JPF Home Page Forums General Messages Mentor Questions Forum . How do I Protect my Original Music&Lyrics when Join a Band?

Am a Singer/Songwriter with Original Music & Lyrics.
I was asked to join a band as Lead Singer. The Band is looking to perform Original Material... i.e. some of the songs I have written. I am looking to have a Band back me up on some of my Originals. So we've agreed to give it a shot.

My Songs have been Copyrighted & I'm a member of BMI.

My Question: Is my original material still exclusively mine in a band situation? Also, if I were to leave the Band... would they be allowed to use & perform my songs without me? Is there some sort of contract agreement that should be used in this arrangement? Thanks

If you are the exclusive copyright holder of your songs (both music and lyrics), you have nothing to worry about. If you leave the band, they would need your permission to continue playing YOUR song(s)...especially if they were making any money.

You can always submit a second application for copyright, with a new title, so your original work remains as originally submitted, if the band makes changes to your song. You would include them as co-writers if you feel that they deserve credit.

The Copyright form that you submitted to the Library of Congress is a pretty good `agreement'.

As Steve states. If you have registered the songs with the Library of Congress you are OK. Your songs belong to you, however if a band wants to continue playing your songs they can. That is what Cover Bands do, play others songs. A venue where a band plays is supposed to pay for a license to the PRO's and any royalities will eventually come to you if any are collected.

While you may never see any royalities from your PRO your songs are getting publicity and could be picked up by a major artist to record. If that were to happen you would need to learn about publishing and licensing your songs.

I came back to correct my reply (regarding the band continuing to play your song), but Ray beat me to it! LOL!

Having someone playing your song is usually a good thing.

Additionally, If it ends up getting domestic airplay, the band wouldn't see any money...only you, the copyright holder would. The U.S. is one of the few remaining countries that do not pay royalties to the artist that's heard on the radio...only the writer(s) and publisher(s) of the song gets paid.

So with or without you being in the band...let them play YOUR song until the cows come home!

What no one has mentioned is... you need to have a "Band Agreement" that states exactly what will happen if you leave the band, if the band records your songs, etc. If the band is on the up & up (gigging, recording, touring), then you might consider seeing an entertainment lawyer. But first I'd just sit down with everyone in the band and talk about what is fair. Cause you'll be singing other people's songs, and other people will be playing your songs... and everyone will be contributing to the performance of the song.

It's not cut & dried. If, for example, the band recorded your song, and that song was part of the soundtrack for a movie, for example... there would be performances on that track that don't belong to you. The Master Recording belongs to every member of the Band. Now perhaps I'm taking it too far, but I (being sensible) think it's a good idea to contemplate the different scenerios that might come up, should the band 'take off'.

Thanks to everyone that replied. My work was sent the copyright office and registered with BMI

The band in question heard my music and asked me to be their lead singer. They are a very small local band. They want original material. I don't want to be in the postion of them 'using' me for my original material then once they get what they want I'm out. Now we are competition for each other with my own material. I write both music, lyrics and play/sing.

If they were a big name band then sure play my music and get it out there. They wouldn't be competition at that point.

So I'm guessing that I would have to have the band sign some for of contract stating that they would not be able to play my music if I'm no longer with the band unless,they get permission from me.

Is that a fair thing to ask?

C. Lynne

www.clynnesmith.com
http://cdbaby.com/cd/clynnesmith

Well, once your song is recorded, and published (ASCAP or BMI), *anybody* can sing it. Anybody can record it. And as the writer of the song, you'd certainly want people singing your song.

You can record "My Way" by Paul Anka if you want. Just cause Sinatra did a pretty good version, doesn't mean you can't take a swing at it. But you'd have to pay Mr. Anka 9.1 cents per CD (and per download, as I understand it, but I don't know the mechanism for how to track that and how it gets collected).

And if you're going around performing "My Way" I believe ASCAP (or BMI, whoever manages the publishing rights) will be getting money from the venues you're performing in and turning over some money to Mr. Anka and whoever published the song.

You'd have to check with a lawyer about whether you could actually forbid them from doing the songs, but I'm not sure why you'd want that. The more downloads they sell, that's money for you, as long as you are the copyright holder and published writer.

[Anyone can record any song that has been commercially released if they are able to obtain a compulsory mechanical licence. If you sing a cover song or songs in some venues, you have to pay royalties to the writers (usually a percentage of the door).]

