Verbal Agreements

Many people don’t understand that verbal agreements are just as concrete as written contracts.  Written agreements are more legally binding than verbal.  Most artists that deal with legal disagreements probably didn’t have a contract involved.  Which is one of the worst mistakes in business.  Entertainment business comprised music royalties, publication, distribution, management commission, etc.  Many artists and musicians base their decision on an emotional drive.  Allowing their emotions to lead their decisions instead of their intelligence.

Recently, I had the opportunity to be involved with a video production where I was the spoken word artist. The pre-production process was smooth.  We got along pretty well.  We had a verbal agreement. Everything was going well.  Although there were minor changes at the end, we were still able to work out our differences and move forward.  I believe we were able to complete the production because of our maturity level.  However, a written agreement (or contract) wasn’t involved during this process. What if we had a disagreement?

While successful partnership may have been the result for me, you never know what will happen in production when you choose not to protect the material.  It’s important to not only protect yourself but also the product being advertised.  Protection is the key element of maintaining power and dominance.  Once protection is lost, security is minimized and decreased.

Even if you feel that you are already taking the necessary precautions, take the time to understand different copyright procedures and sort through your options to ensure a great form of protection.  Because the last thing you want to experience is the loss of personal music or art material because of the lack of protection.  Learn to use your emotions to think and not to think with your emotions (Kiyosaki, 1997).  This means never allow your excitement to overrule practical principles. 

Here’s the spoken word video.  Enjoy!