Paying artists

[PilotX]

This is basically a question with regards to the legal side of things if we decide to charge for the magazine we are setting up
(please note that this decision is not taken, and discussion will occur first - this is for research so an informed decision can be made)

do we licence tracks from the visual and music artists. We then pay them royalties based on the sales of the albums. or do we have to pay an upfront licence fee? are there issues if this fee is 0 and we then pay them money later based on sales?
My belief would be that the artists have the rights to royalties whatever, but can choose to waive this right (which would be the case, I guess, if we don't charge)

Obviously we need watertight contracts for all this, but we can come back to that later.

Basically, what are the issues people know about in doing this? Presumably we will have to set up a company to handle this side of things, or can we do it informally (and still be legal)?

If there are issues i've not mentioned then please add them on,
I want to know all the complications now, so that we can avoid some pitfalls later on...

Cheers
Tom

[robotfunk]

OK I'm not a lawyer but AFAIK youre safe to include video if you have a statement from the creator that its ok to use.
Music is a bit more difficult. Music artists that are registered with MCPS/BUMA/STEMRA/BIEM/other int'l equivalents have this thing with mech. copyright and the label has to pay an amount per manufactured item. Even if I'm putting out my own tracks on my own label i have to pay per manufactured disc. You can substract some for promo copies that you give away free, but this can only be a small percentage of the total amount, so even if you are giving all copies away free, you still need to pay.
The only way around it is working exclusively with non-registered artists. This is a bitch for the artist as he cannot protect his future financial rights w/o being registered.

[telekinetik]

I ran across an interesting book while at the store today. It has a section on digital art and is pretty relevant to what you're doing. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1581150032/qid=1042245951/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/104-6228239-0822341

[Anyone]

BTW,

My girlfriend was reading this post over my shoulder and showed me an interesting article in last month's Art Monthly http://www.artmonthly.co.uk/
cant find the digital version of the article though sorry...

anyhow the title is quite a teaser:
"Theft, Lies and Videotapes
Whose copyrignt is it anyway?"

Ne1

[bluntfaktory]

we did a set up for a for a movie in which (in addition to our stuff) they wanted footage of african wildlife . they , on our behalf bought up 1 min of stock footage for us to use at a cost of $4500.00 usd . the hole thing was a pain in the ass but did saved us a trip to africa to wrangle a shot of lions on the kill . copyright imagery is avalable through these stock footage companies but it an't cheep , there's a mile of red tape , and lots of conditions as to what you can use it for !