The five paper trails that quietly decide who owns your career, drawn from a decade inside major label legal and a lifetime around the rooms where songs actually get made.
Most of the ugliest disputes I have watched unfold in Canadian music did not start in a boardroom. They started in a bedroom in Scarborough at three in the morning, when nobody thought to write anything down. By the time a deal, a sync, or a streaming spike arrives, the paper you did not sign is worth more than the paper you did. If you are building a career on your own terms, these are the five documents I would want on your hard drive before anyone talks about a label.
1. The Split Sheet
A split sheet is a one page agreement identifying every songwriter in the room, their percentage of the composition, their publisher if any, and their PRO affiliation. It is signed the day the song is written, not the week it charts.
It matters because copyright in a co-written song vests jointly at creation, and memory is a hostile witness. Once a track starts earning, the person who hummed the hook and left early will remember it very differently than the producer who stayed until sunrise. A signed split sheet is the cheapest insurance in music.
Warning sign: anyone who tells you splits can be "figured out later." Later is always more expensive, and later is usually a lawyer.
2. The Producer Agreement
This is the contract between the recording artist and the producer of a specific track or project. At minimum it addresses producer fee, producer royalty points, master ownership, credit, and whether the producer is being engaged on a work made for hire basis or licensing their contribution.
It matters because in Canada, absent a written assignment, a producer may hold a copyright interest in the sound recording they helped create. If you sign to a label two years later and cannot deliver clean chain of title on your own masters, the deal slows down or dies. Producers are collaborators, not adversaries, but clarity protects the relationship as much as it protects you.
Warning sign: a beat sent by email with the words "we'll sort it out." You have just bought a lease you did not read.
3. Assignment of Copyright versus Licence
These are two very different animals wearing similar coats. An assignment transfers ownership of a copyright, in whole or in part, permanently or for a defined term. A licence grants permission to use the work while ownership stays with you.
It matters because artists routinely sign assignments when a licence would have done the job. A sync placement, a cover, a remix, a brand campaign: most of these can and should be structured as licences, scoped by term, territory, and media. Once you assign, you are a guest in your own catalogue.
Warning sign: a contract that uses the words "in perpetuity" and "throughout the universe" without any corresponding fee. That is not a licence. That is a goodbye.
4. Trademark Registration for Your Artist Name
Copyright protects your songs. Trademark protects your name, your logo, and eventually your merch line. In Canada, registration is handled through the Canadian Intellectual Property Office, and the classes that matter most for artists are typically entertainment services, recorded music, and apparel.
It matters because your artist name is the one asset that follows you across every label, every distributor, and every platform. Common law rights exist, but they are geographically limited and painful to enforce. A registered mark is a fence around the thing your audience actually searches for.
Warning sign: discovering a soundalike act in another province the same week your single starts to move. By then, the cheap fix is gone.
5. A Simple Management or Booking Agreement
Even at the independent stage, the moment someone else starts making decisions on your behalf, you need a short written agreement. It should cover scope of services, commission rate, term, territory, expenses, sunset clause on post-term commissions, and a clean exit if the relationship stops working.
It matters because handshake management is where careers get quietly encumbered. Two years in, when a real offer arrives, the question of who is owed what on which income stream can freeze the deal. A two page agreement, signed early, protects both sides and forces the honest conversation about what management is actually doing.
Warning sign: any agreement without a defined term or a clear off-ramp. Careers evolve. Paper should too.
How we help. At Alphonse Latham LLP, our Entertainment and IP practice works with artists, producers, managers, and independent labels across Canada on exactly this kind of foundational paper, before the deal and long after. If you are building something you intend to keep, we would be glad to hear from you.
Laura Wilson-Lewis is an Associate in the Entertainment and IP group at Alphonse Latham LLP. She previously served as sole In-House Counsel at Warner Music Canada and was recognized on Billboard Canada's Women in Music 2024 list, received the Rising Leader Award from Women in Music Canada in 2025, and was named an Osgoode Alumni One to Watch (Gold Key) in 2025. Called to the Ontario Bar in 2016.