Yes, I think I stand by the standard advice, "Keep the project moving forward." You can negotiate, or try to. You can do due diligence to the limits of your comprehension of contracting and commerce. But if you've got any opportunity to get product to the open market it is probably in your interest to keep the product moving forward.
"Ah! There's the rub!" Shakespeare wrote. Something in the smooth operation of things 'rubs' and makes it apparent something's not right, and needs resolving before you can go forward. Resolve it. Solve it. Negotiate it. Study it. Consult on it. Whatever it takes, within reason, to keep the 'work' moving forward. Don't meet the devil at a crossroads at midnight, but keep working out of a 'No' or 'Not yet' to a 'Yes'.

Famous 'rubs' are Colonel Parker's management pattern and practice for Elvis Presley to sing your Song, requiring you to give Elvis Songwriting credit, making him a co-writer, and thereby accessing Songwriting Royalties. One young Dolly Parton had written, cut, and released "I Will Always Love You" and had a nice hit with it. The Elvis Company wanted to cut and release it, but Dolly said 'No' to the standard Col. Parker 'deal'. "It's already a big hit for me. Why should I do that?" Having Elvis sing it would have gotten a lot of plays, earning a lot of Royalties for Songwriter and Publisher, and record sales for the Label, and been a big crowd-pleaser at Elvis concerts. Dolly said, "No, thank you." Later when Whitney Houston did the Song, Dolly said, "That paid a lot of bills for me!" Elvis would have paid a lot of bills. But Dolly made the judgment that it was unreasonable to give up that much 'ownership' of her Song.

I think it's Big Tree Publishing that owns "Happy Birthday To You". If you want to sing it to customers in your restaurant or have a character in a movie or tv show sing it, you have to pay the Royalties.

Christmas Carols get played over and over every year at Christmastime. The owners get paid for all those plays, to the extent they can document them.

A Song can be worth a fortune, and an annual infusion of cash to the owners. A Publisher can re-pitch a good Song for someone to cover years after it is written, even years after it has been a hit for someone. A band, Nazareth, re-released Roy Orbison's "Love Hurts" and it was their major claim to fame. They likely made Roy money.

All this 'money talk' sometimes is repugnant to Songwriters whose 'feel' for their 'art' is more esoteric, more 'love-oriented' than commercial aspiration. But when you make that transition, you have to know something about the commercial world, law, contracting, deal-making, negotiation, hand-shaking, tolerance for what Hunter Thompson called, “The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side.”

If you find yourself in THAT hallway, and they may not all be like that, you need to know how to protect your interests. Even if you are able to hire things done for you, knowing more about the actual legal ramifications of signing your name to contracts can enable you to help your helpers help you.

"Help! I need somebody! Help! Not just anybody! Help! I need someone!" The Beatles.

There's another 'rub'. The Beatles, John Fogerty, numerous others, lost the 'right' to 'copy' their own Intellectual Property, by not knowing what their signature was accomplishing to benefit someone else. John Fogerty was prohibited from playing his Songs, or even 'sounding like' himself in those Songs he'd made double-sided (45-rpm records had one Song on each side) hits. Paul McCartney found himself outbid to regain control of his Songs. He more recently regained control through some provision of law that most of us don't know about. Help can help.

There will always be another song to be written. Someone will write it. Why not you? www.garyeandrews.com