Owning the full Rights of the song?

[AriBialo]

I noticed that most of the listings ask that we own 100% of the song. So does this mean that if I have a 50/50 split on a song, it will not be accepted? What if they think it's a bulls-eye?


Thanks,

Ari Bialo
www.taxi.com/aribialo

[Cruciform]

If you and a collaborator or two have shares in a song as writers, that's fine (as long as you all agree on a given deal). What the listing terminology means, is that copyright cannot be partially or fully assigned to a publisher ie. you and/or your writer buddies must fully control the copyright of the piece.

[guitarhacker]

That is why you need to have a writers agreement and be sure it's signed.

100% of the writers must agree or the song is a no go. That agreement assures that you can assign the song fully to the producer/publisher/library.

Get them for every song you co-write. The advice is to have it before the song is complete. However, I work with one co-writer and we will often do the paperwork after the song is done. We always do 50/50 regardless of "who wrote more".... that doesn't matter.

nothing is worse than having a producer ready to sign the song and one of the writers doesn't want the deal for whatever reason. The agreement helps to prevent that issue.