Archive | September, 2016

A John Braheny Songmine column from the archives…

Accession Number: C000000137-030-001Document/Digital File, “Songmine: When in Doubt…”negotiate” II by John Braheny”, OCR converted text under same Accession Number

(Digitally converted text. Some errors may occur)

When in doubt… “negotiate”
PART II

Last time we covered some of the ways to give producers and artist financial incentives to record your song without giving them a percentage of the copyright. Giving up or snaring your copyright is, of course, your option, and if you go through a publisher, he/she will want to own a substantial portion, if not all of it. The advantage of dealing with a good publisher is that you don’t have to knock on the doors and wheel and deal yourself. You’ll have someone, ideally, who’s a partner and will put lots of energy and creativity to work to justify the control you’ve given him/her over your creation.

If, however, you enjoy or feel capable of hustling your own deals, you should know what your options are. Publishers themselves have a variety of attitudes about splitting the copyright or using the options we’re discussing in these two articles. They range from, “Under no circumstances will I give up anything; I’m doing the work and I deserve it,” to “I’ll give up what I have to to get the tune recorded.” It depends a lot on the circumstances of each situation. How important, for instance, is this recording? Is this the only artist who could cut the tune? Would this cut be very important in the development of the writer’s career in generating interest in the rest of his/her catalog? If I give this producer a piece of the action am I setting a precedent with him that I’ll regret later? And always, how badly do they want this song? So, if you’re doing the publisher’s work, those are questions that you’ll have to consider.

The option I covered last time was negotiating for a percentage of the mechanical royalties. Another type is “perfor-mance royalties.” That’s the term for all the money received through BMI, ASCAP or SESAC for the performances of your songs on radio, TV, juke boxes and in clubs. Those organizations called performance rights societies pay directly to the publisher and to the writer. This is a different situation from “mechanical” royalties for sales of records and tapes which are paid directly to the copyright owner. If your publisher owns the copyright it comes to him/her, who in turn, according to the terms of your publishing agreement, pays you. If you have a hit song, particularly one that gets played on the radio long after it’s been a hit, your “performance” royalties will make you considerably more money than “mechanicals”. For the purpose of negotiation, there is another important difference between “mechanical” and “perfor-mance” income. It’s that when you receive your earning satement from BMI or ASCAP, they don’t let you know which recording of your song you’re receiving royalties from (SESAC lets you know). So you can’t say, “I’ll give you x percent of the publisher’s share of the performance income on this particular record.” There have been many cases where two different versions of the same song are on the charts at the same ,time, or one is a country cover of a pop record. So, in the case of performance royalties,you could say;’,I can give you x percent of the publisher’s share of performance money for the first four quarters (the payments are received quarterly),” or maybe until the quarter before the next recording of this song is released. Whoever you’re negotiating with might say, with possible justification, that, were it not for the success of the first record, the second would not have been made. He/she should be reminded that the odds are against an album cut making much . performance money, and the offering of a percentage on performances should be an incentive for a producer or artist to release the song as a single.

Another factor that can be negotiated is the number of units sold, in the case of mechanicals, or, in the case of both mechanicals and performances, the amount of money received is a parameter. In other words, “I’ll give you x percent of the money until you’ve received x thousands of dollars.”

In closing, if you choose to deal with producers and artists directly, and they want some financial incentive, you just need to know that, as they say, “There’s more than one way to skin a cat,” and,  “Everything is negotiable.”

APRIL 17 – APRIL 30

See all previous entries in the Songmine Series

About Songmine and Music Connection Magazine:

John Braheny met Eric Bettelli and Michael Dolan right before they were going to publish Music Connection magazine. Eric and Michael wanted to get their publication out to as many songwriters as they could. They had already heard of the LA Songwriters Showcase, and of John and his partner, Len Chandler. John’s goal was to advertise the schedule of guest speakers and performers at the weekly Showcase… so they made a deal. 

They published John’s Songmine column (he had never before written a magazine article!) in their very first edition, in November 1977. Trading out the column for advertising, this arrangement continued for many years. Plus, Eric and Michael came to the Showcase each week and distributed free copies to the songwriters!

Those articles became so popular that (book agent and editor) Ronny Schiff offered John’s articles to F&W Media, where they became the backbone of John’s textbook, The Craft and Business of Songwriting. As a follow-up, Dan Kimpel (author, songwriter, teacher), who had also worked at LASS, took on the Songwriting column at Music Connection magazine which continues to this day! You can subscribe to get either hard copies or online.

