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Songmine: Music in Print – A Songmine Column from Music Connection Magazine March 19-April 1, 1981

By on September 11, 2015 in Archive Highlights, Articles, Songmine, Songwriting Business

A John Braheny column from the archives…

"Music in Print" Songmine Column from Music Connection Magazine March 19-April 1,1981 Edition

“Music in Print” Songmine Column from Music Connection Magazine March 19-April 1,1981 Edition JB# E000000063-001

(Digitally converted text. Some errors may occur)

Songmine: Music in Print by John Braheny 

If you’re a writer destined for success because you write mass appeal songs, particularly adult contemporary, MOR, pop, or country, you’re looking at a lucrative print market. With the possi-ble exception of the education print market, though, the songs will have to have been very popular records to make all those piano bar singers, Top 40 bands and other print buyers want them. I’ve found, though, that most writers know little about print music. To explore it I interviewed Ronny Schiff, an independent agent for print projects, at the L.A. Songwriters Showcase. She’s worked for three of the biggest print companies–Hansen, Warner Bros. Music and Almo Publications (no longer in the print business). About 90 percent of this article is taken from that talk. There are several types of print music publishing: 1. Sheet Music: piano/vocal arrangements, often with chord designations for other instruments. Personality Folio: in which the concept is based on a name ar-tist or writer; “The Songs Of…,” “The…Songbook.” These in-volve an additional contract called a “name and likeness” contract which allows the print publisher to use the writer or artist’s name or picture. For example, Barry Manilow could negotiate a “name and likeness” contract if someone wanted to do a personality folio that included not only songs he wrote but songs by other writers that he’d popularized. The philosophy is that his picture on the cover will sell that sheet music or folio whereas the writer’s name won’t always attract that attention. 3. Matched Folio- music from a: particular album or musical theater show. These also involve a “name and likeness” contract. 4. Mixed Folio: based on concepts like “Easy Piano Tunes,” “Hits of ’78,” etc. which involve music from a mixture of writers. Schiff says that “Peaceful Easy Feeling” was one of the most popular mixed folios. 5. Educational: included in this category are arrangements for choruses, marching bands, concert bands, jazz bands, -and or-chestras, and these are obviously sold to schools. drill teams, etc. This market gives music great exposure beyond actual sales. How many times in school have you heard the same songs being prac-ticed by the chorus or band? Multiply yourself by the people in schools and/or attending sports events and you get an idea how much exposure is available there. Writers also receive royalties if their songs are used in a televised event or parade. Another area of the educational market is “How to” books–“How To Play Bass Kazoo” or “Easy Gong Method” etc. You needn’t be concerned with it as a songwriter unless you also have teaching skills you’d like to use. There’s some demand for jazz “how-to”s, drum methods and country guitar techniques. What does your publisher get? Retail prices for print music, like everything else, continue to rise. If you’re interested at a later date, do your own survey. As of now, here’s how it looks: Sheet music: Print publishers will pay your publisher about 40 to 50 cents per sheet, which retail now for about $2.50. Folio: These will pay about 121/a to 15 percent of the Retail Selling Price (RSP) to your publishers. in the case where there are songs by various writers, this income is pro-rated according to the total number of songs in the folio. What does the writer get? Usually the short end of the stick. There has long been a practice in standard” publishing con-tracts to offer the writer a “penny” value on sheet music sales which currently stands at about six to ten cents per copy. It means that if your publisher can renegotiate his deal with the print com-pany after a new version of your hit becomes popular, you may still be getting a nickel a sheet from your old deal while his share goes up. What you should try to negotiate is 50 percent of all royalties received by your publisher from all your print sales. That way you remain equal partners in all royalties received. The 50 per-cent is based on a standard writer/publisher split but should you be able to negotiate a split more favorable to you, the print deal should reflect the same split. Publisher’s have no justification for givirig you less than a 50/50 split on your print deal.-There are situations where a publisher may have to lay out some legal fees to negotiate a difficult deal with a print publisher, but that’s part of the expense of running a publishing company, just like produc-ing demos and mailing tapes. 

20

Lyric Writing:Common Challenges

By on April 9, 2011 in Articles, Songwriting Craft

There are many aspects to writing lyrics that may not immediately come to mind when you’re “in the zone” and the ideas are flowing. By all means, don’t stop the flow, just try not to get it hung up trying to find rhymes or correct phrasing at this point. Explore the “what if” ideas if anything and just let it roll. After that first draft, though, here are some things to consider.

Getting trapped by precision. Writers who write exclusively lyrics and those who start songs by writing lyrics before writing melodies can suffer from getting into a lyric meter pattern in the first section they write and carrying the same pattern through every section. Those of you on the fringe’s of obsessive compulsive disorder are also going to tend to make sure that each lyric meter is precisely the same in each verse and even in the chorus. Consequently much of their lyric will feel forced, stiff and un-conversational. Remember, you’re not writing a Haiku poem here (precisely 17 syllables), you’re writing a conversation and seldom does a conversation come out precisely the same, verse after verse. I’ll hasten to add that there are certainly successful songs that are more “poetic” than others and not as conversational as they are artful. However, the artfulness is not as much about the precision of meter as choice of words, metaphors and images. In other words, not as much in the artifice as is in the content itself.

