Recording with a Producer

By Laura Cohn

A lot of artists record their music and manufacture CDs. With computers and home recording studios, making a product is more affordable than it was, say, 20 years ago. Technology has provided a platform for expression that gives more people access to the marketplace. That is a good thing and it also can be a misleading thing depending on who is embarking on the journey of home recording.

There are many artists who are great at doing it all. They can write songs, play lots of instruments, work with current technology, know how to get good sounds with their gear and are great at marketing and self-promotion. I’m not one of those kinds of artists. I’m a singer/songwriter who writes songs with a guitar. I can usually find my way around simple computer programs and have an understanding of how business works.

My greatest strength is finding good people to work with who are great at doing what I’m not wired for. I’m not a gear girl. It’s not my passion. I know people that love reading spec manuals who are completely into electronics. I know people who can hear arrangements in their head and can play a lot of instruments. So instead of trying to be something I’m not, I look for people who can do what I need to get done. I also find that collaborating with other people helps my creativity expand into broader ground.

Recording and manufacturing CDs falls into the category of “business investment” for me, and if I decide to spend money on a business venture I need to have a plan for sales, otherwise I’m just involved in a fairly expensive hobby. With so many artists creating products, I need to have a strategy and a business model that works in order to go into the marketplace and get a return on my investment. That takes discipline.

When I decided that one of my songs needed to be heard by other people, I went on a quest to find a producer to work with. I interviewed a number of people who had studios or who rented studios for their projects. My first round of seeking didn’t bring me a producer to record with. In my mind, I needed to work with someone with contacts in the industry who would be willing to help me take my song and get it exposure.

Then one day, a friend of mine asked me how my music was going and if I was working with a record label. Music was fine and I wasn’t working with a label. He told me his friend had a label and said he could give my stuff to him if I wanted. I said sure. The day after my package was dropped off I received a phone call. The next day I was in the studio with my guitar. I was offered the opportunity to record a real record.

I was introduced to my producer, Robert Eibach, and got a contract to look over. In my discussion with the studio principle I was told that I would own my masters when I finished recording my 10 song record. When my lawyer looked at the contract he made sure that I had authorship of the recordings, which wasn’t specified in the original document. That was a paragraph that had work-for-hire copyright language in it.

A producer’s contract isn’t something that I had ever seen before. There are many ways that producers work with artists. If work-for-hire isn’t specified, then the producer owns copyright authorship of the song’s recordings on those masters, which means the artist doesn’t solely own the right to publish or license the recording. Many producers add parts to songs and sometimes are involved in making changes in the structure of the song.

My lawyer insisted that everyone who had any part of recording anything on my record signed a Work for Hire agreement including my producer. It added some money to the budget on my record, but it also gave me the ability to take my masters and shop for deals as a single entity. I did give my producer points on retail sales of CDs and a percentage on film licensing for the songs as a part of my contract with the studio.

Because everything was spelled out in writing, I was able to sign my contract with confidence that what I signed my name to was what I had verbally understood our deal was. My lawyer told me that it doesn’t matter what someone says to me, I live with what is on the paper that I sign my name to. So my legal fees are serving me well and allowing me to move forward in my career with clarity and understanding.

Laura Cohn is a recording artist/singer/songwriter, author, certified mediator, reiki practitioner, and life coach specializing in healing mother/daughter relationships. She developed a program called “Word Healing: The Art of Reframing Your Life” after she became aware of how her use of language altered moods and amplified emotions. Laura can be reached at Laura@WordHealing.com.