A John Braheny Songmine column from the archives…

Accession Number: C000000137-029-002 Document/Digital File, “Songmine: When in Doubt…”negotiate”by John Braheny”, OCR converted text under same Accession Number

(Digitally converted text. Some errors may occur)

Songmine
BY JOHN BRAHENY

When in doubt… “negotiate”

A recent incident prompted this article; a writer I know happened to get to the manager of a major R&B/pop crossover group. The manager loved her song and felt it was so good that the group may want to record it despite the fact that the group usually wrote their own songs. He asked her if the group could have the publishing if they recorded it. She said, “No.” He said, “Goodbye.” She said she was totally unprepared to deal with the situation and had no idea what to say. She was excited that he liked it, but thought that when he wanted the publishing he was trying to rip her off.

There were three reactions to her story. The first was, “Right on; don’t let them have the publishing. You did right! You did the job of the publisher by getting it to him in the first place. Does anyone seriously believe that that manager or that group is going to exploit that song beyond the group’s recording of it?” The second reaction was, “My God. Do you know there are writers who’d sell their kids for an album cut by that group? The writer’s royalties alone are worth thousands, especially if it’s a single. Who cares about giving them the publishing? You give it to them and get a guaranteed recording. If you give it to a real publisher, it might never get cut because they are not going to give up their piece of the action to that group. Either way, you don’t get to keep any of the publishing! It’s just one song and it’ll help build your career.”

The third point of view was mine. While I conceded that both points of view had merit, I wondered why she didn’t negotiate. She answered, “I don’t know. I didn’t even think of it. What’s to negotiate? Either you give them the publishing or you don’t, right?”

Wrong. There are several items that are negotiable. First of all, you don’t want any deal to go into effect until a song is released. So, you don’t want to assign them the publishing rights (if that’s what the deal is) and then have them decide they don’t want to record the tune after all. Then you’ve given away the publishing and no one is out plugging the tune. You can put yuour deal in writing and add a clause that says, “This contract goes into effect on the day this record is released commercially.”

The two major sources of income (mechanical and perfor-mance) are negotiable without transferring your ownership of any of the copyright. Generally, when someone says they want “the publishing” they want ownership of the copyright (and/or the right to collect all income earned by the tune). In the “standard” writer/publisher contract, you assign the copyright to the publisher in a contract which gives you half the income as writer, with the other half going to the publisher. But the publisher owns the song and can sell it to anyone else if he wants to. A good businessperson will always want to own the copyright. It’s a commodity whose value will increase with the song’s degree and length of popularity. So you can’t blame them for going after it. They’re not trying to rip you off, just taking care of business. You need to do the same.

“Mechanicals” refers to the income from the sales of records and tapes at the current rate of two and three-quarters cents per song per unit sold, payable to the copyright owner. For a million seller, that’s $27,500. As the writer, you’ll take half off the top right away, and from the remainder (referred to as the “publisher’s share of mechanicals”), you can offer percentages as an incentive only for their limited exploitation of the song. If someone else later records the song, you don’t end up giving them parts of the mechanicals for that new recording.

Next time I’ll write about the “performance” income, which is also negotiable without giving up your copyright.

APRIL 3 — APRIL 16

See all previous entries in the Songmine Series

About Songmine and Music Connection Magazine:

John Braheny met Eric Bettelli and Michael Dolan right before they were going to publish Music Connection magazine. Eric and Michael wanted to get their publication out to as many songwriters as they could. They had already heard of the LA Songwriters Showcase, and of John and his partner, Len Chandler. John’s goal was to advertise the schedule of guest speakers and performers at the weekly Showcase… so they made a deal. 

They published John’s Songmine column (he had never before written a magazine article!) in their very first edition, in November 1977. Trading out the column for advertising, this arrangement continued for many years. Plus, Eric and Michael came to the Showcase each week and distributed free copies to the songwriters!

Those articles became so popular that (book agent and editor) Ronny Schiff offered John’s articles to F&W Media, where they became the backbone of John’s textbook, The Craft and Business of Songwriting. As a follow-up, Dan Kimpel (author, songwriter, teacher), who had also worked at LASS, took on the Songwriting column at Music Connection magazine which continues to this day! You can subscribe to get either hard copies or online.

A John Braheny Songmine column from the archives…

Accession Number: C000000137-029-001 Document/Digital File, “Songmine: Collaboration Part IV:  Can This Marriage Work? by John Braheny”, OCR converted text under same Accession Number

(Digitally converted text. Some errors may occur)

Songmine BY JOHN BRAHENY
COLLABORATION PART IV: Can this marriage work?

