Course Title
BUS 120 Contemporary Contract Issues: Just Sign on the Dotted Line

Instructor
Darcie Wicknick

Course Description
As professionals in the music industry, the hottest goal to this day seems to be "getting signed," whether it's to a Recording Deal or a Publishing Deal, an Endorsement Deal, or a Licensing opportunity. The crux of any endeavor in the business, even down to the General Business band playing the local dinner theater, is a contract. The contract, be it highly detailed or a simple one-sheet agreement, sits at the center of any business transaction to be conducted between two entities.

This course will provide an overview, theoretical analysis, and actual contract excerpts to help demystify various types of legal issues facing the contemporary music industry professional. We will examine elements of contracts, learn how to navigate contracts and avoid pitfalls, discuss how to negotiate for mutual benefit, define common terminology, explore legal considerations for a wide variety of fields, scrutinize contractual examples for the pros and cons in given situations, and conduct some research using outside sources. These activities will aid in the better understanding of the complex area of contractual agreements.

This course is designed to be suitable for newcomers as well as to challenge more advanced professionals with experience in legal terms and the negotiation process. The learning objective is quite simply to assist you in becoming more familiar with contracts, and to help put you in the driver's seat. While you will likely have an attorney to negotiate on your behalf, having a more concrete foundation will help you be more in command when working out an agreement that is more to your advantage.

Course Content
Lesson 1: Common Contracts and Terminology 
Lesson 2: Management and Production Contracts: An Analysis
Lesson 3: Distribution and Compilation Contracts: An Analysis
Lesson 4: Publishing and Record Deals: An Analysis

Estimated Time
This course consists of four lessons each of which takes approximately twenty to thirty minutes to complete. Lesson one is substantially longer in order to explain fundamental terminology that will be used in the remaining lessons. To obtain the greatest benefit, we suggest that you leave enough time after finishing each lesson to do all the exercises and fully absorb the material before beginning the next lesson.

Pre-Requisite Knowledge
An understanding of songwriting craft, some knowledge of the music business (general not technical), computer skills, some experience with the Internet.

Software Required
This course may use examples that use Flash.  For more information, see our system requirements page.

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