JPF Home Page Forums General Messages Mentor Questions Forum Song co-written by artist and non-artist

OK mentors....I have not been able to find an answer to this question that must come up frequently.

A song is co-written by an artist who wishes to record and release it and a person who is not an artist. Does the artist purchase a license to use the song on his CD? If not, how is the co-writer compensated? Just royalties?

Thanks,

Colin

Yes I have often thought about this situation. This is where a Co-Writing Agreement would come in handy.

Assuming the split is 50-50 the co-writer should get half of the mechanical royalities from a release as well as the Pro Royalities. In fact everything a license is issued for. In this case the Artist would be paying half of the mechanicals to the co-writer but would not really receive anything except what he would receive from Record Sales of which would be his alone barring any other agreement.

No.

The song is owned jointly. Therefor, neither requires a "licence".

As an "owner" of the song, each may record as many renditions as they wish, but must pay the other the appropriate royalties, if and when they apply.

If it sells one copy, then whowever recorded it, is required to pay the co-writer the split on what they've earned.

If published, the publishing entity will take care of that.

IMNAL, please check with your local PRO.

cheers, niteshift

The cowriter gets her share of the pie. Just as if it was recorded by a third party. IANAL either, but if I wrote a song with a name artist, and they did not release it, I would ask the artist (and/or his team) before recording it myself, as that would open it up to anyone else who wanted to record it. And, if the artist did release it, and even if it was perfectly legal for me to release my own version, I would still ask. That is, of course, if I was planning to continue cowriting with that artist.

All the Best,
Mike

Thanks for your responses. See if this scenario sounds right.....

I am the artist and I sell 1,000 CDs. I wrote one song on the CD with a co-writer who does not appear on the CD. There is no publisher. Since there was no mechanical license involved, I owe the co-writer 50% of the 9.1 cent per copy writer's royalty, or 1,000 x .0455 = $45.50.

Make sense?

Thanks,

Colin

Yes, that makes sense to me.

Not only does the math make sense, but it's also legal & proper. I just hope that those numbers get a lot bigger for ya:-)

Midnite

Hey Colin,

Yep, that's the way I see it, too.

cheers, niteshift

OK - that seems clear enough. Thanks.