It can be a challenge to know when you can or can’t use a piece of artwork or photograph as your album artwork. Who created the artwork? You? Someone else in the band? An artist for hire? You need to consider who owns the copyright, and you should most certainly document the creation and use of the work in a written agreement. As always, it’s best to consult a legal professional before making a decision, but our friends at Sonicbids were nice enough to feature this topic in their Ask a Music Lawyer series, so let’s read on and learn together.

• If you created the work from scratch and didn’t use other copyrighted material in its creation, you probably own the work outright. 
• However, if you’re a band member, you should still define the work and its use. You could license the work to the band for a fee, or as part of an overall band agreement, the work could become an asset of the band.
• If you pay someone else to create the work for you, get very specific about how the work can be used and by who. The artist may own the copyright but give you an exclusive license. Protect yourself – you wouldn’t want to see your album artwork repurposed to advertise a product you don’t believe in, or used in another band’s merch, for example.
• If you use a stock photo, it will come with specific rules about how you can use it.
• If you use a random photo from the internet, you must get permission from the copyright owner. Giving credit to the source is not enough.

After all the time you’ve spent writing and recording your album, it’s worth a little effort to make sure you don’t make any silly mistakes in using unapproved artwork on your album.

Please visit Sonicbids to view the full article by Erin M. Jacobson.