---It's a question of who controls your creative property when and if you leave the band. It's also a question of who controls the master rights of any recording that is done. You may own the song, but not the performances of the songs on the Master.

If your band performs when you are recording, it may be a good idea to pay them so it is a work for hire,then they have no claim on the master or performance. Once a song is recorded and released to the public, anyone can perform it, if they record it, royalties have to be paid.

Yes, it's quite true that the rights to the master (recording) and to the copyright (the song) are two different things. And she could ask the band to sign work-for-hire agreements so she'd own the master recording.

But, that sounds like a politically impossible thing to ask in this situation. The band is asking her to be the lead singer, and to use her songs. And while the band will benefit from her songs and her talent, she's going to benefit from working with the band. This is different from her deciding to hire musicians to play her songs -- in which case it would be "her" act. The band wants to work with her.

So, I don't know that it's a reasonable request to walk in and say, sure I'll work with you, but if I ever decide to leave you won't even own your recordings! If I were a member of that band, I'd probably say, um, thanks for your time, see ya.

There are no rules, as we keep saying, it's all about relationship and negotiation and what you can work out, and what you're willing to go to the mat for. From where I'm sitting the band (and her) should jointly own the recordings, and she should retain ownership of the song copyright.

Is the starter of this thread still in the Philly suburbs? She might be my neighbor for all know.

Lynne,

Welcome to JPF, thanks for posting.

Well there you have it. You own the right to copy your song. That's the copyright. You also own the right to publish your song, that's slightly different from the right to simply copy it, publishing is the right to distribute those copies to the public, whether or not you are actually selling them. That's why it is good that you registered your copyright (right to copy) with the Library of Congress. Now there is proof that you have secured that right, as well as the right to publish it.

The band can never take that right from you. You can only decide to give up that right by agreeing with someone (a contract) that you give or share the right with them.

Along with the right to copy comes the right of first public release. For example, if no one ever records your song, they need your permission to be the first to do so. Once someone records your song, then others don't need your permission, they just have to pay you for it. As far as your copyright goes, that's the only issue you have concerning your band. If they record that song, then anyone else can record it also, without your permission, as long as they pay you. That's not necessarily a big deal, though some artists get nervous about spending a lot of money to record a song that their competition may also be recording.

Where your band may have rights is, as you are learning, in ownership of a recording that you and they might make. Of course you are owed money for your mechanical license for your songs, that's currently 9.1 cents per song per recording, or 1.75 per minute of the song, whichever is greater. You could even waive your mechanical license as long as you are a member of the band, and just split the profits, that's a bit of an incentive. I'd only do that if the label belongs to the band, if some other label is going to put out the recordings, then get the mechanicals.

I would make the agreement that you can always use the recording for demo purposes, that you get paid for mechanical licensing if you are no longer part of the band, and that you will always share in the profit of the recording even if you, for whatever reason, leave the band. You could put it in an email. Something like:

"Hey guys, that's great that we're going to record some of my songs...all I ask is that I can always use the recording for a demo, I won't sell it myself, that and that I can always share in the profit of any sales we ever get from selling the recording, and if I am no longer part the band, that I get paid for my mechanical licensing (that's 9.1 cents per song per unit sold). As long as I'm in the band, I won't need the mechanical license royalties. Of course if a label picks up the recording, even while in the band, I'd want the mechanical royalties for my songs. What do you say to that?"

Then if they answer back, you've got an agreement, a contract.

All the Best,
Mike

Man, so many of these topics are very funny to me. I don't know how many of you have played with bands before but if you have and then look back on threads like these it really gets funny. First of all if a band makes it past a year of being together it is pretty amazing. Somebody always doesn't like someone else, arguments ensue, they are always taking their bat and ball and going home.

I played with bands for over 20 years,each time it was "We are going to be together forever, make a fortune," etc. Nothing ever came out of it. Sooner or later there are songs that become "band songs' because each person puts their on licks, emotions, time into them, so you are sharing them whether you want to or not. The drummers and bass players will tell you the song has no foundation without them, the guitar players will say their signature licks make the song, the keyboardists will say that their technical expertise is what takes it "over the edge" and the singers all say that without them, it would just be music.