“My ego is my biggest problem when I collaborate,” says a successful L.A. songwriter. “I have to keep reminding myself that I’m collaborating with this lyricist because I really respect his work and when he offers a suggestion or asks me to change part of my melody to accomodate a lyric, I should give it a shot.” This problem, at least in part, was caused by the fact that he’d written the words and music himself for years and found it difficult to readjust his habits. It typifies a problem faced by all collaborators and unless it can be controlled, it becomes one of the most frequent causes of breakups. A negative and quarrelsome attitude can destroy any type of partnership, especially with people who are sensitive and involved with emotional issues. It’s not always easy to deal with someone who tells you your baby is ugly. Remember that you’re both trying to make it pretty. We all want to believe that, because the baby comes from us, it’s already perfect. Even when you’re writing alone, the ability to step back from your song and look at it objectively is what makes you a professional rather than an amateur songwriter. When you’re working with someone else, that professional attitude becomes doubly important because criticism is a necessary part of the process–a good partner won’t let you get away with ignoring a flaw. It is, in fact, one of the primary benefits of collaborating. The one thing to keep foremost in your mind is that you’re both trying to create the best song possible. All criticism and response to it should be directed toward that goal rather than to protecting your ego by defending something just because you wrote it.

You’ll need to learn not only to accept criticism graciously but to give it. Giving criticism is an art in itself. When you’re beginning a relationship it’s crucial that it be done as gently and positively as possible. As your routine develops and you get more comfortable and trusting with each other you’ll probably work out some shorthand that will speed up the process of criticism. You’ll also get to know which buttons not to push. For instance, there’s a lot of difference between saying That line sucks!” and “Let’s make that line stronger.” The former is an unqualified putdown. The latter acknowledges it could be better, offers a challenge, and implies faith that you and your partner can do it. It’s important that you continuously acknowledge your partner’s talent and compli-ment his/her good ideas. In an atmosphere where your partner knows he/she is respected, criticism becomes much easier. If you find few causes for compliments, you should be writing with someone else.

Approaches to collaboration are as varied as the combinations of individuals involved. It’s very important that you find out right away how your prospective partner likes to work. Here are some of the variables: 1. Writing lyric and music alone and getting together later. Some people get very uptight when their partner is in the same room. It disturbs their creative flow. They may be open to criticism and change later but they need to get something to work from first. Some lyricists would rather write to a finished melody and vice versa. This method makes it easier to write by correspondence. Some who write this way will take their melody or lyric to several writers in succession and say “Take this lyric (or tune) for a week. I’ll hear what you’ve come up with then and if I like it, great, and if not I’ll take it to someone else.” For those writers, it saves the hassle of waiting endlessly for a collaborator to finish a song. A very common problem. 2. Writing together in the same room. Writers who work this way love the give and take and instant feedback. They’re into the excitement and high energy level that can happen when they really start to “cook.” It’s particularly good for those who write both lyrics and music so ideas can be stimulated and shared in both areas. With this type of collaboration your compatability becomes more important. What time of day is your best creative time? Can you work every day or once a week? Do you like each other and not feel intimidated? Regardless of the approach, you’ll also need stylistic compatability and you’ll need to decide whether you or your partner also want to collaborate with others. As in all other partnership efforts (including marriage) give and take and understanding are the keys.

MARCH 20 — APRIL 2

See all previous entries in the Songmine Series

About Songmine and Music Connection Magazine:

John Braheny met Eric Bettelli and Michael Dolan right before they were going to publish Music Connection magazine. Eric and Michael wanted to get their publication out to as many songwriters as they could. They had already heard of the LA Songwriters Showcase, and of John and his partner, Len Chandler. John’s goal was to advertise the schedule of guest speakers and performers at the weekly Showcase… so they made a deal. 

They published John’s Songmine column (he had never before written a magazine article!) in their very first edition, in November 1977. Trading out the column for advertising, this arrangement continued for many years. Plus, Eric and Michael came to the Showcase each week and distributed free copies to the songwriters!

Those articles became so popular that (book agent and editor) Ronny Schiff offered John’s articles to F&W Media, where they became the backbone of John’s textbook, The Craft and Business of Songwriting. As a follow-up, Dan Kimpel (author, songwriter, teacher), who had also worked at LASS, took on the Songwriting column at Music Connection magazine which continues to this day! You can subscribe to get either hard copies or online.

