General release form for regular members for non specific or normal actives of choir should be constructed so that signers will grant the organizer (the choir) to use their names, biographies, still and moving images and sound recordings appropriately in any forms of promotions of the organizer for both commercial and non-commercial use.

Christopher:  Regarding your 2nd question--Specific Release Form for professional musicians--it depends largely on what you mean by "professional musicians."  If you mean Musicians Union members, working under a union contract, it's possible that you will not be able to secure such a release because it might be against union regulations.  Union musicians are entitled to payment for a live concert (although you don't say whether this will be a studio recording or a live concert recording), but they are also entitled to separate and additional payment for session recording, under a different contract with different payment scales and different work rules.  And if this is just a studio recording, under a union contract, you would probably have to negotiate any such release with the union local representing them (although recording contracts, unless things have changed since I was last involved with them, are based on NATIONAL contract rules and payment scales and not on local ones).  But the only way to find out what you need to know is to sit down with your union local and ask.

 

If you are contracting a union orchestra through a union contractor, he or she can probably either tell you the answers or know whom to ask.  If you are not, you'll have to do the research yourself.

 

If, on the other hand, you are hiring non-union "professionals," you are asking them to sign away a lot of potential earnings, and the sad fact is that you will probably need to negotiate separately with each musician and try to sell them on the idea of giving you all that for no additional payment.  They might agree or they might not.  And then, of course, you would have to hire only the ones who will agree to it.  Since I live in a "right-to-work" state, that would be the only way to handle it here, and while there is no "union scale" in effect, there are certainly commonly-accepted pay rates that most musicians and most conductors understand.

 

All the best,

John

 

 

Hello, Kentaro.

 

Thank you for the offer of seeing your forms, I will take you up on that. (That reflects what I'm doing well).

 

Hello, John.

 

Thank you for bringing up the union question, it's a good one. 

 

It's a studio project.  All of the professional musicians (singers/conductors) are on board for the project, and payment, etc has been taken care of.  Most are AGMA, and donating their time as they are allowed to do so.  The rest are being hired as independent contratctors.  It's a not-for-profit project.

 

My concern re the forms is, as a professional musician, quite often I show up to a gig and find a release form that is generic, "universal", "in perpetuity", an inspecific (aka sign my liknesses away for life with no limitations).  I then have to ask for it to be modified to the specifc project only.

 

I wanted to be one step ahead for my singers, and have that prepared for them.  And, was wondering if anyone had any examples of the ones they use, or a good resource.

 

Thank you both!  Chris