As the band progresses, everybody starts writing then getting upset that THEIR songs are not getting as much attention. Usually two or more will form up against the other ones, and rifts ensue. It's usually about a two year really fun run. There will probably be around 4 or 5 members that come and go. They usually leave about a day before the biggest gig.

There is always some reason the venue promoter finds to not pay you. business is terrible, you have too many people, somebody drank on the band tab and didn't pay it so that has to be taken out. Equipment and transportation breaks down, causing any profits to be eaten up. the so called manager, takes some seed money and buys pot.

The $1500 showcase the band puts on, has no one that shows up, the food goes bad, and no record companies even RSVP. If you want to see the perfect example of this, watch two movies,
"The Commitments"
"That Thing You Do"

Of course, those are all just the good parts.

MAB

And I always thought it was so glamorous and cool to be part of a band.LOL

Wow, Marc. Sounds like you've got a nasty case of the band blues going on there!

True, keeping the band together is hard. Doesn't mean it's not worth trying

Some of the best times of my life have been times I've spent in bands. I was in a band when I visited Utrecht in the Netherlands, Jim.

Keeping a band going is like keeping an old car running. It requires constant attention. Sometimes you need adjusting. Sometimes you've got to replace parts. Sometimes it's not worth putting more money or effort in it and it's time to get a new car. But sometimes, you've got a valuable car that's always worth fixing up.

Yes, there are lots of problems. The most successful people in life...in anything...are the ones who face problems head on, decide which ones can be fixed and which ones can't, then fix the ones that can and don't waste time on the ones that can't. Hmmm, sounds familiar, doesn't it?

I think it calls for success stories from people who are in the band.
Nadia

Jim,

Not at all. It is actually humerous to me. Fifty years before me, my father was a Southern Gospel music singer. He had a regional television show in Mississippi.He lined up the sponsors, sold the advertising, booked the studio, the rehersal space, forced everybody in the quartet (four singers and the piano player in those days)arranged the set lists, and basically did everything. In addition to his regular job.
The guys in the group would do well to show up. And they always complained that they didn't make enough money. They were late to gigs, and always had some sob story. Finally one day he had had enough of music and cancelled everything and quit.
Forty years after that I found myself at one thirty in the morning after a gig re-aranging the letters of a sign so they would reflect the band name I was in, instead of just mine, even though, I was the entire draw for the group. It was on one of my existing gigs. I booked the gigs, made sure everyone had places to stay, rehearsed the material, provided the transportation, made sure everybody got paid. And the two guys I was playing with were complaining about the sign.
It was the culmination of 22 years of playing in bands like that. It was the last time I would ever use one. I can depend on one person. The rest are fine if you need them on a gig by gig basis. But you often invite more trouble than it is worth. Just a lot of people to do deal with.
For some people it works fine. Just not for me. And over the years as I have seen, it rarely works even for the successful ones. When you are starting to talk about sharing creative control, involving more people, depending on more people, it can be a very decieving thing. It always starts out great.
My comments are to anyone who wants to do it, just like everything in music, keep your eyes and ears open and be aware of how they develop.

MAB
Forty

I understand, Marc. It's easy to develop a bad taste for bands, those musicians are an independent, undisciplined lot. Here's my rant about Bluegrass festivals from my blog...it's all true:


The Glamor of the Road
It's 4am our time, 5am local. We've just pulled up to a motel some 30 miles from the festival. It took thirteen hours to get here, no chance for sleep, the singer left days before but the rest of us had to stay in town for gigs so we had to take my van.

The guy at the front desk said there were no reservations for us, we'd have to pay for rooms if we wanted them. The banjo player had a credit card (this may be the only time that, in the history of the internet, that sentence appears). So we don't argue, we just need to sleep. We get to the rooms. I'll be sharing a room with the dobro player. The air conditioning isn't on and it's summertime in Virginia. We turn it on full blast. I haven't been feeling good on the trip down, so I climb into bed and wrap up, cocoon like, in the blankets.

It's 11 am and we get the automated wake up call. I'm soaked with sweat, probably have a fever. We need to get showered and dressed, oh yeah, I'll need to iron my gig shirt. That done, we're off for breakfast.

