Lil Wayne is making headlines again for allegedly stealing beats. Because I see this kind of mixup happen far too often, I’d thought I use this opportune moment to address the importance of contracts and copyrights. But before I go there, let me lay out the conflict among the parties involved.

A lawsuit was filed in L.A. by rapper Rich Rick. Rick claims that he bought a beat some years ago that’s used in Waynes song “How to Love” from a group of producers who call themselves the Drumma Boyz. Rick then Read the rest of this entry »

This is a post from my entertainment attorney, Hillel. He’s been protecting the rights of artists for years, given me a wealth of knowledge and is one of the main reasons I’ve been able to generate income doing something I love. His services aren’t cheap but if you don’t have your ass covered in this biz, you’ll pay for it one way or another.
www.copyright.gov/eco/
Copyright Your Songs
by Hillel Frankel

Songwriters need to protect their work. You would not pitch your billion-dollar reality show to MTV without protecting it would you? Well maybe you would, but remember, when you record and send out samples of your songs they can be spread all over the world in the amount of time it takes to upload an MP3. That dude in Russia who wants that American pop sound can re-record your song and get his US partner (that he pays in petrodollars) to pay the $35 filing fee and register the song first with the US Copyright Office, and you are shit out of luck and out of a hit song. Sure you could try and sue some day when the song is a hit for Sergey Putin. Just try and get a lawyer to represent you in a copyright claim using the CD of the song you mailed to yourself via U.S. post as evidence. If you came to me I would charge you a $10,000 retainer just to get started. That’s a bit more than the $35 filing fee, isn’t it? Read the rest of this entry »

I always have a difficult time explaining to someone what music publishing is. But I came across this interview of producer and label owner, George Howard, and I thought he did a great job of doing just that. He also, very simply, explains the fundamentals of copyrighting your music. This is good stuff and knowledge you shouldn’t be with out if your in the music biz.

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