A John Braheny Songmine column from the archives…

Accession Number: C000000137-028-002 Document/Digital File, “Songmine: Collaboration Part II: Meeting Your Match”, OCR converted text under same Accession Number

(Digitally converted text. Some errors may occur)

COLLABORATION PART III: Getting Down To Business by John Braheny

Let’s assume that you’ve found a lyricist and/or composer whose words or music feels like the magic ingredient you need to write great songs. The tendency is to want to get to it right away and see if you’re really compatible. First thing you know you’ve got a fantastic song. Then you say “Great, let’s find a publisher!” Your partner says “Oh, I guess I forgot to tell you— I’ve got my own publishing company so I’d like to publish the song.” At that point the song may be in trouble. You may rightfully ask whether your partner’s company is capable of properly exploiting the song. Does he have the connections to get the song recorded? If not, you’re better off not having a publisher at all than to have the song tied up so that no one else may have the financial incentive to try to place the tune. You might ask that if he doesn’t get it recorded in six months or a year, that he give up his publishing interest and you look for a publisher together. You might also set up your own company and split the publishing, but jointly agree to the above reversion clause or agree to bring in a third publisher and you both give an equal share (or all of it) to the new party.

Another scenario is that you have this super song that a publisher gets interested in but you wrote the song with someone last year and since you had no agreement, you can’t assign his share of the ownership of the copyright to the publisher. You haven’t seen your collaborator since you wrote the song and can’t find him. The publisher, fearful of future legal problems, decides not to publish it. If you had, on paper, granted the power of attorney to each other, you could have put that publisher at ease. A real basic consideration is what kind of a split you do on the song. Your collaborator may have supplied a title for a song but you wrote the rest of it. You might feel you did most of the work and should get 90 percent of the money. Your partner may feel that without the title, which supplied the premise, there wouldn’t be a song. You may both be right but that kind of bickering could destroy a very promising collaborative effort. It’s generally agreed that if you get together with the intention of writing a song or to establish an on-going writing relationship, you do a 50/50 split. It’s a pretty straightforward arrangement in any case if one of you is a lyricist and the other writes music. It tends to get a little touchy if each of you write music and lyrics. There’s more room for argument about who contributed the most. That’s why it’s best to agree on 50/50 ahead of time. I’m sure that on some of the Lennon/McCartney tunes, one contributed more than the other on individual songs but they just didn’t want to fight over it every time.

Here are some more situations that sometimes come up: 1. You’ve written the song and you take it to someone else to “tighten it up” and that person contributes a new hook or changes the direction of the song. 2. You take your song to an artist who wants to “personalize” it and changes something. For this he wants writer’s credit. 3. A publisher suggests changes and wants a writer’s credit. Generally speaking we feel that this is the publisher’s job and he shouldn’t get writer’s credit for it. This, of course, would depend on how substantial the contribution is–and it can get a little touchy.

Aside from the considerations of who gets what, there are other problems that cause difficulties. Maybe you decide later that for some reason you want a new lyric or melody to a song you’ve already written with someone. Is it okay to change? Not without his/her permission. What if your melody writer wants a new foreign language lyric. Do you still get paid?

All these potential problems point up the need for collaborators to get all the business straight before they get into the music. There are few things more frustrating than knowing you’ve written a winner but can’t do anything with it. Next time — The Musical Relationship.

MARCH 6 — MARCH 19

See all previous entries in the Songmine Series

About Songmine and Music Connection Magazine:

John Braheny met Eric Bettelli and Michael Dolan right before they were going to publish Music Connection magazine. Eric and Michael wanted to get their publication out to as many songwriters as they could. They had already heard of the LA Songwriters Showcase, and of John and his partner, Len Chandler. John’s goal was to advertise the schedule of guest speakers and performers at the weekly Showcase… so they made a deal. 

They published John’s Songmine column (he had never before written a magazine article!) in their very first edition, in November 1977. Trading out the column for advertising, this arrangement continued for many years. Plus, Eric and Michael came to the Showcase each week and distributed free copies to the songwriters!

Those articles became so popular that (book agent and editor) Ronny Schiff offered John’s articles to F&W Media, where they became the backbone of John’s textbook, The Craft and Business of Songwriting. As a follow-up, Dan Kimpel (author, songwriter, teacher), who had also worked at LASS, took on the Songwriting column at Music Connection magazine which continues to this day! You can subscribe to get either hard copies or online.