You’re lying in the pool of your own blood with drums sticks in your back. And your drummer is next to you with mic cord around his neck. All dead. Same with bass player, keyboards guy and tambourine dude.

What happened?

Usual stuff. They had a hit and couldn’t split the money. The band never discussed who should be paid and how much. They should’ve written a split sheet beforehand and avoid this bloodbath.

“A split sheet is a written agreement that identifies each contributor to a song and establishes ownership percentages amongst them. The agreed percentages determine how much each contributor will receive from the royalties generated by their music.” Source: iconcollective.edu

For example, it can be an equal percentage among band members or there can be collabs and you need to determine that also.

But important! “While the split sheet establishes the appropriate percentages that each songwriter or producer owns of a specific song, it does not explicitly determine the copyright ownership of the song (a separate, but important distinction). “ Source: raclawfirm.com

It’s better to write up a split sheet once the song is done.

Send this post to your bandmates!

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Details on Split Sheets: https://blog.symphonicdistribution.com/2020/09/what-are-split-sheets-why-are-they-important/

Austrian Music Licensing + Info on Copyright:
https://www.akm.at/service/urheberrecht/
https://www.musicaustria.at/praxiswissen/urheberrecht-verwertungsgesellschaften/

German Music Licensing:
https://www.gema.de/musiknutzer/warum-lizenzieren/