Making a beat "officially" yours

[El_Mero_Mero]

This is either a spin-off or a pre-cursor to my other question, but when is a track officially mine (I'm young in this "recording music for profit profession"). I talk to some people who dabble in beats a little and wouldn't mind just giving me beats for free (cuz they know that I'm not going to dishonor the beat). I'm just wondering though, let's say the beat is sent to me, I record a song over it, I upload it to various channels (Youtube, Z-Share, etc.) and I'm the first person to do this with this particular beat.

I've known people to get on some ***** **** about other stuff, so I'm wondering like, if no money is spent, and no type of contract is signed (you gotta be careful nowadays). How do you go about ensuring that a beat is "officially" yours? And then if your relationship falls through a week or two later, it won't affect that beat.

It's a real rookie question, so if you need clarification I can add, but any advice from those of you with more experience is appreciated. Thanks.

[kaybe]

you need to sign a contract to own the instrumental.

[El_Mero_Mero]

Is there a official template that gets used? Will something typed up or written on looseleaf that I get the producer to sign suffice?

I'm talking about just working with regular dudes right now, but you never know they might get big-headed and try to get their beat back for whatever reason.

[Turbulent]

you could probably find a basic template somewhere online for a contract. it really depends. sometimes the beatmaker could let you rhyme on it (with or without exclusivity) but they keep all their publishings and rights. sometimes they could also sell you the publishing.

[Joey Bags]

You can see a lawyer about having something written up or a template to work with online but if he has the beat copywritten he owns the beatm but you might be able to both own rights to the actual song.

Sign up for publishing too, it's very important.

I learned from that because I produced a song that had an LOX member on it and got some airplay on NY's Hot 97 and some other areas but never signed up for publishing. So I had lost possible royalties from that song having been played on the radio.

Join ASCAP or BMI.. Check them out. I copyright all my beats before I send them anywhere and make sure all my legal paperwork is correct.

[Bizarro Kitt]

what about clearing a sample and then copywriting?

i'd like a front to back step by step process broken down to me one day....

understandable if ya'l dont post it but a link would suffice

[Tic Tac T O]

some dude posted a link to this blog before sohh went down and i saved it. this page in particular may be what your lookin for, but check the archives too

http://scottyjewlz.blogspot.com/2008/06/one-of-most-important-elements-of-music.html