Band BS... rant/venting

[AudioPhile777]

I am starting to regret being in bands at all...

My next (side) project, I'm just going to hire everyone so shit actually gets done and there is no arguing over whats happening and why and all that...

My current band hasn't played a show in over a year (mostly due to losing a member but we've been a full band again for over 6 months now)...

I've had all the tracks (7) for our EP ready for vocals and solos since May of this year... currently we only have two done... and thats only because I've pushed and pushed to get it done...

I'm the primary writer for 6 of the 7 songs and dealing with copyright is becoming a pain in the arse... as I've understood it and by looking at many cd booklets, typically lead guitarists don't get copyright on a song they contribute a solo to if they don't write any other part of the song... am I wrong to think that is an ok way to treat copyright? How do you people go about that?

We've assigned "roles" in the band, yet it still seems like no one takes any initiative to do anything that they are supposed to... sigh.

Today I've officially given in and I'm just going to let them do whatever it is they want and stop trying to make the band produce anything.

Woot.

...I don't even know anymore...

 

[Mago]

Why wasting time with people obviously not interested in the music at all?
+ about the copyright thing: If the solo doesn't cover 50% of the song and is a major party of it / an important theme then no copyright on it imo

 

[DanLights]

yeah I guess that's like saying because the bassist did a couple slides or 5ths besides from just playing root notes he's on the songwriting credits, I think he shouldn't

 

[vespiz]

In our band, credits go to whoever does the bulk of the work, composition/lyrics. Rest is divided in arrangement credits. That way everyone gets a small cut.
Most songs have been "Rauhala/Kulomaa" recently (our singer/guitarist and me), but for instance one song was "Kulomaa - Rauhala/Kulomaa". In that song I did most of the structure, chords, riffs (and lyrics), but our singer provided all the vocal melodies, so it was only fair he gets a share.

But always remember: 100% of 0 still 0...

 

[DanLights]

But always remember: 100% of 0 still 0...

hahaha excellent deduction

 

[slashvanyoung]

+ about the copyright thing: If the solo doesn't cover 50% of the song and is a major party of it / an important theme then no copyright on it imo

Well, any original melody one composes is protected by copyright - by the very moment you compose it. But when we're talking song writing credits, it's up to the people involved to decide if a solo is an essential part of the composition that would qualify for composing credits. Which is... basically what you're said... so my post is rather redundant in retrospective haha.

 

[006]

Maybe it's just me, but who honestly gives a shit which band member "owns the copyright"? That's pretty pathetic that it's something your band has a problem with. Whoever wrote and arranged 51% or more of the song should probably get to claim it.

 

[midget donkeys]

I now how you feel. I quite the band I was in due to bull shit and general retard behavior. I wrote nearly every song. I would spend around 40 hours per song making pre prod demos of one song. No body liked any of those songs. Yet no one else wrote crap until we finally got a second guitar player that eventually had to move away for work.

So I left the band and it dissolved. I then started working on recording an EP of the songs I had written with programmed drums and me playing everything else. My plan is to find a singer when I am done tracking all the music, then finish the EP and form a band.

And by form a band I mean hand out guitar tab, bass tab and midi drum files and say "here play this, exactly as written".

It sounds like being a dick, because it is but I think it is the only way to get stuff done. The only band I ever played in that amounted to a damn and did shows was a pop rock band were the singer/guitar player wrote all the songs. I just backed him up as the second guitar player and played what I was told instead of being a duschebag to him. It was his vision and years of his life he spent making the music so I didn't see the need to change shit.

 

[Force666]

Denying people credits for songs is a good way to get people to not do shit. After you do that, where's their motivation?

I've always done the "All songs written by (insert band name)". If someone quits or gets fired, they no longer have any rights to claim shit. All "profits" go to the current lineup of the band.

 

[Notuern]

Denying people credits for songs is a good way to get people to not do shit. After you do that, where's their motivation?

I've always done the "All songs written by (insert band name)". If someone quits or gets fired, they no longer have any rights to claim shit. All "profits" go to the current lineup of the band.

Sounds like a bad idea for me.. but on the other hand, i try to surround my self with musicians that all put in their part in the writing process.
Dividing up how much people put in to a song is pretty stupid though.. unless a member wrote the song entirely on his own, then i think that person should own it.

 

[nwright]

Are you dudes in signed bands making enough money to even really care about that stuff?

Sounds like if this is the kind of stuff that is keeping your band from progressing, you have some diva issues.

Are the solos and vocals not getting done simply because they want to make sure they get credit?

 

[Force666]

Sounds like a bad idea for me.. but on the other hand, i try to surround my self with musicians that all put in their part in the writing process.
Dividing up how much people put in to a song is pretty stupid though.. unless a member wrote the song entirely on his own, then i think that person should own it.

Yeah. For me, I've been the preliminary writer for atleast 80% of the music so far. Except I haven't written vocals or drums for anything. I've proposed "beats" and they've been used, but still, our drummer deserves his credit for that. Everyone pays rent and contributes to our overhead that technically the band wouldn't even be possible without that. I just figure it's the fairest way to keep everyone happy. And as Nate said, it's not like we're pouring out the profits. Pretty much every single dollar we make goes back into the band anyways. For now.

Edit:

Also, I've always figured, most bands write democratically, as in voting for parts they like and don't like. So if you try and take the full credit for the song, then you have people arguing over which parts get used etc. It's more of a battle over money, than the music itself. And people are trying to push their shit on everyone just for that little piece of the pie. I've just never seen that as being good for the creative process.

 

[Uladyne]

If you're going to credit individual members for songwriting, just put "solo: 'Fred Billington' or whatever in the lyric space between the lines where the actual solo occurs. Then the dude gets credit for what he contributed, no more, no less. Then he can be recognized for his contribution by the fans.

If it's royalties he's worried about, perhaps devise a system where the amount of work he has added to the album is factored in, given a percentage (try to be as thorough and logical as possible with this) and then let his jaw drop when he realizes that if he's just contributing solos his creative contribution to the record is really quite small. Then maybe work with him and say you can bump it up for any constructive criticism he may have added (another extremely small contribution), arrangement ideas (small again) and maybe he'll realize that he's not adding a whole lot to the album. Any bitching beyond that point will just be from greed. Remind him that his solo follows your song, it's not a composition independent of your work.

 

[AudioPhile777]

Are the solos and vocals not getting done simply because they want to make sure they get credit?

No, the copyright issue only came up a couple weeks ago...

Remind him that his solo follows your song, it's not a composition independent of your work.

Yeah, I've always understood copyright as chords/structure, melody and lyrics...

Should be interesting to see how this all plays out. :Spin:

 

[drew_drummer]

We split everything four ways. We've already agreed that if anyone leaves, no bitching about taking songs with them, no claiming ownership over parts of songs, no claiming a hand in future monies... everything is split.

But we're not one of those bands who always chops and changes members. We're a brotherhood, for better or for worse.