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Obtaining Rights For Music-Driven TV Productions
This is Part Two of a two-part interview, coordinated by Entertainment Law & Finance Editor-in-Chief Stan Soocher, with Santa Monica-CA-based entertainment Henry Root. In Part One, Root, who has extensive experience handling legal issues for music-driven television productions, discussed considerations in clearing rights in, and determining fees for, songs and sound recordings used in a production, as well as how option rights for the music are negotiated. Root also began, and continues here, a discussion of the issues to be negotiated for a record label to waive its exclusive right to the services of an artist who will appear in a TV
music production. Root also discusses copyrights in artist TV performances, reciprocal rights with record labels, holdbacks on exploitation, and warranties and representations.
EL&F: What key copyright issues are involved in negotiating the record label's waiver of exclusivity of its rights to an artist's musical services?
Root: The copyrights in, and to, the production itself will vest in the TV producer. Persons rendering services, including the artists, in connection with the production will do so on a 'work-for-hire' basis for the producer. These include, but aren't limited to, the executive producers, line producers, directors, lighting designers, set designers and other key production individuals. These services are considered to be 'specially ordered and commissioned' by the producer for inclusion in an 'audio-visual work' under the Copyright Act. Under the Act, the definition of 'audiovisual works' include 'all accompanying sounds, regardless of the nature of the material objects, such as films or tapes, in which the [audiovisual] works are embodied.'
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