The solution to this problem is to re-write what you think is a chorus with a totally fresh construction, lyric meter and rhyme scheme, making use of repetition of the title. Even if you’re not quite sure what you want the title to be and your initial draft of the song has the ‘”too precise and predictable” problem, always know that it’s a first draft and if the chorus is something you discover as you go, return to it for a rewrite before you nail down a melody. (See “Chorus Construction” P 93 The Craft and Business of Songwriting 3rd Ed.) For additional verses, loosen up. All you need is to make the vocal phrasing work smoothly with the first verse melody and if it means you need to make a slight adjustment in subsequent verse melodies to accommodate the lyric, it’s not really such a big deal. The content of the lyric is more important. This can be more difficult, however, if you write only lyrics without having a melody in your head to act as a matrix.

Writing to express yourself vs. writing to communicate. Sometimes you DO communicate when you express yourself. The problem is mainly making it interesting to the listener. We’ve all had long conversations with people who want to talk to us about every nuance of their personal history or problems. At some point during an unstoppable interlude like that you find yourself thinking about whether your car is due for an oil change. However, some people are natural story-tellers who offer fascinating details, descriptions and build a story in a way that keeps you asking “Then what happened?” and you’re hanging onto every word. Chances are they’ve re-told the story (re-written it) enough times to have added a little fascinating detail along the way as they felt their listeners’ attention drifting. We never tire of hearing the same story and end up saying to friends, “Have him tell you the story about _____.” When you look at your lyric, try to put yourself in the place of a listener and imagine listening to this story. Would it hold your attention?

Tell us the story. Don’t tell us about the story. The specific always stays with listeners longer than the general.

(1) “She left me last year and I’m not over her yet.

So many things about her I still can’t forget”

Interesting? No. Too general – not enough detail to be engaging.

(2) “We fought about money, I could never make enough.

Part of me’s glad the nagging’s gone and the other part knows I’m still in love”.

Better – you’re still letting us know she’s gone but you’re adding it in the context of why she left and how you feel about it. You’ve got substantially more info in #2. Money represents very common source of marital conflict, so you’re tapping into that audience. (Yes I know the 2 versions don’t scan the same but I’m making the point about content.)

So what did we gain? As a listener, I don’t really care when she left. I’m much more interested in why she left, and what there is about her, he can’t forget. So unless you begin to answer the question raised immediately, you’re courting boredom in your listener.

Build an interesting context.

Scenario 1 – Boy takes his girl home after a date – leans over to kiss her goodnight at her doorway and she turns her head away. Anyone who’s been there recognizes the major sign that something’s wrong.

Scenario 2 – Boy is standing with four pals on the sidewalk after school. His girlfriend comes over to the group and the boy tries to kiss her. She turns away. The scene is much more intense because he’s also publicly embarrassed and now they all know something’s wrong.

In scenario 2 the same action is intensified by a more emotionally loaded context. The drama is heightened considerably and sets up an even more volatile scene. Explore other contextual elements you could use to enhance the color and drama in your songs. Where is the action taking place? Who else is present? How do those factors relate to the action? It’s a good exercise to map out the scenarios in prose or like a movie script as I did above in as much detail as possible, describing what you see in your imagination, even if you don’t end up using all the details in your lyric.

———————————————-                                                                                                                                              Excerpted and updated from John Braheny’s The Craft and Business of Songwriting (3rd Ed)

<!– /* Font Definitions */ @font-face font-family:"Times New Roman"; panose-1:0 2 2 6 3 5 4 5 2 3; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:50331648 0 0 0 1 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} table.MsoNormalTable mso-style-parent:""; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 page:Section1;} -There are many aspects to writing lyrics that may not immediately come to mind when you're "in the zone" and the ideas are flowing. By all means, don't stop the flow, just try not to get it hung up trying to find rhymes or correct phrasing at this point. Explore the “what if” ideas if anything and just let it roll. After that first draft, though, here are some things to consider.

Getting trapped by precision. Writers who write exclusively lyrics and those who start songs by writing lyrics before writing melodies can suffer from getting into a lyric meter pattern in the first section they write and carrying the same pattern through every section. Those of you on the fringe’s of obsessive compulsive disorder are also going to tend to make sure that each lyric meter is precisely the same in each verse and even in the chorus. Consequently much of their lyric will feel forced, stiff and un-conversational. Remember, you’re not writing a Haiku poem here (precisely 17 syllables), you’re writing a conversation and seldom does a conversation come out precisely the same, verse after verse. I’ll hasten to add that there are certainly successful songs that are more “poetic” than others and not as conversational as they are artful. However, the artfulness is not as much about the precision of meter as choice of words, metaphors and images. In other words, not as much in the artifice as is in the content itself.

