I had made a big deal in my mind about having to draft the necessary contracts, agreements and forms for my Limited Liability Company. It is a publishing and recording entity as well as providing live entertainment. I had done the research, but then I had to pull it all together. That was what I was putting off…kicking the can down the road…

Now, the business side of me wanted to get all the pieces of the puzzle done before the creative side of me could get going with my projects. Well, my creative side became impatient and said enough already! Get it done. So, I did. Not exactly fun or exciting, but it is now a great relief to me. If you are a DIY musician and trying to accomplish as much as you can correctly, this list of forms may be helpful.

First, I had to assign my copyrights to my LLC, the publishing side. There is no specific form for that so, I had to create it based on other’s templates. The Library of Congress has a DCS form that must be completed and accompany your form with the proper fee.

I needed a Waiver Disclaimer Release Authorization in case I need to hire a musician or two to finish my recordings as I can’t play every instrument! That’s so the person knows that they are being paid for their recording services and that they won’t receive residual payments or royalties.

I also needed a Publishing Agreement between myself and the LLC. I chose a Single Song Agreement as you can use that for one song or several at a time.

A Recording Mechanical License agreement was needed between the publishing side of the LLC and the recording side. A publisher needs to give permission for an entity to record the songs that it owns the copyrights.

Then I needed a Recording Contract between myself and my LLC.

Being optimistic, just in case someone else down the road wants to record one of my songs, I needed to create a Mechanical License. Lastly, in case someone or a company wanted to use a song of mine in a commercial, music video, film, theatrical production or television program, I needed to create a Sync and Master License.

There are other forms…various releases for locations and people, video production agreements, single songwriter’s split sheets, cue sheets, producer agreements…you get the picture. I may not be done yet…but, I’m done for now!