Creating an Agreement

Who this is for

You have an account and a deal to put in writing, and you want to know what the form will ask before you start.

Choosing a template

Open Templates and pick the agreement type. keysig has thirteen, and each has a plain-language guide to the deal itself:

• Producer agreement: fee, points, who owns the recording.
• Management agreement: commission, term, what the manager does.
• Split sheet: who wrote the song and what share each contributor owns.
• Mutual NDA: keeping unreleased work and deal talk private.
• Sync license: letting a track be used in video, film or an ad.
• Work for hire: paid work that belongs to whoever paid for it.
• Video appearance release: permission to film someone and use the footage.
• Songwriter agreement: a song a writer writes for an artist.
• Simple invoice: getting paid for a session, a mix, a beat.
• Session musician agreement: a player hired for a recording.
• Featured artist agreement: a guest on someone else's track.
• Sample clearance: permission to use part of an existing recording or song.
• Live performance agreement: a show, its fee, and what happens if it's cancelled.

Not sure which one? Templates has a short question-and-answer picker that lands on the right template for your situation, and Which agreement do I need? covers the same ground in prose.

Label work or your own

If you are on a label's roster, Templates says which the next agreement will be: drafted under the label, or drafted as yourself. The default is the label. One tap switches it, and the choice is per agreement, not a setting you have to remember to turn off.

The choice is fixed the moment the agreement is created, because it decides who can read the agreement, now and years from now. Label staff can read agreements created under the label, permanently. Agreements created as yourself are never visible to the label. If you picked wrong, start it again from Templates with the other choice; drafting is free. A duplicate keeps the original's choice, so it won't fix it, but support can move an agreement for you (Getting help). A label's own template is always label work, with no switch. Labels for artists covers the rest of being on a roster.

The guided form

Every template asks the same first question, then its own.

1. The Parties. You are Party 1. Your name comes from your profile and your account email is locked to you, because that is where your signing link goes. Where a template has two seats (producer and artist, say), pick which side of the deal you are on; your name moves to that line. Everyone else needs a full name and a valid email before you can go on. A saved collaborator fills both with one tap. You can also draft for other people: turn on I'm doing this for other people, and the first party you name signs first instead of you.
2. Link a track. Optional, and not asked for management agreements, NDAs or live performance agreements. Pick one track, or several, or none. Your tracks are listed newest first, each with its artist, its project and whether it is out, and the search reads titles, artists and projects. A linked agreement shows up on that track's page later. Create new track makes one on the spot: a title, the artist if you like, and whether it is released; it goes on Tracks under No project. On a producer agreement or a split sheet, a linked track's project fills in the project line, and you can change it there for this agreement alone. On a producer agreement, a single is its own project: pick Single as the kind of release and the project line becomes the track's title, with no project question. Any other kind of release asks the project's name, and your projects are there to pick from.
3. The questions. One question per screen, with a count that shows how far along you are. A row of chips means tap one (some let you pick several); Other lets you type your own words. A question the agreement can't be sent without can wait with I'll add this later, but it can't be skipped. Money, percentage and date questions have their own fields. Every question has a short hint, and any word with a dotted underline opens its definition in a tap.
4. Split sheets start with a contributors page (two to eight people), then the song, then each contributor's share and details, with a live total that has to reach exactly 100% before you can finish.
5. Check it over. The last step reads your answers back, says what happens next, notes that sending will use one credit, and suggests a title. Keep the suggestion or type your own. On a producer agreement for anything but a single, saving puts a track that is on no project on the project the agreement names, starting that project if you do not have one, and this step says where it goes. A track already on a project stays where it is. When no track is linked, it offers to add the song or recording the agreement names to Tracks, or to link your track of that title if you already have one, also on unless you turn it off. A linked track with no artist takes the agreement's artist; an artist a track already has is never changed.

What happens next: the agreement opens as a draft on its own page. Nothing has been sent and nothing has been charged. Drafting is free and unlimited on every plan.

Saving and coming back

• Your answers are saved in this browser as you type, for a day. If you close the tab or step away, opening the same template offers to pick up where you left off or start fresh.
• Browser Back moves one step, not out of the form.
• Once you finish the form, the draft lives in Agreements and saves itself as you edit it.

If something goes wrong: see Troubleshooting, or email hello@keysig.co with the template name and the step you were on.