The solution to this problem is to re-write what you think is a chorus with a totally fresh construction, lyric meter and rhyme scheme, making use of repetition of the title. Even if you’re not quite sure what you want the title to be and your initial draft of the song has                                                                                          the ‘”too precise and predictable” problem, always know that it’s a first draft and if the chorus is something you discover as you go, return to it for a rewrite before you nail down a melody. (See “Chorus Construction” P 93 The Craft and Business of Songwriting 3rd Ed.) For additional verses, loosen up. All you need is to make the vocal phrasing work smoothly with the first verse melody and if it means you need to make a slight adjustment in subsequent verse melodies to accommodate the lyric, it’s not really such a big deal. The content of the lyric is more important. This can be more difficult, however, if you write only lyrics without having a melody in your head to act as a matrix.

Writing to express yourself vs. writing to communicate. Sometimes you DO communicate when you express yourself. The problem is mainly making it interesting to the listener. We’ve all had long conversations with people who want to talk to us about every nuance of their personal history or problems. At some point during an unstoppable interlude like that you find yourself thinking about whether your car is due for an oil change. However, some people are natural story-tellers who offer fascinating details, descriptions and build a story in a way that keeps you asking “Then what happened?” and you’re hanging onto every word. Chances are they’ve re-told the story (re-written it) enough times to have added a little fascinating detail along the way as they felt their listeners’ attention drifting. We never tire of hearing the same story and end up saying to friends, “Have him tell you the story about _____.” When you look at your lyric, try to put yourself in the place of a listener and imagine listening to this story. Would it hold your attention?

Tell us the story. Don’t tell us about the story. In film industry vernacular, “Don’t write a treatment (plot summary), write a script.”

(1) “She left me last year and I’m not over her yet.

So many things about her I still can’t forget”

Interesting? No. Too general – not enough detail to be engaging.

(2) “We fought about money, I could never make enough.

Part of me’s glad the nagging’s gone and the other part knows I’m still in love”.

Better – you’re still letting us know she’s gone but you’re adding it in the context of why she left and how you feel about it. You’ve got substantially more info in #2. Money represents very common source of marital conflict, so you’re tapping into that audience. (Yes I know the 2 versions don’t scan the same but I’m making the point about content.)

So what did we gain? As a listener, I don’t really care when she left. I’m much more interested in why she left, and what there is about her, he can’t forget. So unless you begin to answer the question raised immediately, you’re courting boredom in your listener.

Build an interesting context.

Scenario 1 – Boy takes his girl home after a date – leans over to kiss her goodnight at her doorway and she turns her head away. Anyone who’s been there recognizes the major sign that something’s wrong.

Scenario 2 – Boy is standing with four pals on the sidewalk after school. His girlfriend comes over to the group and the boy tries to kiss her. She turns away. The scene is much more intense because he’s also publicly embarrassed and now they all know something’s wrong.

In scenario 2 the same action is intensified by a more emotionally loaded context. The drama is heightened considerably and sets up an even more volatile scene. Explore other contextual elements you could use to enhance the color and drama in your songs. Where is the action taking place? Who else is present? How do those factors relate to the action? It’s a good exercise to map out the scenarios in prose or like a movie script as I did above in as much detail as possible, describing what you see in your imagination, even if you don’t end up using all the details in your lyric.

Excerpted and updated from John Braheny’s The Craft and Business of Songwriting (3rd Ed)

–>

0

Songbook Errors – Proof ’em 1st

By on March 10, 2010 in Songwriting Business

When noted lyricist, K. Lawrence Dunham (aka Kaye L. Dunham) told me the story of the wrong version of his lyric to a jazz classic ending up in a songbook and another artist recording that wrong version, I felt there was a lesson to be learned. I asked him if he’d allow me to post the story. Thanks, Kaye.

John

———————————————————————-

December 17, 2009

Re: “Don’t Look Back”

Lyrics by K. Lawrence Dunham

Music by Johnny Mandel

Dear John,

Thank you for offering to post my story about the song “Don’t Look Back”. I agree that is has teaching value. However posting it also offers me the opportunity to somewhat resolve the situation for myself although there is no feasible avenue for me to change the outcome.

This is a song which I, as a lyricist, co-wrote with Johnny Mandel. It was first recorded in the Seventies by legendary jazz vocal artist Irene Kral on the vinyl album, “Where Is Love”which only featured Kral with the fine piano accompaniment of Alan Broadbent. The album became a critical hit internationally in the world of traditional vocal jazz. It was nominated for a Grammy in 1976 and was later formatted to a CD version. “Don’t Look Back’ has had more than a few covers and is still an active copyright.

Here is the situation. Several years back I re-acquired my publishing rights for the song and became the co-publisher. In the latest edition of the Johnny Mandel Song Book, published by Alfred Publishing Company in 2006 Mr. Mandel included “Don’t Look Back(It was not included in the first edition.) I was delighted when he informed me of his intention while he was working on the project. When the book came out this was a high point for me as a writer.