The restaurant's not serving breakfast any more, but we don't have time to find one that is, so I'll just have a cheeseburger for breakfast. I'm eating just for protein and energy, I don't feel that good. Now comes a 45 minute trip on backroads to the festival. When we arrive, we find our artist's table. It's in the summer Virginia sun with no shade. I realize I've left my sunscreen at the hotel. Oh well, the sun will keep away the fever chills. We're doing the early show at 1pm, then another one at 8pm. Just enough time for a quick sound check.

Skreeeeeeech! Woooooooooo! Hruuuuuuuuung! We can't hear individual notes, just amorphous ringing and woofing. "PLEASE" the singer says, "For the love of music, just turn off the monitors and try to make it sound good out in the audience." I'm not sure the sound man could hear him. I'm not sure the sound man could hear. So we start the show. I'm hoping I read the first song on the list correctly, because from the sound on stage, I have no idea what song we're playing.

The banjo player yells to the sound man, "Can you turn up the bass?" WRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Somehow, we make it through the set. I swore we did an hour and a half, but it was forty five minutes on the nose. Out to the table for autographs. Big afternoon, we autograph close to fifty festival brochures and sell three cds. "Who was the bass player?" a young lady asks, "That was me, ma'am." I reply, ready to autograph her brochure. "I couldn't hear you." she says.

Back to the hotel. The other guys want to have lunch, so I give them the keys to the van and crawl back into my cocoon, ESPN singing me a lullabye.

"Hey, wake up, we're late!" The guys got back and all napped, no one got a wake up call. I get up and rush to the bathroom. Man, I'm feeling hot. Flip on the light...no wonder. My face is as red as a ripe pepper. "We gotta go." Well, I slept in the gig shirt, but, hey, people wear crushed velvet, don't they? A handful of aspirin washed down with a warm coke oughtta do it.

We're back to the festival with time to spare. Backstage tuning up. "Where's the setlist?" the mandolin player asks. "Oh, we'll just wing it. " says the singer. Up we go, quick soundcheck. Interesting, I've never heard high and low feedback at the same time before. After the third song, the singer yells, "Hey lomanski inna foom roph." and starts playing. "What key? What key?" I'm screaming. I don't believe I've ever heard the song before. I'm looking at the guitar player's hands, he's got a capo on, maybe, the fourth or fifth fret, but it looks like he's playing a Bb, or maybe an F thirteenth. I start playing. Gee, it doesn't sound exactly right, but it's hard to tell with the feedback. Oh well, there's only a few thousand people out there.

The set's over and we're signing brochures and selling the odd cd here and there. An older gentleman comes up to the table. "Hey Mr. Bass Player," he says, "very nice bass." I blush and thank him, "That's too kind, sir, very good to hear." "Yep," he says, "That's a very nice bass, pretty wood, too bad I couldn't hear you."

Finally we're back at the hotel. I've got the shivers, but we've got a band meeting. "Look guys," says the singer, "I need to stay here another couple of days, so you guys will have to go back with Mike." "OK," says the banjo player, "but I've got a 6pm session tomorrow, (that's the first time that sentence has ever been in print) so we'll have to leave in a few hours."

So it's a quick nap. A handful of aspirin, then off to find a hot stop that has coffee for the thirteen hour ride back home.

And that's the Glamor of the Road.

I'm beat to a snot just reading this, no wonder musicians have to take drugs to keep going.LOL

Everett,

The thing is, I spent most of that trip laughing at the situation. There's not a gig I would change.

Nadia asked for success stories. Here are some of my favorite bands I've been with.

The first band I joined was called the New Frontier Singers, it was in high school. We were an interracial, intercultural band. We had a Black member (Back then, you couldn't say "black," that was a derrogatory name, you had to say, "Negro" or "Colored." remember the CP in NAACP stands for Colored People.) a Mexican-American, a Chinese member who, though born in the U.S., learned English as a second language, a Polish-American, a French-American, and me...an Irish-American. More dashes than a track meet. We played high school functions and coffee houses. It was a lot of fun.

Later, I had my own band, the Mike Dunbar Band. I had a female bass player, Judy Hauff, who once was member of the Rotary Connection, a band that included Minnie Ripperton and had a hit with the Stones cover Ruby Tuesday. We played bars, lounges and small concerts. We'd practice for hours to do vocals that our band now just improvise without practice.

