Lyrics wanted for a specific listing

[cowriter]

Hello everyone,

I'm looking for lyrics that I can use for the listing below.

https://www.taxi.com/industry#listing-S240107DE

I do the composition, production and vocals at my own expense. You get full lyric rights, I keep the rights to the music and the master.
Here are two songs that show my possibilities productionwise.

https://www.taxi.com/members/D1seQlm9Sw ... f-the-mist

https://www.taxi.com/members/D1seQlm9Sw ... y-hometown

I would be happy if someone got in touch and a collaboration could come about. Thank you very much in advance for any participation.

Best, Andy

[Casey H]

I do the composition, production and vocals at my own expense. You get full lyric rights, I keep the rights to the music and the master.

Hey Andy
This confusing. If someone writes lyrics to a song, they generally own 50% of the composition. I don't know what "full lyric rights" means. I don't think you'd find anyone that would write lyrics for a song without owning 50% of the composition. The composition is defined basically as Melody + Lyrics.

Most of us generally share both the composition and master so if the song gets placed in film/tv, the revenue is split. Sync fees go to the master owner, PRO to the writers of the composition. I've written dozens of songs with others where I only wrote lyrics while they did the music, production and maybe the performance as well. EVERYTHING gets split 50/50.

I'm not sure if you worded your post wrong (needs clarification) or that's exactly what you meant.

Best,
Casey

[cowriter]

Thank you Casey, for jumping in. Now I'll explain to you how I've dealt with my co-writers so far, but only in Germany and other European countries, since the previous publications had their origins there and not in the US.

I get a lyric, I like it and I compose music for it, I also do the complete arrangement and production, hire a studio singer or sing myself. I then register with my PRS (Gema) as a music composer, my co-writer as lyricist. This means that each of us gets 50% if the song is played somewhere, sync-licensed or reproduced by the responsible PRS. I own the master rights, i.e. I keep the upfront sync fees or the money if it appears on a CD compilation etc. Now comes a special variant: if I create an instrumental version of the song, and it is released, then I alone receive the copyright money because no lyricist is involved. I've been doing it this way for 30 years now. Please tell me if I'm wrong about this, it feels right to me that everyone gets paid according to their input and investment.

Thanks, Casey, for sharing your expertise with us.

Best, Andy

[johnnyrowing]

Andy,
Did you notice the bit in the listing about a preference for "artists that are actively building their careers"? The listing isn't expressly asking for "artists" but I think that little tidbit implies it.

Does this reduce your desire to submit to the listing at all?

Johnny

[Casey H]

Thank you Casey, for jumping in. Now I'll explain to you how I've dealt with my co-writers so far, but only in Germany and other European countries, since the previous publications had their origins there and not in the US.

I get a lyric, I like it and I compose music for it, I also do the complete arrangement and production, hire a studio singer or sing myself. I then register with my PRS (Gema) as a music composer, my co-writer as lyricist. This means that each of us gets 50% if the song is played somewhere, sync-licensed or reproduced by the responsible PRS. I own the master rights, i.e. I keep the upfront sync fees or the money if it appears on a CD compilation etc. Now comes a special variant: if I create an instrumental version of the song, and it is released, then I alone receive the copyright money because no lyricist is involved. I've been doing it this way for 30 years now. Please tell me if I'm wrong about this, it feels right to me that everyone gets paid according to their input and investment.

Thanks, Casey, for sharing your expertise with us.

Best, Andy

It's possible that some things are different in other countries but I think based on your post above, we're saying the same things.

You register a song with you as the composer and someone else as the lyricist. I assume that you specify the shares there as 50% each, which makes you equal in ownership of the composition. That's as it should be.

But your way of doing things with the master has some issues. I don't think your lyric co-writer would be very happy not getting any share of sync if you are pitching this for Film/TV. I know I would never agree to that deal. Keep in mind that if there's a placement, the work wouldn't even exist without your co-writer's lyrics.

The bigger issues is: If you are putting a vocal song in a library, it's impossible to separate the instrumental from the full. The library asks for both and a music supervisor may use either or even a mix, weaving in and out between the two as needed under dialog. I've put vocal songs in libraries where sometimes they used the instrumental, sometimes the vocal version, and sometimes a mix. Nowadays many libraries even ask for the vocal stem so they can mix that with the instrumental to get desired vocal volume under points of dialog. So all the parts are essentially inseparable. And if it's an exclusive library, they would be the sole publisher for all parts of the song. You can't put a song with vocal in an exclusive library and then put the instrumental anywhere else, by itself or with different vocal or lyrics, etc.

HTH
Casey

[cowriter]

Thanks Casey, I can basically agree with everything, including the issue of the instrumental versions. In your opinion, what should a fair division of the sync fees (based on the master rights) look like? Assuming again that the producer has played and recorded all the instruments and, if necessary, paid additional musicians.

Best, Andy

[cowriter]

Andy,
Did you notice the bit in the listing about a preference for "artists that are actively building their careers"? The listing isn't expressly asking for "artists" but I think that little tidbit implies it.

Does this reduce your desire to submit to the listing at all?

Johnny

Hey Johnny, thanks for the tip, I actually missed it. And yes, that is a reason not to take any further action here for now. But I'm still interested in lyrics like this because I want to produce this type of music for the sync market and also want to exploit it for myself as a recording artist. So anyone who's reading this and are interested in working together, please get in touch. And we Johnny are now completely concentrating on our song.

[Casey H]

Thanks Casey, I can basically agree with everything, including the issue of the instrumental versions. In your opinion, what should a fair division of the sync fees (based on the master rights) look like? Assuming again that the producer has played and recorded all the instruments and, if necessary, paid additional musicians.

Best, Andy

Most folks here simply do a 50/50 split on both composition and master for simplicity. But it's up to you both as to how to split it, such as 60/40. I'm not big on quibbling on splits, most will tell you that equal shares regardless of contribution is the professional way. Remember, you are building relationships with collaborators for the long term and the level of effort per writer will vary. I have songs I wrote 90% of and my co-writer 10%. We split it 50/50. The opposite is true as well. There is a phrase people say in Nashville, "Write a word, get a third".

Any arrangement that you and your co-writer agree on is fine, but if you present something too lopsided, you won't get interest from good writers.

Casey

[cowriter]

Thanks for your insights Casey, very helpful for my further decisions.

[CTWF]

I've written dozens of songs with others where I only wrote lyrics while they did the music, production and maybe the performance as well. EVERYTHING gets split 50/50.

Sorry, don’t want to derail the thread. I would possibly do that for Nobel laureate lyrics. If in songs I produced the share was 50-50 with the singer (say on a public domain song), how could it be fair if lyrics alone were 50%? In a new song there are
1. Composition.
2. Lyrics.
3. Production.
4. Vocal perfomance.
(5. Instrumental performance, if it is not all VIs).

But even in a 20%-25% split, would it be fair?