Who owns the rights?..

[Abluesbassist]

Hi Janek,
Several years I recorded with a band and ended up with a distribution deal with a small local record label. As far as I know the rights were never purchased and I never signed a contract. The other day I went to set up a soundcloud account to use as a demo and some of the tracks from the cd I am playing on were rejected because soundcloud said that there were copy rights on the songs. If I played on a track can I still use it for promotional uses with out getting in to trouble or am I basically screwed out of it ?.

Thanks
Dan

[janekbass]

it all depends on whether the songs were written or co-written by you, or if you were a sideman on the session.

A distribution deal, unless the band leader was totally inexperienced, normally means a band retains publishing rights. So if you were a writer or official band member you should be okay. I would contact everyone involved and see where you stand.