that in years past there was in songwriter's market publishers listed that would accept unsolicited material. But again, I don't think songwriters market exists. Anymore, I did sign a contract with a publisher for this particular song. They held it for 2 years, but they couldn't place it. I think it was a very small publishing company

 

[Nekujak]

Is there any publishers out there that anyone knows of that are willing to accept material that is unsolicited?

I get a music industry newsletter where this is advertised in every issue:

https://www.musicregistry.com/product-page/Music-Publishers-12-pdf-issues

Have no idea how useful or legit it is.