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Mentors Pete and Pat Luboff
Q: I have a question about songs I have rewritten. One was a famous success and the other was unknown by a now defunct, small time band. I have used some of their old words in these songs, maybe 50% and think this new version has tremendous potential. Would it be OK for me to approach the original writers and tell them I would like to try to make a potential hit out of their original idea, in exchange for 50% of the publishing and songwriting credit on the new and retitled song? Do I need to contact them at all? Should I ask for an even higher % since it's a stronger song now lyrically, etc.?
Since you have used part of their intellectual property to create your new song, you must contact the copyright owner for permission before you do anything with that song. This may or may not be the songwriter. Many publishing contracts transfer the ownership of the copyright to the publisher. Find out who the publisher is from the label on the recording. If you don't have that you can search for the song by title in the ASCAP and BMI databases, and then search for contact information on the publisher. http://www.ascap.com, http://www.bmi.com
You can ask for anything you want, but since they own the copyright, they can refuse to give you anything at all. If you're dealing with a publisher, we doubt they will split the publishing with you. If the writers have maintained ownership of the copyright, they may be willing to deal with you. Than again, they may not. The previous level of success of the song will also affect the negotiations. You will probably have better luck with the song that was previously less successful. Your best bet would be to hire a music business attorney to do the negotiating for you, since you probably don't know enough of the language and the variables involved to do it yourself.
Anything you can do to convince the copyright owners that you really can make some money for them will go in your favor. Do you have a band that already has a local following and is about to break into more success? Do you have connections to a specific artist? You do not have permission to pitch the song until you have cleared up this situation. In the future, it would be better to create your own songs and not use copyrighted material as the basis for your songs.
We are assuming you have not used very old songs that have already passed into the Public Domain. If the songs are in Public Domain, you may use them and copyright the new creation in your own name and publishing companies.