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Faced with a dilemma on air, a local station had the opportunity with Chevelle in the studio to debut new material from their new album- do you play the tracks with the bands consent and not the label? While listeners called urging the station to play it, the band eagerly handing the CD at the DJ’s at the helm, parts of the three tracks were eventually played on air.
In the end, do bands have more rights to their tracks than the label when push comes to shove?
It all comes down to the wording of the contract and what the band actually owns.
Bands keeping indie have a lot more opportunity when it comes to having their music appear online, distribution, and actual use of their music. While many use labels just for the distribution- i.e. lending a company such as CDBaby, iTunes etc the right to distribute their music. The contract is often non exclusive which in turn allows the band the right to do what they wish with their music and the rights will most likely stay with the band or song writer.
In the case of this such arrangement going on a radio show and asking your tracks to be played is in no contract violation.
Through most major labels, bands earn a royalty rate between 10-15% and depending on what option the artist takes to their contract they may actually end up owning very little of their music in the end. Where some bands rather having more creative rights to the recording process and want more money from their merchandising than the actual sales of records, artists signed to a major label really don’t have much say in the usage of their product without the say of the label depending on who holds the copyright.
Some bands do chose to do a co publishing deal in which they give the copyright to a music publisher and take an advance on the royalties for the songs on their album, even though following trends in music its not an exact science predicting which songs will chart.
Many a lawsuit happens for the above reason when a band thinks they have the right to using or releasing a song for an intended purpose only to have the label fight them on the issue.
Should then a band coming to a radio station have the right to put a song on the air without the labels ok?
Fighting on behalf of the artists, most will say they should have enough ownership as the creator of the material to do anything they want with it but the law may in the end say differently.
For more info: Do bands have more rights to the music than labels
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