Now three years later, it has come to my attention that there is a error in one line of the lyrics as printed in the book. That in itself is unfortunate in terms of the record for posterity. Added to this is the ongoing possibility of singers performing and even recording the song incorrectly based on the book. This is actually is how I found out about the error. A singer who recently recorded the song sent me a reference copy and I was shocked to hear the lyric change. When I emailed him about it he told me that learned the song from the Mandel songbook. I must say that the singer kindly agreed to sing the correct lyric in live performance now that he knows what it is.

The lesson here is that when Mr Mandel informed me of the pending publication, in my role as co-publisher I did not request a copy of the arrangement for proofing. True, one was never sent to me as a routine matter of procedure, but the responsibility was mine. Even when I got a copy of the book, I was so enthralled by it. I never looked carefully at the lyrics, and this is something I routinely do keenly in my role as a lyricist when it comes to lead sheets or lyric sheets

Here is the incorrect line:

“Who cares to feel what went on before, as far as love’s concerned

All those dreams will disappear and never will return.”

The correct line is:

“Who cares to feel what went on before, as far as love’s concerned

All those dreams have disappeared and never will return.”

Thanks again so much. John.

K. Lawrence Dunham

a.k.a Kaye L. Dunham

email: klawdee@gmail.com

__________________________________________________________________

FOLLOWUP

I referred Kaye to Ronny Schiff, my book agent and print music expert. She told him Alfred Music Publishing was a highly respected and conscientious company and he should write to them directly and request a correction. He did send the request and received back a very gracious personal letter from Bryan Bradley, Alfred Music Publishing’s COO, promising to make the correction on the next printing. Kaye thanked Ronny for encouraging him to follow up and in her note back to him she said, “The print companies (the few that are left) are ALL dedicated to accuracy. That’s why they’ve survived. They also are there to serve the songwriter. Without you, there would be no music business that brings us such joy.” Well said, Ronny.

Glad this worked out for everyone.

John

0

Cautionary Tales of TV Song Rip-Offs

By on January 11, 2010 in Interviews, Music Marketing, Songwriting Business

“No cue sheets, no pay.” That’s the mantra you need to remember when you’re dealing with film/TV music. Sometimes it’s easier said than done. When  my friend, topical songwriter Smokey MilesSmokey Miles (aka Count Smokula) started to tell me the story of his “Balloon Boy” song and it’s use on TV surrounding that hoax, I though it was something you should hear about. It turned out to be an even more valuable lesson than I thought after he got deeper into his experiences with other TV projects he’d written for and companies he got screwed by. You’ll be glad you listened to this!

Smokey Miles Interview
2

10 Good Reasons To Join A Songwriters Organization

By on December 5, 2008 in Music Marketing

Many of you are active members of several different songwriters groups but there are a lot of loners out there who may not be aware of the opportunities organizations provide. From needing a local support group to involvement in national legislation, their services are rarely one-size-fits-all and there is a great diversity of services available. Here are a few: Continue Reading →

2

Taxi Road Rally Virgin?

By on December 5, 2008 in Live Performance, Music Marketing, Opinions, Q&A

The Annual Taxi Road Rally is a major event that no songwriter should miss. It’s free for Taxi members + one guest, so if you’re not a member, attach yourself to one and get here to L.A. , usually on the first weekend in November. Details at www.taxi.com.

These are my answers to some questions from a client who lives in New York and was attending his first Taxi Road Rally.

————————————————

Q -There might be 2000 people at this event. How do you effectively network with the “players” if you’re tripping over 100 other people to try to get to them?
A – Make sure to get there early to sign up for one-on-ones, short 10 minute session with someone of your choice. Those are generally the screeners (obviously all industry pros) so check out the bios of the screeners/A&R staff at the TAXI site and make a list of who you’d like to talk to in the order you want to. There are also many industry pros in addition to the Taxi A&R who participate as mentors. Not guaranteed they’ll all be there or that the hottest sessions won’t fill up before you get there but give it your best shot.

Q – At the lunches, who sits at your table and how is that decided?
A – Generally, the same screeners/A&R staff and other industry pros. We spend about 15 minutes each at several tables. We’re directed to tables by taxi staff or just directed to find another open table that the previous guest has just left. So there’s no way to plan it. Each table will get about 4-5 guests during the dinner and nobody knows who they’ll be. Teachers of the classes who aren’t Taxi Screeners also do the one-on-ones and tables. Rarely do the industry panelists who are major label people and writers participate in those sessions.

Q – How many CDs should I bring/prepare (if any)? How many songs on the CD?
A – Consider that you may want to give them to potential collaborators as well as industry people. Know that the odds of an industry person listening to a CD later are slim. They may walk away with 50 or more of those and they already have a stack back at their offices. So the number is up to you. Maybe 25. There’s always a huge pile of CDs left on tables afterwards and they just get tossed. You may want to pick up CDs from potential collaborators, singers, and others you vibe with during the weekend so you don’t want to be stuck taking back too many of your own.

Q – Can I mix genres or do I have to have separate CDs for each genre/person I’m pitching to?
A – The separation of genres isn’t a bad idea though you can just separate them on your CD and clearly mark them by genre, which will save you cutting new CDs for each genre.

