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No. 34Release & Reversion
Also called rights reversion, reversion of rights, termination for non-release
Rights in your recordings return to you if the label fails to release or actively exploit them.
High risk
Absence of reversion leaves an artist's creative work permanently locked up with a label that may have no intention of releasing it.
A reversion clause specifies conditions under which rights revert to the artist, typically failure to release within a defined window, or stopping commercial exploitation of a released recording. Without one, the label can sit on your recordings indefinitely, preventing release elsewhere.
Reversion is the single most important artist protection in a recording deal. Without it, a label can shelve recordings it no longer believes in and hold the rights permanently while blocking the artist from releasing elsewhere.
The same clause is drafted three ways. These are the positions we see, worst first, so you can tell at a glance which one is in front of you.
The drafting language and the negotiation moves for this clause are part of the workspace.
You have read what the clause means and where the risk sits. The rest is the side-by-side of how it reads when it is against you and when it is not, plus the specific moves that get it there.