Signing a work-for-hire agreement is never a good idea for an artist, musical or other-
wise. If your client presents you with a contract for their musical needs, read it carefully
to ensure you aren’t giving away your rights without adequate compensation. Beyond
compensation, if you sign a work-for-hire agreement, you’ll also lose the right to use the
work in your promotional demo recordings and marketing materials and the rights to use
it in or for anything else, such as licensing. Your client will own your work, lock, stock,
and barrel.
If a client tries to get you sign a work-for-hire agreement, it can be at best unethical
and at worst illegal. The copyright law doesn’t discriminate between ethical and unethical
practices. Some unscrupulous companies will knowingly seek to abuse your rights by
denying work to those who do not accept work-for-hire. Others will designate work as
work-for-hire after the fact by requiring the artist to sign a purchase order or check with
work-for-hire terms in the endorsement area. Another shady practice is work-for-hire
contracts, understood by the artist to apply only to the current project, but which may ac-
tually have language that covers all future work. Be aware that “work-for-hire” may not
be specifically written in the contract, but it could be buried in confusing legalese. When
reviewing a contract, look for the following:
- “All rights in all media now in existence or invented in the future in perpetuity
throughout the universe” - Contractual work-for-hire language found in random documents, such as on the
backside of paychecks - Clauses buying all electronic rights
- Multi-year non-compete clauses