Originally Posted by JaneK
Wow John - thanks - that was quick response.

Unfortunately, I composed the melody for him with his lyrics - actually made a recording of it with a vocal/melody and sent him an MP3 draft of it - he wanted to send me more of his lyrics (glad I declined). I guess I might as well delete the whole thing off my drive and just "slap myself" for being ignorant.


There is really no legal obligation either way. Your melody can be used with different lyrics, nothing was ever copyrighted officially, and I recall country lyricists writing new lyrics to popular songs, using the same exact meter and structure, believing that say....if you heard Jason Aldean was looking for songs to record, you would take one of his previous songs, and just write new lyrics to it. Maybe change the structure a bit, and then giving it to another writer and not tell them what song it is, just to see what they come up with.

They feel that going with whatever was successful for that artist might work again. (probably wont, anyway)

I dont colloborate much either, but I did once to some guy on these sites lyrics. The lyrics werent even very good, but I did it anyway. Shortly after the guy ticked me off, so I told him I was taking my melody back, and took my track down. It's still a very good melody I have if the need ever arises.

In reality, I wouldnt worry about it, the chance of making a nickel off the song are slim to none, even if it became known! And copyrights are all about money.

Last edited by Fdemetrio; 10/21/19 04:35 PM.