Roll & Go has been together as a group since the 70's. I joined in 1992. When I joined it was still just a group of friends singing together and occasionally getting paid a pittance to do some performance.

Then about 2 or 3 years ago we decided it was time to get serious (a little) and focus on our sound. We have been working hard and it shows. We're also working on a CD. We've been inducted into the list of Maine touring performers. We are actually fielding calls to perform at various functions. There is even some money coming into the group.

The money and the CD have raised some interesting issues with the legal relationship we have with each other. We have already agreed that nobody has any individual rights to the CD. The money to make it came from performances by Roll & Go and therefore the CD belongs to Roll & Go. If a member walks out they are walking away from the CD too. We agreed to that before we started to work on it.

But we have the money to deal with. And our intentions as regards our music. So far one of our members has been keeping it in a personal bank account. That works fairly well. There are no trust issues here, we all consider each other completely trust worthy. But the money becomes an issue at tax time. All of a sudden it looks like he has more money than he does and it affects his tax return.

We are toying around with different solutions and thought we'd check with other musicians. This seemed like a good place to start.

So what do you do? Divide up the money? Form a legal partnership? Incorporate? How do you handle the legal issues regarding the band?