Q – Do you bring typed lyric sheets?
A – Yes

Q – Do I bring business cards as well?
A – DEFINITELY – make sure it has your website/MySpace/Facebook etc. on it where they can hear your songs. E-mail address and phone too. Photo may help people remember you. Be sure that whenever someone gives YOU a card (like that bodacious babe) that you make a quick note on the back of her card. Otherwise, you’ll be amazed how quickly you forget before you transfer the info to your database.

Q – Is smiling a prerequisite or can I just look glum the entire time and no one will say anything?
A – Definitely no-one will say anything. You’ll be totally friendless – except for me.

Do not look depressed, dejected, arrogant or constipated. The mission is to look happy, successful, confident and RELAXED (Remember you’re in LA, not the Big Apple.) There will be a certain amount of tension and confusion on the first day as you get everything sorted out but by the 2nd day, though you’ll still be excited (Let yourself be amazed and thrilled!!) you’ll be more chilled. Smile constantly and be ready to meet everybody. Assume they’re all there to meet YOU! Make sure you have a good 10 second “elevator speech” to introduce yourself. You might want to bring your laptop and a good digital voice recorder that you can take notes on, (You’ll be bombarded with insights you’ll want to remember.) and upload it to your laptop daily. This is “information overload” time so be ready to retrieve it while you can.

Good luck, bro. This can be a life-changing experience if you let it.
Come visit us at our booth. I’ll also be teaching 2 classes, doing mentor sessions, a mentor lunch and booking private one-on one consulting appointments on an hourly basis, so book me early by e-mailing me at john@johnbraheny.com (Write “Road Rally Consult” in subject line).
John

Note: for more info about the Taxi Road Rally, go to the TAXI forum where you’ll find two great threads (First Rally?) that will provide lots of details about what to expect from and prepare for your first Road Rally.

1

Q&A Pitching to Music Publishers

By on December 5, 2008 in Music Marketing, Q&A

I have found some of the writers of (hit Country group) tunes. Their publishers are listed with ASCAP. Would it be common practice to contact the publisher of that writer in hopes that they could publish and pitch another tune to the band?

Answer:
Good work. You’re on the right track. However, sending the songs to publishers, though not a bad idea on the face of it, just puts you another step from the mark. If you pitch to a publisher it should be the publishing company of the writers in the group. This puts them in a position of being a direct financial participant in the publishing income from their recording and that’s a BIG incentive for them. When it comes from an “outside” publisher the group won’t participate in that income at all. In some cases, ownership of the publishing may make the difference between an album cut and a single (from which they’ll make a lot more performance income).

That approach could work but you should also pitch to their A&R representative at their record company, to their producer and manager. At that point you stand a chance, assuming they’re crazy about the song, to keep some of that publishing income (along with your writers share) yourself. The manager, however, since he participates (usually 20% +) in ALL the group’s income, will be motivated to have the group’s publishing company own it. The old adage applies here always “Follow the money!”
John

Find more practical info in Johns Book, The Craft and Business of Songwriting. Buy it here!

0

SongBizness: Production Music Libraries

By on November 6, 2008 in Songwriting Business

Production Music Libraries

By John Braheny

Production music libraries are a major source of songs and underscore for film and TV productions, multi-media projects, video games, commercials, music between TV and radio programs and commercials, station ID’s, station and show promo’s, direct to DVD/video productions and many other uses where producers need quick access to pre-cleared (the rights already granted), inexpensive music. There’s been an explosion of production music libraries in the past few years that parallels the growth of new digital cable channels, satellite and web radio broadcasts.

If you’re an unknown writer or band who doesn’t have the clout to get your songs into big budget productions and don’t have the time to constantly research all the new low-budget shows that may be in production and in need of underscore music or songs, music libraries represent a major opportunity for you. These companies secure the rights (more about that later) to broadcast quality songs and instrumental underscore compositions submitted to them that they feel they can place in audio-visual productions. They then assemble and reproduce “libraries” of these collections on CD’s (and/or online) and make them available to production companies.

They’re indexed by musical style, mood, instrumentation, length, tempo, male, female or group vocal and any other attributes that allow an audio-visual producer to quickly target the type of music they need. They find the piece, use it, and fill out a “cue sheet” for the music library and your PRO (ASCAP, BMI, SESAC) that includes information on how the song is used, how long, name of the piece, composer(s) and owner of the copyright

Some of the bigger libraries hire their own in-house composers to create music for them but will also sign individual songs and complete new libraries from indie composers. That’s where you have your best opportunity.

What does “broadcast quality” really mean? Don’t feel you have to spend a bundle on studio masters. Any good digital audio work-station (DAW) setup or a good live recording can give you the quality you need if you know what you’re doing. Apple’s Garage Band continues to upgrade to take even more advantage of the new screamin’ Intel Core Duo processor. The trick is to study and experiment with it (or any other software or operating system you use) to maximize the quality of your recordings. Recording, The Magazine For The Recording Musician is a great resource. If you’re submitting instrumental pieces, they should be well arranged. Stay away from using stock sounds that come packaged with your keyboard or software. Use live musicians whenever possible, particularly for rock and country. They hate keyboard triggered samples that emulate steel or acoustic guitars, saxes, etc. Try to create fresh sounds. Generating a mood is important. They’ll use pieces with strong melodic themes but will also use underscoring that just enhances a mood. It’s also a good idea to produce mixes with and without lead instruments.

