Onboarding / Document Upload

ONBOARD ADDITIONAL WORKS:
Once you are enrolled with DG(c)M, you are permitted to onboard as many of your dramatic works and songs as you wish. To onboard an additional property, please use this form: SINGLE WORK ONBOARDING FORM.

If you are onboarding multiple properties, you may find our MULTIPLE WORKS ONBOARDING FORM easier to complete.

DOCUMENT UPLOAD:
As part of the onboarding process, you may be asked to supply us with copies of certain documents. Please upload those documents HERE.

Not sure which document we are looking for? Please see below.

General Materials

  • Printed Work - Copy of the play, musical, or song that is being bequeathed.  Examples: libretto, lyrics, script, or sheet music.

  • Marketing Materials – Copies of any materials used to publicize the work. Examples: brochures, programs/playbills, posters, etc.

  • Audio Visual Materials - Recorded copy of the work. Examples: CDs, DVDs, MP3 files, or videotapes.

Ownership Materials

  • Copyright Registration - An official document from the US Copyright Office that states the author owns the copyright to the work. Click here for an example.

  • Collaboration Agreement - An agreement between co-authors that details their division of royalties, responsibilities, and overall working relationship.

  • Non-Authorial Collaboration Agreement - An agreement with a collaborator who is not an author, that grants them a share of royalties. For example, a director.

  • Underlying Rights Agreement - An agreement that secures an author’s right to use someone else’s copyrighted material. For example, a playwright may have an underlying rights agreement with a novelist to adapt the novel into a play.

  • Life Rights - Any agreement in which a subject grants the author the right to develop their life story into a musical or play. DG©M is also looking for interview release forms or other documents relating to the right to use a subject’s story.

  • Recording Agreement - Any agreement the author may that relates to the audio or audio-visual recording of the work.

  • Digital Online Use Agreement - An agreement that gives a company the right to distribute all or part of the work online via streaming, e-publishing, etc.

  • Legal Memoranda - Any legal documents relating to claims made on behalf of or against the author or the author’s script.  For example, if an estate protested an author’s script, if a third-party claimed the author’s script was infringing on their own work, or if the author’s script was infringed upon.

Management Materials

  • Agreement with Performing Rights Organization - An agreement between the author and an organization that allows for the organization to negotiate licensing for nondramatic, public performances of songs. Examples: agreements made with ASCAP or BMI.

  • Agency Agreement – An agreement between the author and an agent (or similar representative) that allows for the agent to negotiate on behalf of the author.  

  • Music Publishing Agreement – An agreement between the author and a music publisher that gives the music publisher the right to distribute sheet music and license the song. Examples: agreements made with Concord, Hal Leonard, or The Musical Publishing Company.

  • Publication Agreement - Agreement between a publisher and the author for that publisher to reproduce or license the work on the author’s behalf. Examples: agreements made with MTI, DPS, or Samuel French.

  • Derivative Rights Agreement – Any agreement in which the author gave another party the right to create a work based on the author’s existing work. Examples: translations, musical arrangements, abridgements, novelizations, or film adaptions.  

  • Future Interests - Any agreement that offers future production rights, billing rights or subsidiary rights to a theater or producer.

Testamentary Materials

  • Codicil or Will for Review - The unsigned version of the author’s will or codicil that DG©M will review.

  • Executed Will - The author’s signed will, after review by the DG©M.