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Copyright

Q: Rights for a cast recording

If I produce a cast recording album, whose rights do I have to take into account?

A: Those of the cast, the stage producer and the composer/lyricist. However, in the case of the composer/lyricist the probability is that their rights will be administered either by their music publishers or more likely by MCPS (Mechanical Copyright Protection Society which is part of The Music Alliance) if they or their music publishers are members of that Society to whom so called "mechanical royalties" will be payable at standard rates pursuant to a statutory licensing scheme.

You will need to negotiate a deal with the stage producer who will be able to deliver the participation of the cast, and who, if there has been no previous recording of the music and lyrics, will have been granted the sole right to make a cast album by the owner of the dramatic performance rights in the show. The latter's contract with the producer will probably have contained a music publishing restriction against releasing any other sound recording of songs from the show before the producer has arranged for the release of a cast album within a specified time limit.

Royalties for the cast will be subject to Equity minimum rates. If the vocalists who make the recording include mainly members of the cast it will still legitimately be regarded as a cast recording and may be marketed as such, even if not all members of the cast are used and even if those cast members who do participate are supported by session singers. The recording does not have to be made on stage during a live performance but can and usually is made in a recording studio with special sound equipment.

The stage producer will expect a royalty from you in return for delivering the cast and releasing the sound recording right to you. This will be a matter for negotiation and is usually expressed as a percentage of the "net dealer price" per record sold, after allowing for various deductions, particularly packaging costs. The stage producer may well have to pass part of his royalty back to the grantor of the stage rights under his contract with the latter but that is behind the curtain so far as you are concerned.

It may well be that in your capacity as record producer you will be able to persuade the stage producer to invest in the exploitation of the album by contributing to the recording costs (or he may be keen to do so without any persuasion), in which case he will expect a share of the "profits" (as defined) in addition to his royalty, depending on the extent of such contribution. Accounting between you and the stage producer is usually required to be half-yearly or quarterly.

Your contract with the stage producer may well require you to use only his standard show-logo and artwork on the packaging of the album and will license you the right to do so. This requirement should not be resisted as it should prove a very useful marketing tool and boost record sales. The contract will also very likely address the content and prominence of the sound recording and stage production credits to be incorporated into the inlay card or sleeve of the album, along with your own.

Once you have released your cast album on sale to the public, you may expect a possible proliferation of other competing sound recordings of music and lyrics from the show but not featuring members of the cast and not using the show's logo and artwork, over both of which your contract with the stage producer should give you exclusivity, so you will have that big advantage.

First published December 28th 2006