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Stick Handling Through The Music Business Written by Beau Davis Songwriters Articles 1st of 5 – “How do I get someone to buy my songs?” |
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Part 1 of 5 Part 2 of 5 Part 3 of 5 Parts 4 & 5 COMBINED |
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I hear this question more than any other from the novice songwriter who doesn’t understand how the process works.
First of all – you don’t sell your songs. If someone likes your songs, they might ask if they can publish them and they will ask you to sign a contract for the song, or songs, they are interested in. Don’t feel pressured to sign on the spot – it’s OK to take this contract home to look over before you put your signature on it. Once you have signed a song contract, there’s no turning back. You have assigned the publishing rights to your song – you and the publisher are now basically partners. Like any other business, you have to be careful who your partner is. Just because someone knows the sister of a musician who used to work with the brother-in-law of the guitar player that played on some major artist’s record/CD – it doesn’t mean this person can get the artist or anyone else to record your song. So watch out for the people who tell you what you want to hear; and remember you only assign the publisher’s share of your song, never the writer’s share. Successful writers may retain part of their publishing rights, but if you’ve never had a song recorded, you can’t make that demand. If a publisher’s spending his money to have demos made of your songs and to represent you on the street pitching your songs to various artists, then he deserves full publishing rights. An exception might be made if you had already spent a lot of money on demos and they were of such quality that all the publisher would have to do is pitch them. In this case you might negotiate to keep part of the publishing rights. Note: Try the shotgun approach. The more people you write with the better your chances of getting a song cut. Beau Davis has had 40 plus years in the music business, entertaining, recording, playing and producing concerts, special events and much more. Beau has been associated with some of the top people in the industry from both sides of the border and has learned from his associates over many years. All aspects of the music industry will be discussed over future articles. |
