so, i've been playing in a band with a close friend of mine and 2 dudes who more or less auditioned to play with us.

we played covers at bars and party type places but were recently working on originals. anyway...

the 2 new guys (singer & bassist), recorded an album of our songs and signed a record deal behind our backs, with a stupid variation of the same band name.

my friend and i of course have nothing legally linking us to anything.

Well noting what you said about the experience of the band I would say they were signed by a tiny indie label some random guy started, and it will undoubtebly come to the tiny label taking money from the band for "recording costs" "booking fees" and other similiar expenses. Seeing as how small labels really dont do anything but network at a level that any other musician could. Don't worry it won't come to fruition and I highly doubt they paid the exhorbant fees to copyright the music . I don't think you have dealt with many labels before....

This post was edited by MyExitEmergency on Sep 7 2010 01:44pm

yeah i know a lot about the music industry. my family has been in and out of it for 30'ish years. it is a small crappy label and nothing will come of it. they claim they've copyrighted the music. they however don't know much about the music business and that they've nothing to look forward to. i'm more upset by the fact that 2 people i've known and have been close to for almost a year would try to swindle me like that.

Yeah I would be more pissed about the plaugerism than the fact they left to try and reform the band behind your backs and took the songs, the songs should either go with whoever wrote the bulk of the song or if no one could agree then they should be scrapped. In any of my previous bands it was always made clear at the beginning that any songs that the majority of the song was created by one individual that if that person left, the songs left with them. and being that I always had more experience in bands than my counterparts I usually had a more than majority control on the music, so if I left, the band broke apart. Not because I was an asshole who took over the band, but because I started gigging when I was 12, my mom actually owns an indie label (lol) / recording studio, and booking business on top of her normal job (government sales / accounting), her husband is a drummer / recording tech as well. So by the time I was 16 I had more experience in music than anyone that age should have lol, and by the time I reached my twenties it was even more apparent.... I toured for a year, the band failed, and I ended up joining the army lol, although I plan on getting back into once I get out, since I get out in a few months

This post was edited by MyExitEmergency on Sep 7 2010 03:47pm

cool man. sorry to hear your band failed. if you're in georgia when you get out and you need a drummer, gimme a holler

p.s. the songs we had so far were kinda generic sounding. the guitarist and i were working on making them more interesting when the other dudes took off. no huge loss there. the rock versions of the pop songs we did were the best things we had going for us.