The band Redhead had me sharing lead vocals with Betsy Redhed. I was the Redhead, and she was the Redhed At our album release party Steve Goodman came in and played lead guitar with us on a telecaster. The Chicago Scene magazine called us the best new Country band, though we were really sort of acoustic-country-rock, similar to the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. Jethro Burns, of Homer and Jethro, played on our first and only album. One of the songs, "The Medicine Show," a song I'd written at seventeen, was put on rotation at WLS radio and often played on the syndicated radio show, "The Midnight Special." We played college shows from San Antonio to Sioux City, mostly playing the bars in Chicago.

The middle to late seventies we had a band called Above the Storm. We were sort of a Grateful Dead copy band, if there could possibly be such a thing. I learned a lot about music with this band, but can't remember any of it. We had too much fun.

In 1979 I moved to Nashville to join Red, White and Blue(grass). Comedy had always been a big part of my entertaining, but this went to another level. With Ginger Boatwright, I had a comedic partner. Our timing and intuition worked like a wind up Swiss watch. We could do an hour show and play maybe five songs, and the audiences loved it. The music was there too. We had players who worked with the Dillards, and a pianist, Johnny Propst, who could play Coltrane and recorded the piano part for "Rose Colored Glasses." And of course, Ginger, one of the best voices in country or bluegrass. It was serious music that was incredible fun.

Richard Dobson and State of the Heart was what happens when a Texas songwriter from the Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt school, meets an Americana-Bluegrass-Folk-World Music band. Richard's writing is classic. Nancy Griffith called him, "The Hemingway of Country Music." John Prine said he kept our album in his tape player constantly. I got to produce four albums for us. One was a Billboard "recommended pick." We played Europe seven times including the World's Fair in Seville. Our publicist was Pam Lewis, later to become Garth Brooks' manager. Here in the U.S. we played Texas and Tennessee. In some ways it was my favorite band.

Big Al and the Heavyweights are a blues band. I mean The Blues. I only got to play three tours with them, but that included New Orleans during Jazz Fest. The harp player Roguie Ray plays like a Tennessee tornado, and gets mention in Living Blues. Al and I wrote three songs, one got recorded by C. J. Cheniere on Alligator records and two got used on the tv show Emeril Live. I still get checks for those. It was full tilt Blues.

Of course, there's the Razzy Bailey band. I've been playing with Razzy for twenty years. He's become a good friend. We do a lot of writing together and I work at his studio playing bass, producing, playing keyboards, guitar, mandolin, percussion, and engineering. Razzy has written hits, he's recorded hits in both rock and country. As a singer, he had 9 Billboard number one country hits and has numerous Cashbox number ones and still gets number ones in Europe and the Orient. When we do a show, we never have a set list unless it's tv or radio. Razz will play a live show in front of thousands of people and jump into a song we in the band have never heard, sometimes making up a song on the spot. He's in the Georgia Songwriters Hall of Fame, the Alabama Musicians Hall of Fame, and has more awards than Lance Armstrong. It's an honor to be in his band.

I could keep writing for hours. Other bands include Steve "Bulldog" Bivins' Pick of the Litter Band, Leroy Van Dyke's Country Gold Show, Donna Fargo's band, Dave Leatherman and Stone County, Bernadette, Sandi Kaye and New Hickory, the First Take Band, George Clark and Dixie Flyer, Glass House, Hush, Reflections, the Coble Opry House Band, and several more.

Every one has been a blessing. They've fed my kids, provided many folks with entertainment, taught me a lot, and have been much fun. I have to quit now, I'm writing charts for a band this weekend, Classic Country, we're playing the Franklin Elks Club during the afternoon of the 4th of July. Then that evening, I'll be substituting for a bass player at Mickey Roo's in Franklin. Of course, next week I'm doing charts for a band that's playing the Wilson County Fair, then there's the.......

That's fantastic, Mike. Thank you for sharing.
Nadia
P.S. on the way to work I've met a father of my former student who is now in a secondary school (I used to teach him in Primary). Not only his son is continuing with his piano lessons but he is also performing the piano, keyboard, singing, creating his own songs and playing in the band. I do hope he will have many successful stories to tell as the time comes.