Songs are used in many different ways. Sometimes the lyric is important. Sometimes it’s irrelevant, and your song will be barely audible in a bar scene behind a conversation. It may be more important that the style is authentic and appropriate for the era in which the story is set.

Exercise: Tape TV shows (Try a drama and a comedy.) with just an audio recorder. Play them back and make lists of all the “cues” (pieces of music used) with info about mood, number of instruments, style, length, use of songs vs. underscore, and how many are under the dialog. Are they using different mixes of the same track for different cues? There are actually cases of entire shows being scored using a single five-minute piece of music that’s dissected and used in different configurations for each cue: only drums and bass in one, just the string pad of part of the piece in another, etc. Use this information as a guide to the cues you’ll submit as demos.

It’s a good idea to go to the online sites of the big music libraries, find the style of music you create and search for examples of that style on the site as someone looking to use that music would do. Note how it’s presented – how long – types of mixes – the way they describe the pieces. Here are some libraries to start with:

Megatrax

Killer Tracks

Opus 1 Music Library

Presenting Your songs to Music Supervisors and Song Placement Companies —

The best resource I can give you is to go to a series of interviews with music supervisors and music editors along with other very valuable information by Skip Adams. Skip is a music publisher whose company, Global Graffiti specializes in custom placement for film and TV. I particularly liked his interview with Madonna Wade-Reed whose music supervision credits include Boston Public, Alias, and Smallville. I especially like her candor in describing what she does.

What’s the Deal?

Advances are rare. They know that you know you’ll make most of your income on the “back end” from your PROs after it’s broadcast. In most of the situations listed above you’d get an advance for synch and master use licenses when pitching directly to music supervisors for specific shows or a percentage of the advance when pitching via song placement companies. That’s not the case with music libraries.

Contracts vary from library to library so read them very carefully. Some are actually publishing agreements in which they own the copyright just like any other publishing contract. You get your 50% writers share. I’ve also seen exclusive publishing deals in which the library exempts a maximum amount of CD sales 5,000 or 10,000 for example (This is undoubtedly negotiable.) that the group is allowed to sell without the publisher taking publishing royalties.

Ideally you’d want a non-exclusive deal in which you’re free to use the song in your own CD and sell as many as you want – or place it in film TV on your own. A trade-out on that situation is that they’ll often want not only the publisher’s share of income but 50% of the writer’s share (This usually happens when the library is required to give the publishing rights to a film company to get the placement..) leaving you with 25%. Though splitting the writer’s share goes against everything holy to me, you have to decide how important it is to you to have a non-exclusive contract. You need to consider that carefully, especially if you have a co-writer, which means that you’d now be looking at 12.5 %.

Speaking of co-writers, it’s important that you have a written agreement that neither of you can make any kind of deal other than a compulsory license (See page___) without the other’s consent. That would certainly include the above situation.

Reversion clauses can sometimes be negotiated that give you back the rights to the song within two or three years if it hasn’t been placed.

The Legal Backup You’ll Need
For the master recording, a license must be granted to the audio-visual producer that states that you control all the rights to the performances on the recording. Each musician or singer who contributes a performance to your recording has a copyright interest in their performance and you must cover yourself with a “work for hire” release agreement with your musicians/singer(s), (See Work For Hire Agreement) Though you may not have to show these releases to the production music library or the audio-visual producer, you’ll have to “warrant” in the contract that you have done it so your singer doesn’t sue them when she hears herself on that TV show.

If you pay your musicians and singers for the sessions and get the releases, you have no obligation to pay them more later and it’s cleaner that way. However, a situation in which you might consider it would be if you have a band or a dedicated group of musicians/singers you work well with and can always count on to give you great performances. Sometimes it’s tough to find a crew like that and you want to keep them happy by sharing a percentage of the “master use” half of the income. As an indie self-published writer you – and co-writer(s) get the “synch” portion. A caution in making the decision to give your musicians a piece of the action is that it could compromise or preclude your ability to make a deal with the publisher or song placer later, with whom you would need to share all or part of the master-use fee.
Note: If you hire a demo service to produce your demos, do not forget to have them sign a work-for-hire agreement. Before you even commit to hiring them be sure to let them know that you require it. Most demo-services today do broadcast-quality work that will easily qualify for broadcast use and they don’t mind giving you a release agreement.

Re-titling
A common practice for music libraries is to limit their involvement only to audiovisual uses. The benefit for the writers is that they’re free to use the songs on their own CDs, for example, without having to pay royalties to the music library for a song they played no role in exploiting. The benefit to the library is that they’re able to offer a non-exclusive license to the writer and it gives them competitive access to better material from bands who wouldn’t go for an exclusive contract.

