Hi folks,

Jeff Wells' recent post amongst other events got me thinking to "dotting the I's and crossing the T's" so to speak when it comes to one's own creative efforts. 

For you amateur musicians out there, especially singer/songwriter types (myself, Festus ..others, I'm sure there's a lot of you out there), be wary of wading into waters too deeply.

From what I have read and heard, there can be a lot of obstacles and "sharks" out there.

Bottom line: If you are recording YOUR OWN stuff, YOURSELF (without session musicians), you have much less BS to deal with musico-legally, than if you do covers, and have a complex set up of studio(s), various musicians, or perhaps worst-of-all..co-writers. 

Read the following (click on Music 101), and weep, or at least wince.  I'm sure DB, through extensive experience, has his own very pointed opinions on this, but I thought this attorney's advice was not only readible and clear to understand, but extremely helpful for us amateurs or neophytes.  I used to write a lot of songs and poems (for later song use), many moons ago, and then stopped because I thought most of them sucked, or it was just way too time consuming at a point in my life when my other work was more demanding.  I still have these things in files, and on tape (not all of them went into the circular file), but I have only come back to this process recently.   The point is, you work hard to make your music/song happen (whether it's "good" or not etc...is not the issue).   You need to protect your "ass"ets.   So before you go back to the spare bedroom  or basement to lay down more tracks, check out what this guy has to say.   I did, and I'm glad I did it NOW.

Gene

http://www.kakuk.com/publishing.html