BEFORE GETTING THAT ARTIST FEATURE.

Artists feature other artists (the side artist) on their songs as a marketing tool. Features in the music industry is a marketing device. It involves an artist, whether up and coming or established having another person compose and perform with them on an original song that belongs to the first artist. You feature an artiste with a different (but usually) overlapping audience to increase your fan base. The move of features builds leverage in your brand and could catapult you into stardom if used well.

As good as featuring an artist on a song sounds to both parties, there have been issues surrounding the same. For example, artists have come out to accuse another artiste of performing the song they created together at a concert stating that the side artiste has no rights to the said song even though in some of these situations the main artist has no rights to the composition.

In some other issues, it is the main artist keeping all rights in the copyright and composition with themselves and not registering the right percentage of each composer’s contribution on the song thereby causing legal claims.

To stay clear of any legal claims that could bite afterward you need to do the following:

Execute a Featured artist agreement

This agreement will carry all the obligations of each party to the new song. It must name properly the parties to the agreement as individuals or as persons under a record label. This agreement will also include further obligations the side artiste will take on as regards exploiting the song.

The different types of featured artiste agreement include:

- No record royalty/ No song rights

- Record royalty/song rights

- Recording Royalty/song rights

Find the one that works for the instance and have your lawyer draft it.

Do your Homework

The main artiste has to ensure that the new song to be created does not infringe on any material and will include in the featured artiste agreement warranties that the side artiste has ensured that their contribution has not infringed on third-party copyright.

The main artiste has to ensure that all clearances have been made.

Intellectual Property Ownership

Parties have to agree on who owns the copyright in the Sound Recording and Composition. This would also be captured in the featured artist agreement. The parties to the agreement will have to agree on the limit to rights and interest contained in the song so each party can be compensated fairly.

Sign a song split sheet

This agreement will state how much ownership of the song each party has. The split sheet is needed so that when you as an Artist or your label register the song for copyright purpose

GETTING PAID AFTER THE SONG HAS BEEN CREATED

To be paid as a featured artiste depends on some of the following;

a.     The Side artiste’s contributions to the song.

If the side artiste composed, wrote, and performed their portion of the song then they will be entitled to not just an initial license fee but also royalties as to their composition. 

In some instances, the main artist pays off the side artist for their composition and will in turn own copyright in the sound recording and compositions hence the initial license fee will serve as a buyout.

b.     Agreement between parties

Some artists decide to not get paid an initial license fee or on future royalties but have a Trade by Song arrangement where the Side artist will feature the main artist on the side artist’s song in the future. 

c.     Side Artiste’s leverage

Some features are borne out of building a brand and in that instance some Side artists do not get paid in money or value but they will use their star power to push the main artiste to the limelight if such features are used judiciously.

Getting a feature is more than sending a beat over and having the side artist record on the beat and putting the song on a Music distribution Platform. As the main artiste, the importance of collaboration is to get to a place, own that space you did not own initially and widen your audience.

If possible, shoot a video, share a tour, capture a live performance, do a social media live together, cross-promote across social media. A successful collaboration doesn’t just widen an audience/fan base but also adds to both artist's bodies of work.

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