Hey guys,

I've watched this thread for a few days and found it amusing. I figured about now might be the time to step in with a little perspective.

First of all about selling lyrics.

Jug, when I moved here in 88' I heard a lot of those stories too. There was always someone who had sold some song for nothing and it made a million for someone. The Wille "Crazy" story was always on people's minds. Most of that was stopped by the 1973 copyright laws which separated "writer's share" and publishing share. Although there are always charletons, it was pretty much stopped at that time.

It led me to a meeting with Tree publishing and the vice president, Dan Wilson, who was signing my song "That's Where It Hurts" to Tree where it would be recorded by Shelby Lynne. One of the many topics we talked about that day was the alleged "Selling of songs and lyrics." He kind of got that funny grin people do when they talk about some things. He said "That is kind of the songwriter's Bigfoot. A lot of people talk about hearing or seeing them,but when it gets down to it, nobody really has."

What has fueled this myth has been catalogue sales. That is where a publisher has the rights to a writer's work and sells some or all of it to someone else. One of the primary people this story was on was Roger Miller. When Roger died, his catalogue passed on to his son, Dean, who is a friend of mine.
Now, Roger didn't just write songs. He wrote poems, limericks, stories, a musical called "Big River", several things. At one point, Dean liscenced some of that stuff for books of poetry, collected works, etc.

That is what a catalogue sale is. You take a lot of stuff that is shall we say not that valuable, to get the songs or things like Dang Me, England Swings, and other things. Most of it happens after the death of the writer, but some while they're alive. Another friend of mine Chris Wallen, who has several number one's sold his catalogue. He got a LOT of money and started over. But he will write more songs.

What we are dealing with right now is getting paid period. I have very good friends who have songs on the charts and are supposedly making all this money who are having tremendous problems collecting on them. One friend, James Otto, sold 7,600 of his latest single in July. At the same time he had 80,000 ilegally downloaded on the Internet.

There are thirty BILLION downloads a month and 30 million artists on the Internet. This is what all of this is about. If they are having problems collecting on hit songs, what chance do you think someone with just a lyric is worth? Not much.

So the cash despenser for someone out there paying money for lyrics or songs just don't exist. As Dan Wilson told me, "We've got a million songs at Tree. I would LOVE to get a hundred dollars for each of those. That would be a pretty good day.

Before anyone thinks they are sitting on that "million seller" you have to understand that most songs these days are more like hundred sellers. There are abou 15-25 records a year in all of music that sell a million copies.

Even for the biggest contest in the world, American Idol, people like Ruben Stoddard and Taylor Hicks sold around 200,000 copies each. The break even point for a major release these days are around 650,000 copies. That is why you don't see most artists around for very long.

There are plenty of sharks. I once knew a guy who sold 400% of publishing on a George Jones song about to be released. He got $10,000 in advanced money and split town. When four publishers showed up for copy on the album they found out what he had done. The song was shelved and never released. One of my friends and co-writers was a co-writer on that song. Nearly drove him to a nervous break down.

So aside from a few crooks, the money up front for anything, is pretty much the musical equivalant of the "Nigerian General" who has billions of dollars in the bank and only needs the contents of your checking account to get them out and give you $20 million for your trouble. Yeah, right.

If you write songs, do it for the right reason. Because you are driven to do so. Pair up with people who can do what you can't. Write things that touch your own and other people's lives. Put all the money, deals, fame, hits, etc. on the back burner. Do everything else write and maybe you are sitting on a million seller. Sell a hundred first.

MAB