No John,
I'm not associated with humtoo in any way. So, I can't answer your question on behalf of that organization. Only from my own perspective that a "non-exclusive" agreement isn't a publishing contract. Any publishing contract must require exclusive control because the publisher receive its funds from the PRO just like we do and there cannot be a fuzzy line between who owns what share and who doesn't.

Yes, an advance would be nice and 3 yrs would be excellent! (5 years is "fair".)

Steve,
I still think Jason's responses on this string were sincere. Had he gotten defensive or argumentative I'd have lost respect. I've only read all the "How To" section once and don't recall every detail but everything Jason told you is contained either within the terms of use or the publishing agreement. In other words, I'm not perceiving any falsehood on his part. Of course, I've no idea how Jason "feels" so maybe you don't "owe" him an apology. I can only tell you how I feet and it seemed to me you were being nit-picky and beating him up. Although I admire your passion defending musicians rights and appreciate your considerate response back to me.

Well...,
Is humtoo a "shark"? I don't know... I'm still researching... and found this forum string through a google search. So far, this is the only discussion I've found about it. At least that's says to me there isn't a lot of bad talk going around. Not yet, anyway... I'm not seeing anything unreasonable in the contract or terms of service. It's tougher than what we might hope for and a little less than ideal but my phone isn't ringing off the hook with better offers either. Does that mean my music is bad? Well... if so, who cares who owns the publishing rights?

I haven't decided if I'll place anything with them or not. I think that will depend more on the "project" than the publisher and what other potential there is for the song. I mean,,, What's the song doing now? What will it be doing in 5 yrs? If I think I have the perfect piece for a fit in the right project I'll probably risk pulling something out of my archives that would otherwise continue to collect dust. Will I give them what I perceive to be a top40 hit??? Probably not in the beginning but if they can take an old song previously rejected by others and make a profit of it... well... yes, I'd put more in their library.

The only drawback I really see right now is that if humtoo claims publishing rights to a song it might take away a "bargaining chip" for getting my work placed elsewhere. I mean, if a "Major" was interested in the same song it might be an incentive for them to sign me if the publishing rights were still available. Then again, even getting material heard by one of the majors is a daunting task. We all know the name of that tune. It's "who ya know" man! I hate that!

Anyway... I'm going to dig deeper into humtoo and see what more I can learn about it. I'm most interested in the "project makers". Who does Jason know, so to speak. Well... let's see if we can find out?

Thank you all for responding to my post. We here are among the family of creative genius. It's a pleasure making your acquaintance.