JPF Home Page Forums General Messages Industry Message Forum Standard practice? Ethical or not?

Kevin, Colin (again), Barry, and Christian, thank you for your thoughts. Absolutely agree.

Songcat, you hit the nail on the head. If something's so good, why change it?

I reckon X was taking steps to boost potential income by claiming co-authorship on both lyrics and music/melody if the song ended up being published. And all on my dime.

Pretty crafty thinking.

As to my original query, I guess the answer is yes, it's all too common. Whether it's unethical is subjective, of course. One can only follow one's instincts in this regard.

I'm all in favour of bringing in another composer if the original music really isn't up to the mark. There's nothing wrong with this per se. But in my case, my collaborator and the vocalist had done a fine job (also according to the pro who'd critiqued and given it the go-ahead). But to be honest, I had so many misgivings already about X's modus operandi (there were other factors), that even if I hadn't felt strongly about the high quality of the music & melody (and of course the outlandish fee), I wouldn't have gone ahead anyway with the project.

I initially got in touch with X by way of a website (deep in the excessive wordage was the promise of 'magic' and sure-fire 'success'. ) The production cost was mentioned nowhere on the site, however. It was simply referred to obliquely as a 'creative fee'. I only learned of the actual amount during a phone call. And it was only after I'd declined that X made a quick last-ditch effort to win me over by informing me that the production costs included extras, such as attorney's fees, meetings, travelling here and there, etc. I can't imagine why X thought that info might make the fee more palatable.

In any case, it's all water under the bridge. And a useful lesson learned.

Donna