Contracts

The following contracts are invitation only by email requests from our office. Once invited, the following contracts may be executed on-line with a digital signature. The contract is valid only after our review and counter signature on our end. We then create a Google drive and place your finalized contract in the legal folder.

Licensing and Distribution Contract Form Here (initiate a contract)

Licensing Schedule A Form Here (use this to add a song )

Sync-Rep Contract Form Here (use this to initiate a contract)

Sync-Rep Contract Form Here (Special NE International)

Sync-Rep Contract Schedule A Form Here (use this to add a song)

Schedule A Licensing and Sync-Rep Form Here (use to add a song)

Producer Licensing Contract Form Here (Co-Productions Only)

Work Made for Hire Agreement Form Here (musicians)

Producer Work-Made-For-Hire Agreement Form Here (no splits)

Standard Producer Agreement Form Here (indie Producers)

Non-Disclosure Agreement Form Here (interns, coops & contractors)

Photo-Video Producer Agreement Form Here (independent contractors)

Archetype and Tone marketing survey here



FAQ’s

Q: What is unique about the Winding Way Records Contracts?

A: The terms in a Winding Way Records Record & Distribution contract are different then the typical industry contract, we take no publishing, copyright of mechanical rights away for life, you retain all rights when our contracts end. The industry standard is 50/50 , our’s is 70/30 – that’s 70% to Artist and only 30% to Company but when the Contract ends you retain 100%. We do not own anything.

Q: On a Record and Distribution Contract, do I retain my Publishing rights and Copyrights?

A: Yes, You retain 100% of the writers share for life (plus 75 years), we receive 100% of publishers share but only during the life of the contract. We collect Publisher royalties but all net revenues are subject to the 70/30 split (Artist gets 70%). When the contract ends, we remove ourselves as Publisher and you retain 100% of your publishing.

Q: On a Record and Distribution Contract, do I personally owe the company money for expense recoupment?

A: No, you will never personally owe the company any monies for recoupment, recoupment is covered by net revenues from merchandise sales, licensing, music sales, music licensing, streaming revenue, publishing and touring.

Q: Is the sync-rep contract for one song?

A: Yes but we may add additional songs later, we will send you a Schedule A link if we identify another track or send you a schedule A to incorporate your entire catalog.

Q: I haven’t registered my songs with a Performing Rights Organization (PRO). Is that something I would need to do now?

A: Yes, we recommend registering all music at time of release.  You need to choose ASCAP, BMI or SESAC as an artist, once you setup your account, you can register your works.  We we are affiliated with all as a label so we can do administration as necessary.

Q: I may not be interested in having my music used for commercials or as background music for selling products.

A: All Sync offers are discussed with our Artist at the time they are made, we would discuss the proposed use prior to executing any sync deal.

Q: Why are your sync-rep agreements exclusive?

A: Our sync rep contracts are exclusive because of the time and energy that we will invest in an artist or a song. Unlike many of the non-exclusive sync libraries online that have millions of tracks (that will likely never be found by music supervisors) we actually personally pitch specific songs to music supervisors for specific projects. We identify tracks that match the project brief, genre and mood so your song has the best chance of getting placed.

Our goal is to have a very very small and exclusive library of just 25-50 songs in very specific genres and moods. We spend resource time internally doing this and have out-of-pocket expenses promoting digitally to generate buzz among industry professionals. All of this cost us money and our time so it’s very difficult to leave the back door wide open and allow a third-party sync rep opportunity to swoop in and take the placement or a music supervisor from contacting our artist directly.

Q: Why do you re-register my track when a synchronization is done?

A: The re-registration of a title with the project name is done so the royalties from that specific use can be tracked. When the music is published in the sync use, the user is required to provide Que-sheet tracking of their use in the market place, this reporting is crucial for compliance with the original contract terms but also for tracking royalties associated with that use. The dual registration of the track at the PRO allows royalties from all other public performance and uses to be tracked separately and paid directly to the artist. The newly registered title then tracks just the royalties from the master & sync use.

Q: Do I need to register my songs with a Performance Rights Organization (PRO) like BMI or ASCAP?

A: If you have signed a Recording and distribution contract with us we will do the registration for you because we are acting as your publisher.

If you signed a sync- rep contract only with us you are still required to register your works.

So, you just register the track on the PRO. Later if we sync that song, we re-register the same song when sync’d with with the song title-project name and that is used to track royalties for the sync activity only.

Q: How do I register a work on a PRO system?

A: When registering your music work, you have two options (depends on the PRO) . If you do not have a publisher for this song, you can typically select a box that allows registration without a publisher.

The other option, is most artists will create their own publishing company on their PRO service (ASCAP or BMI). So you register the song with you as the rights owner, and then your publishing company as the publisher. When the royalties are collected by the PRO, you will receive a payment to your Artists account and then also to your publisher account.

When we are acting as the publisher we actually become the publisher on the registered and re-registered work during the term of the contract, you get 100% of the artist share and we have 100% of publisher share but if we have net royalty revenues they are split 70/30 with you.

The publishing world does not allow publishers to have less than 50% of the total or 100% of the publisher share but that’s why our contracts grant the excess royalties back to the artist during the term of the contract.

 

Artists Advocates