JPF Home Page Forums General Messages Mentor Questions Forum Publishing Adm Services

This is something we generally have not studied. We start out as hobbyists, tinkering with Songwriting for fun and personal fulfillment. Transitioning into a 'company' engaging in 'commerce' with other companies, other people, is a new area of study for us. If we're uneducated we can sign our names to contracts and undo all the pleasant prospects we've been looking forward to, sometimes with permanent damage and no 'recourse' to rectify the situation.
Hi Gary,

The moment anything goes from being a hobby, into looking at it as a business, you should take all available precautions. What those precautions will be depends on a few different things. One is your pocketbook, one is your intelligence, another is how much work you are willing to put into the venture to make it a success. If you have a big pocketbook, and don't mind spending it, you can hire others to do all your due diligence. If you have a fair amount of intelligence, and are willing to put in the time and effort necessary to save yourself money (especially if you can't afford it), then you learn to do the due diligence yourself.

You also have to be able to assess the success you may have by going down the different paths. Do you think you can gain the access needed to pitch the songs yourself, chase down all the plays, contact and sign your songs with artists, get the air-plays needed to make real money? If yes, then you don't need a publisher at all. If no, then you will need to assign a % of your ownership of publishing rights to them, usually 100%. If any of us are good/lucky enough to actually get anything published, then placed, then make enough money to be really noticed, then we can look at negotiating a better % the next time around.

When the publishing contract comes into your hands, do you have the money to hire an entertainment lawyer, and even if you have the money, do you need to? I have always believed that if it can be done with a decent mind, and doesn't involve brain surgery, I can research it, and learn how to do it on my own. Granted, some people either can't, or don't want to take the time.

Then it goes to the artist, and if he/she/they decide they want a piece of your songwriting % you have another decision to make. Are they a big enough artist that your song is almost guaranteed to make decent money? If they are not are they big enough for you to take a gamble on? In either case, you have to decide if you think your song is great enough you will get it signed with someone else who won't ask for a %. If you don't think so, then you have to decide how much of a % you are willing to give up, and then bargain to get to that point. If they are not big enough for either, you still might want to give up a small % just to get your name out there as having something published, signed, produced, and played. Or, if you think your song is great enough, you may just decide to wait it out.

Lots of decisions and lots of roads to choose. we won't always make the right ones but we should choose the ones we can live with.