Had my production for this unit been a calibration and commercial I would have needed to have a contract written by a lawyer to determine what percentage of the royalties each team member would receive.
Contracts, as I understand, should be negotiated between band members and producers with the help of a lawyer. A contract should be very explicit in its stipulations, there should be no question of who receives what and when. A contract may be specific enough that it states not only the percentage of royalties the production house receives but also what type of royalties it can receive a percentage of.
A band may be lucky enough to negotiate a clause in its contract which states that the producers can only receive royalties on the first one hundred thousand cd’s sold. However it is standard practice for a band to receive only ten percent of all royalties. I would negotiate for the band to receive a more equal and fair share of the royalties. I would possibly not ask for royalties from any media exposure, even though this would exclude me from a lot of the earnings.
In regard to copyright law, in Australia copyright is free and automatic. As soon as a song is written it belongs to the writer. However, it may be important for bands to stipulate through a written agreement who wrote what part or percentage of a song and therefore how much of the royalties they will be entitled to.
This to is a negotiable contract. For more information regarding copyright and contracts see the following site:
theonlyreuben 