Co-writing by internet or phone

[hummingbird]

I actually began internet collaboration with a "band" over on Soundclick. We didn't play together, but we did projects together. Mind you, we weren't aiming to do broadcast quality things for film & tv, we were just helping each other get a live demo together of a song. It was pretty good too.We didn't care what recording software each other had. One of us would take on the role of 'project mixer', and our job would be to collect the tracks from each other and mix them, and post an updated version. We'd start out with a 'reference track' - something that had the form & the BPM clicks as a basis to work from. We mostly worked from mp3s. But we could have worked from wav files by using yousendit. I only got high speed internet a year ago, before that, it was... get something ready, get it uploading, and go have dinner. I managed.Nowadays when I collab, when we both/all are happy with everything, I send the final wav files via Yousentit to the mixer for the broadcast project. I have one collaborator who will meet with me sometimes on Skype & we get out the guitars and throw ideas back & forth, but for the most part, we send each other mp3s of ideas & chat via email. Hope that answers some questions

[Casey H]

Quote:what's more important, in my experience, is: are both writers...* really commited to the same goals?* do both have the same work ethics, efficiency, are both reliable?...questions like that. in my experience it's the most important part to find the right partner than - otherwise it won't make that much sense in the long run.So true, Martin... Chemistry, personality, commitment, flexibility, ethics, understanding the difference between "me" and "we", etc. are what really matter... Those things apply whether it's by phone, by internet, or sitting in the same room.I've had success working with people by phone and web... I've never even met most of the co-writers with whom I wrote songs. Forums like this are great places to meet co-writers. Good luck! Casey

[lieflin77]

Hey thanks guys, you've given me a ton to think about. Last question, is there some kind of "formal" agreement? I heard at the rally that many people just do a 50/50 shared credit even if one person only brings a few lines to the table. For me, this is fine for the point I am at. Tim, I'm going to check out these sites that were mentioned, then I'll be in touch and we'll give it a shot! I'm so encouraged!Marissa

[Casey H]

Quote:Hey thanks guys, you've given me a ton to think about. Last question, is there some kind of "formal" agreement? I heard at the rally that many people just do a 50/50 shared credit even if one person only brings a few lines to the table. For me, this is fine for the point I am at. Tim, I'm going to check out these sites that were mentioned, then I'll be in touch and we'll give it a shot! I'm so encouraged!MarissaMarissaThere is a very good template for a collaboration agreement at: www.johnbraheny.com ... It covers the important things- percentage splits, who can make decisions regarding contracts, licensing, etc. It is best to enter such a written agreement. Casual, friendly things sometimes turn ugly later, if real money is involved. I just signed an agreement which included songs with co-writers. For these songs, I had a signed collaboration agreement, giving me power of attorney to sign contracts for these songs. It made things very easy. I didn't have to chase anyone down... I simply faxed the documents and was done. Casey

[gatorjj]

I've done some collaborations via a software/environment called "RiffWorks" (SonomaWireWorks website). It's more guitar oriented but the advantage is it feels like real time between you and your collaborators, I think you can have up to 4 folks in a song at the same time. All the ones I've done there have been for fun, but if you have a good writing partner its a great place to write together. The couple serious ones I've done have been offline (both submitted to Taxi and forwarded...woooo! ) and passed back and forth through MSN Messenger. The technology is there to collab most anyway you are comfortable with, but effectively it still comes down to finding the right people to work with, especially for serious work where you might have to "argue" about parts of the song! It still comes down to the trust and relationships, who's in charge etc. which is just as hard virtually as it is in real life I'd suggest trying these various services for fun first, and see if you find folks you really feel like would be good to work with on more serious projects.

[sgs4u]

I joined Taxi in Oct 06. I've co-written about 20 songs so far, all with people far away. Some of them are great, some relationships work just fine, others... not so good. The only disadvantage I can truly define, is that I can't read someone's facial expressions, in discussions about these co-writes. Then again, given my senitive nature, that might not be a bad thing.Quote:Does anyone do this regularly and have advice on this topic? I'd like to co-write more and am wondering what others have found to be the advantages and disadvantages of co-writing without being together in person.Thanks!Marissa

[timbehrens]

Thanks for the link, Casey. I'm going to go check that out now. I got a chance to listen to your songs on myspace last night, Marissa... really great stuff. Where/how did you record those? Do you have a home setup or was that done in someone's studio? Keep me posted on how things are going. I will definitely be around. Best wishes.