Actually, re-titling as been working pretty well so far despite the fact that, according to some attorneys and publishers, this is problematic because the rights given to the music library are actually for the same song since nothing is really changed but the title. Music business attorney Andrea Brauer has much experience with these deals and offers this advice about some things to watch for in the contracts.

“The practice these days with music libraries is to acquire the rights for a “derivative work” of the original song, thereby allowing the songwriter to retain ownership of the composition and at the same time allowing the music library to license and thereafter collect its proper income on placements of the composition. Of course to create this derivative work, the library simply takes the original work, as is, and re-names it. Unfortunately, this re-titling of songs clashes head on with copyright law which will not recognize the existence of a separate work unless the new work has been fundamentally changed in terms of its lyrics or melody. Nevertheless, music libraries are not likely to change their practice until confronted by the copyright office, so here’s some advice about what should be contained in those contracts.

First of all, the whole point from the songwriter’s perspective is to protect his/her rights in the original song. Therefore, the contract must specifically acknowledge the existence of the original song and its title; it must acknowledge that the rights being granted are for a derivative of the original song and it must state the proposed new title of the “derivative work”. There must be a clause reserving all rights in the original song to the songwriter and a clause stating that the music library has no rights to the original song. This may all seem self evident but you’d be surprised at how many poorly written contracts fail to mention any titles at all and, as a consequence, the library gets credited with the wrong title.

Two final points: If the library seeks the right to authorize a true derivative work (i.e., to bring in a new songwriter to alter the lyrics or melody) it must not be allowed to do so without the original writer’s permission. Otherwise the original writer will quickly lose control over who gets to use the song. And last but not least, make sure there is an audit clause in the contract so that if the accounting looks suspicious, it can be challenged.”

Caution: A practical problem with re-titling is that many music supervisors at audio/visual production companies do NOT like it. Here’s what happens: The music library pitches the song for a TV show, then the writer/artist/band happens be be heard by, or has a contact with, that same music supervisor at the show who hears the same song with two different titles, from two different sources. A big red LEGAL TROUBLE!!! sign flashes through her mind and she says no to both. And in series TV there’s no time to sort it out.

Music libraries offer a great opportunity for writers of both songs and instrumental tracks to potentially earn a substantial income from the use of their music in film, television, games and a variety of other audio-visual uses. It does take time, dedication and patience because you need to grow it song by song and placement by placement. Nothing happens overnight.

Resources
To find music libraries, get Music Business Registry‘s Film and Television Music Guide.

Websites with lists of production music libraries.

The Music Library Association

Production Hub – go to Post Production , then to Libraries/music

… or just search Google under “Production Music Libraries”.

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A version of this article appears in The Craft and Business of Songwriting (3rd ed) by John Braheny.

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SongBizness: Collaborations and Co-Writes

By on November 6, 2008 in Songwriting Business

Let’s assume that you’ve found a lyricist and/or composer whose words or music feel like the magic ingredient you need to write great songs. You find that you can work well together and, first thing you know, you’ve got a fantastic song. 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 promoting the song. Does the company have the connections to get the song recorded? You’re better off not having a publisher at all than to have the song tied up with an inadequate one. At least you’d be free to place the song with a good publisher.

If you find yourself in this situation, you might request that if your partner’s company doesn’t get the song recorded in six months or a year, that he give up his publishing interest and the two of you look for a publisher together. You might also set up your own company and split the publishing, but jointly agree to the time limit. Or you may agree to bring in a third publisher at which point you both will give an equal share of the publishing (or all of it) to the new party.

THE SPLITS
You also need to agree on a division of the writer’s share of the royalties. 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 ongoing writing relationship, you split the writers’ royalties 50/50.

Without a written agreement to the contrary, all rights and percentages are split equally. Each writer owns an equal portion of the copyright and each of the writers is empowered to grant a license to anyone who wants to record it.

If one of you is a lyricist and the other writes music, it’s a pretty straightforward arrangement. It tends to get a little touchy if each of you write music and lyrics or if the contributions are more difficult to quantify. There’s more room for argument about who contributed the most. That’s why it’s always best to agree on equal shares ahead of time.

On some of the Lennon/McCartney tunes, one undoubtedly contributed more than the other on individual songs or wrote them himself, but they just didn’t want to fight over it every time so they divided the royalties equally.

Here are some other possible situations you may have to deal with:

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 song’s direction. How much writer credit will he get? At the time you bring your song to the writer you should try to work it out based on what you want him to contribute.

2. You take your song to an artist who wants to “personalize” it and changes something. For this he wants writer’s credit. This is a very common and potentially volatile situation, with several factors to weigh:

1. Is this an important cut? With an established artist there’s no question about it. But even with a new artist the song could be a major hit or end up on a hit album. Any recording credit may therefore be important to you.

2. How extensive are the changes “Personalizing” the song by changing a “she” to a “he” does not warrant a writer’s credit. If the artist wants more extensive changes and you want to accommodate him, offer to make them yourself. Get as much information as you can about what the artist is looking for and present several rewrites. If the artist seems unreasonably resistant to your changes, you have to face the reality that you may lose the cut unless you allow him to rewrite or just give him the credit. You can swallow your pride and walk to the bank, walk away with your pride (and your empty pockets), or tell the artist you can’t change this song but suggest that you write something together from scratch. If it’s just a matter of financial incentive for the artist to record the song, you also have the publisher’s share of the royalties to offer if you publish the song yourself.

