[Songmachine]

Hi, after a contrived meeting (by me!) with a moderately successful UK artist who invited me to send her some songs for an upcoming album, I have been invited to come and discuss two songs with her management. The offer is for A. covering two songs and B. covering the songs while using my original backing tracks which cost me considerable time, effort and money. My question is; where does copyright come into the conversation in both issues? I would like to be fully armed going to the meeting, so if anyone can enlighten me I would be grateful.

[cowparsleyman]

@Songmachine - I would see what they offer you first,listen a lot. Mildly successful? Thats a bit nebulous. They want your songs to cover, then thats a no brainer…you get the publishing revenue…do you have your own label? Or an account on a publishing site such as Distrokid? That’ll make this easier…

i wish you all the best with this venture, just be honest and direct, and be prepared to either walk away from being ripped off or conversely happy to get exposure on the back of this which might not yield much financially. It might be fruitful either way but you must be rewarded for you songs by means of a publishing cut.

Hope this helps

[MichaelA]

Hi @Songmachine, good luck with your meeting.

You own the songwriting copyright of your songs. Whenever they are broadcast or sold you are due that songwriter fee.

When artists/management might want to meet you they might want to muscle in on your share. There is the common industry joke - ‘change a word, get a third’. So the artist might say they would connect so much better with your song if only this little tweak or that little tweak were possible. Then they co-own your royalty share.

Whether you agree to this depends on how desperate or keen you are to have this artist fronting your work. But the artist’s management are just doing their job really, trying to muscle in on your own  legitimate share. So just see this as a business negotiation and a normal ‘try on’.

The second element to broadcast royalties is the performance fee. The songwriter is usually cut out of this. This is the artist’s cut - belonging to the singer or band performing the song.

If they want to use your backing track, then you could ask for a share of the performance royalties which otherwise they would have to go to significant expense to produce for themselves.

A trade off might be, you tell them you are keeping all of your songwriter royalties, but will throw in the backing tracks as long as they leave these songwriter royalties alone.

If the artist plays the ‘change a word get a third card’, then claim a percentage for the performance royalties, since you are supplying the backing track.

[Boydie]

@Songmachine

Just to add to what others have said, which is all good advice...

You specifically mention “copyright” - in the UK this is automatic and you only have to prove you wrote the song first in the case of a dispute

I think you are more concerned with understanding the royalty, songwriting and publishing splits

The best advice is to always seek proper legal advice when talking about contracts, where you need to balance the “opportunity” of getting your songs “out there” against the risk of being “ripped off” - ie not getting the share of royalties you feel you deserve

This is a really tricky balance to strike and will probably depend mainly on where you are I your songwriting career/journey

IMHO the opportunity, kudos, exposure etc. to land a cut on someone’s album probably far outweighs a % of future royalties as the chance of it becoming a “mega hit” are soooo low - and if it did then being a part of this may be more half-lives to your career than negotiating hard on the % split and risk losing out

Either way, I would HIGHLY recommend checking out joining the Guild of International Songwriters and Composers (I have no affiliation and do not get a commission):
https://songwriters-guild.com/

I haven’t been a member for ages but they offer a copyright service AND legal/contract advice as part of the membership. They also offer a song critique service and other benefits

This is probably the cheapest route to specific music industry contract advice and guidance

Good luck and please keep us posted on how you get on

[Songmachine]

Thanks everyone for your welcome advice. Yes, I got my copyright and royalties mixed up (better now than in the meeting!) I had been boning up on copyright previous to posting. I'm amazed that the practise of "Word/Third" seems so commonplace to everyone, I thought it was just something Madonna got up to in her spare time! Still, forewarned is forearmed so I feel more confident  going forward thanks to you guys.
I had been a member of both The Songwriters Guild and BASCA some time ago but had completely forgotten about the Guild so will be investigating joining again forthwith.
Thanks again and looking forward to listening to your songs...

Martin