WOW Mike, I didn't realize that you had played in so many bands, some of which I recognize,some I don't. I've led a very boring life when it comes to music. I'm just a songwriter of little renown, performing was not my forte, my three minutes of fame as a performer was when I got to sing a song on a province wide TV news program, yes a TV news program. I saw an item on the news that triggered an idea for a song. I wrote it, sung it on cassette tape and sent it to them as a bit of a lark. Next thing I knew they had traced me down at work and wanted me to sing it on their news show. They were willing to pay my cost of travelling to where they were located, five hour drive, but they would fly me there, pay for my lost day's wages at work and pay me about $100.00 to perform that one song. Even though I was not a performer and scared to death to sing in public, I did it, and it turned out well, I'm glad I did it. By the way, I drove instead of flying, did not like the idea of putting my guitar in the baggage compartment, so they gave my the value of the plane ticket, best paying gig I ever had, and about the only one too, LOL. They taped the song to be played on the show, I did two takes, and they were surprised that was all it took, they said that they had pro singer at times perform on their show and had to take ten to fifteen takes before they were satisfied. I said if I took that many takes it would only get progressively worst with each take, while a pro singer would improve, plus they had a public image to maintain, where I didn't.LOL

Mike, you really should write a book.

Tom

I second Tom's opinion.
Nadia

Thanks Tom and Nadia.

Right now I'm too busy juggling several bands and session work to do much writing. I do write some fiction and used to have a regular column in an Irish country music magazine, but these days the only writing I do is here at JPF. I'm approaching 60, maybe when I hit 70 I'll start that book.

You are welcome, Mike. Good luck.
Nadia
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=936270
http://www.songramp.com/homepage.php?userid=27495
http://www.showcaseyourmusic.com/nlcripps

OK - now, back to the question.
This post poses an interesting issue - whether you can join a band and then restrict the band members from doing your material if you are no longer a band member. This is interesting from the perspective of a sort of job security issue. Frankly, I've never seen anybody try to impose this kind of condition before, but there is nothing in contract law to prevent you from trying. You will probably run into a few employment law type issues (Courts won't enforce contracts if they are too restrictive in time and territory where people are trying to make a living - and these rules vary from state to state)and there is an additional issue of trying to restrict the band because you have to consider what happens if one or two members join another band and they want to do your songs - you're then trying to restrict other future bands. Are you actually considering an agreement pursuant to which each band member agrees to only perform/record your songs if they do it with you? You're going to need a lawyer on this one, who can draft a fairly detailed and tailored agreement to be sure it's enforceable - and each member who signs will have to have their own lawyer review it. Expensive.

P.S. I've been playing with the same band for 14 years. We never argue, and we just sort of clicked the first time we played together.

Stu,

Unless a band is very successful there is usually no problem with it. At every step you make in the music industry, you have different circumstances involved and there will be time to make decisions. If you are performing on clubs, and local/regional things, you are not going to be involved with much past those venues. If you get a small record deal, there is a set of contracts that are drawn up and legal issues are faced then, including ownership. publishing on each song.
As you grow, more people are involved. Managers, agents, publicity people, come in as they are needed. If you were to get a major record deal, there are lawyers involved. All of these issues are taken care of at the time they should be taken care of. NOTHING happens overnight. It is an average of three years from when a band/artist is approached by record companies, until any product is released. There are budget concerns, competition within the label, etc.
You do have controversy involved in some of the hugely famous bands from years gone by, like the 60's, 70's and 80's, where various members quit and then legal wrangling happens over who can do what. This happened in the whole John Fogarty/Creedence Clearwater thing, but there are not many people that can be sued for "sounding too much like themself."
The reality as I was saying earlier is that most bands have a relatively short life span and usually those involved are falling over themselves to get away from the previous material, rather than wanting to continuing doing it. It is human nature that you are more excited about your current or newer songs than older material, you get tired of doing it night after night, trying to find ways to keep it fresh and interesting.
And of course among writers there is always competition for space in set lists or on record. Each writer is trying to get their own project on there. I have been in bands where everybody HATED playing certain songs, but that is part of being in bands. In the case of the Beatles, there was always great consternation about who got what on what album. Part of the reason that George did not emerge until the later years when Paul and John wrote less and less together.
And even in the Beatles, very few songs were split evenly. I have a book which I cannot remember the title of, has the actual percentage break downs of the Beatle's songs. Interesting reading.
For the most part, anything that comes in the music business is sort of a "we'll cross that bridge when we come to it" deal. Takes quite a while for anything to develop. They usually take care of themselves.

MAB