How to retain copyright of my own music?

[Lee B. James]

Until recently, my career has always been in design, illustration, animation, and marketing - purely visual stuff.

But now, working as a freelancer, I'm getting a lot of video work. I started out just using stock music in the videos, but have now started offering bespoke music, and already I have a couple of clients wanting music, which I am thrilled about (having spent my life composing for fun).

But now, the issue of copyright is on my mind.

Working in design, I've never really cared about copyright. I never bothered with contracts because I'm always happy for the client to own full copyright of anything I've drawn or designed for them - as far as I'm concerned, they can do what they like with it.

But, for some reason, my music is more precious and personal to me, and I really do not want to lose ownership of any piece of music I've created. At the moment, I am only a small-time operation, and bespoke music is only a small sideline for me, but I'd still like to make sure I cover myself on everything I compose.

The main thing is, I want to make sure I have full right to use my own music however I wish in the future - I hate the idea of no longer owning music I've written

But then I also get a bit nervous at the idea of my clients taking my music and using it for other things besides the original video it was intended for - maybe re-selling it, or something, or it ends up being used to promote something I object to? (Unlikely, I know, but the mere possibility bothers me.)

Would anyone have any thoughts or advice about this?

[Samulis]

That's where having a contract comes in. You can specify in the contract exactly how the music can be used. Lots of templates online, just a google search away.

There is sort of a graduated line from selling the rights to the music in totality to licensing only the necessary rights to the piece for the necessary time and necessary project. You can decide where on the line you want to be (although some clients may only be willing to go "so low"), but note that the more rights you demand, the less you will typically get paid in return (as you are providing less of a good/service to the other party).

[Mattias Westlund]

Yes, what Sam said. I never give up all the rights to the commissioned music I make; there's a lot of examples of composers being unable to post their music on their own sites or youtube channels etc without getting flagged for copyright infringement, which is just weird and wrong. So I always make it clear to the client that a) they have exclusive rights to using the music any way they see fit for the game (or whatever) it was composed for, and everything surrounding it like e.g. trailers, b) I will not allow anyone else to license and use the music, and c) I retain the rights to use select tracks for demo purposes. No client has asked me to give up the rights completely so far, but then again I have never done any work for big time developers/publishers.

[Lee B. James]

Thank you both, that is really helpful advice.

Yes, I understand that the more rights I retain over my music, the less value that service has. But in my case, I'm only making background music for videos, so most of my clients won't have any particular interest in using the music elsewhere. I just want to know I'm covered. My music is like a part of me, and I couldn't bear for someone to tell me I wasn't allowed to use it how I wanted.