Writing/composing a whole album for someone. Copyright?

[Ionei]

Hey guys,

So recently someone has asked me to write them a whole album instrumentally for them to rap over.
I am pretty stumped on the copyright side of things with this.
Do I need to sign over copyright to him so he fully owns the songs and music?
Would I only need something clearly stating that he is the owner of the music?

Any people who have done this before wanna give me a hand as to how I should go about this?


Cheers!!

 

[Sloan]

This applies to US copyright:

...the first owner of the song is the songwriter (the "author" under copyright law). The songwriter may then sell the copyright to a music publisher in return for cash payments and continuing royalties. In this way, a song copyright is like other forms of property: It can be bought and sold. When there is more than one writer, there are special rules regarding dividing income and selling song copyrights.

Under copyright law, an employee who creates a work such as a song or magazine article in the course of their employment does not own copyright in the work; the employer does. If a member of your band is employed to write music or has signed an agreement to write a song (or songs) for payment, you should review the "work made for hire" rules in The Copyright Handbook by Stephen Fishman (Nolo), or visit the Copyright Office website (www.copyright.gov) and download Circular 9 (Work-Made-For-Hire Under the 1976 Copyright Act).