Audio Recording

Sometimes songwriters overlooked the differences between published and unpublished songs. It is because it sometimes looks self-explanatory and easy to understand.

In reality, there is still lot of situations and complex scenarios that could confuse songwriters even more. As a result, it’s hard to make a distinction between the two.

So you will ask: “How to really publish a song?”

Definition of “published” and “unpublished” song

To know how to publish a song is to start defining technically these terms. The best definition that would be easiest to understand is below:

“Published song is a song that has been released or distributed for public use and access whether it is commercial or non-commercial in nature”.

Of course the opposite is the definition of unpublished song. An example:

Supposing you just written a song today; then you want to publish it. You might ask: “Does copyrighting itself an act of publishing the work?”

The answer is no. It is because copyright is simply putting your song ideas in tangible forms such as on a paper and recorded on a cassette tapes. This is an evidence of ownership and creation. You are not publishing anything to the public.

The act of submitting your work to copyright office is just a registration of your copyrighted work (which will be used as evidence of copyright ownership that is recognized by the state copyright laws). Registration is not the same as publishing your song. It is because it is not yet released and distributed for public use.

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Hello Emerson,

I am a music producer and I have a question for you. I produced music and an artist wrote the lyrics and sang the song. How would this be split? Would 50 /50 be ok in everything? ASCAP, iTunes selling etc.

I did the recording using my own equipment and I also guided him at certain places on singing harmony etc. Also if there is any book that you would recommend for producers, I would greatly appreciate that. Your help is greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

Nick
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My reply:

You need a producer –artist agreement or contract

The most important requirement for any record producer before starting to work with any recording artist is to complete and settle the producer-artist agreement or contract.

In this agreement, it contains all the important terms that are being agreed between you and the recording artist. This includes royalties, delivery of final product (the master recording), advance payment, royalty distribution, etc.

I recommend hiring a lawyer to get this done. But before hiring a lawyer, you need to discuss thoroughly with your artist and agree on the most important aspects that are to be included in the producer-artist agreement. What to agree would be discussed on each section below.

Agreement on the ownership of the song and sound recording

You mentioned that the artist is the one writing the lyrics and you are the one producing/writing the music. In copyright laws, the copyright of the song and sound recording are two different entities. Both of you owns the copyright of the song; while you also own the copyright of the sound recording because you are the one creating the masters, not the artist.

Therefore both you can earn royalties from the ownership of the song. These royalties came from the use of different music rights when the originally written song is licensed in film, videos, radio and other applications.

The standard split of copyright song ownership is 50/50. This assumes that the artist agrees that this percentage share is fair. Otherwise both of you needs to agree with the exact percentage based on songwriting contributions.

You can then break it down; for example as follows:
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So you have now crafted a perfect song and you would like to submit that to your favorite artist? How would you supposed to do that? This tutorial will highlight all the most important things you need to do.

If you are ready, let’s get started…

The Necessary Preparation

Check item #1: Do you have hits?

The truth is, submitting songs to an artist is like shooting a bow and arrow aiming a very far target. You are going to have a lot of misses and a few hits along the way. You can increase the chances of success by submitting only the very best songs in your catalog. These are your hits.

Now this can be tricky, almost every songwriter claims to have written some hit songs when in fact they are not. I recommend you read the following useful tutorial on truthfully assessing your songs and your catalog:

a.) 6 Most Proven Hit Songwriting Tips
b.) How to Write or Make a Hit Song

Check item#2: Do you have a clear and professionally sounding demo?

You need to produce a demo of your hit songs. This is the way how your song can be heard by the artist and their producers. Read the rest of this entry »