3. How badly does the artist want the song? If he thinks it’s good enough he’s torn between wanting the writing credit and money and possibly blowing a potential hit. You’re in the same position, too, except that you may also be motivated by anger that someone would have the huevos to demand credit for your work.

While many artists wouldn’t think of asking for undeserved credit (and royalties), others do it in a New York minute. You ultimately have to decide whether it’s worth it to your career to give up a portion of those royalties and credits.

3. A publisher suggests changes and wants a writer’s credit. Generally speaking, this is the publisher’s job, and she shouldn’t ask. It would depend, of course, on how substantial the contribution is and it can get a little touchy, but it should be your decision.

4. Maybe you decide later that for some reason you want a new lyric to a song you’ve already written with someone. Is it okay to change? Not without your co-writer’s written permission.

5. What if your melody writer or publisher wants a new foreign language lyric? Do you still get paid? A decision has to be made whether you’re going to say, ‘words and music by _______, or words by _____ and music by ______. In the former, if a foreign sub-publisher wants to commission a lyric translation, the percentage granted to the translator comes out of both your royalties equally. In the latter, it’s deducted from the lyricists half. In the former, if you’re sued for lyric infringement, you both get sued. In that latter, the lyricist gets sued. In the former, if there’s a successful instrumental version of the song, both writers get paid, in the latter, the lyricist doesn’t. In the former, if a lyric is reprinted, you both get paid, in the latter, only the lyricist. Note that all these are also vice-versa and know that these questions can be worked out contractually.

All these potential problems point to 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.

PRELIMINARY BUSINESS MEETING
K.A. Parker is a professional lyricist, a five-time American Song Festival winner, and former staff writer for Motown’s Stone Diamond Music who has taught lyric writing at UCLA, Musician’s Institute and throughout the US. Her suggestions for conducting a business meeting and list of considerations for collaborators (which she uses in her classes) is the best I’ve seen and, with her permission, I offer them to you minus the more extensive discussions of the ones I’ve already covered.

CONDUCTING THE BUSINESS MEETING
Setting up a business meeting is like buying fire insurance: you may not think you need it until it’s too late. The things that you’ll be discussing will only be necessary if and when the songs you write with your collaborator turn out to be good enough to be published, recorded, and released. Of course, there’s no way to know this until you actually start working together. But, assuming you believe in your own potential, and in that of your collaborator (and there’s no reason to work with another person unless you do), I am going to assume that you agree that a meeting of the minds on business matters is necessary before you begin work on music matters.

Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that just because your potential collaborator is “nice,” that ironing out the business will be a snap later on. Most of us are “nice” when we are trying to impress others. But greed does amazing things to people and business is about money, after all. Ego, dreams, and money make a powerful brew. Many successful songwriters have ended up giving their royalty income to the lawyers who were left to sort out the disagreements between two “nice,” talented people.

The business meeting has three basic rules:

1. Never conduct a business meeting at the same time as a creative meeting. You’ll need to be organized, closed, and tough to do business. You’ll need to be flexible, open, and childlike to be creative. Don’t try to be both at the same time — it won’t work. Conduct your business in a neutral place, like a coffee shop, on a day when you’re not planning to write together. Sharing a meal is a nice idea. It softens the whole affair, limits the time frame (usually not more than an hour), and makes it easy to exit if you see that it’s not going well. Of course, if things do go well, it helps to bond the relationship, too.

2. Come prepared. You may very well end up educating your new partner if she is less informed about the business than you are. Make copies of information you want her to read. Back up your opinion with resources. Take notes or tape the meeting for future reference. Make a checklist or agenda of the items you want to discuss. Be prepared to draw a letter of agreement for signature at a later date, based on the discussion. A business meeting is not a good time to be under the influence of alcohol or drugs of any kind. Have your drink when the meeting is over.

3. Go in with a positive attitude. Don’t enter the meeting with tales about how you got screwed before and you’re doing this to protect yourself. Assume good will and go from there. You’re building a team and every team needs goals, guidelines, regulations, and direction. Don’t be defensive. More than anything, the session should be an information-gathering interview. If you conduct it well, it should save you from any hostile confrontations in the future.

SPECIFICS
Now that you know the rules, what specifics do you discuss? Here’s a list. You may want to eliminate some of these points or include some of your own, but all the basics are here:

1. Is your information current – name, address, phone numbers, Social Security number, birth date and affiliation (ASCAP, BMI, SESAC) on your partner? This will go in your files and be used when you fill out the copyright forms on your songs. The minute you create a copyright (i.e., a song) together, you must keep up to date on this information. I remember vividly how I felt when a publisher wanted a song of mine badly, but finally passed when my collaborator could not be found. Most publishers will not be interested in publishing half a song. Keep in touch! Note: I wait until I know I want to work with someone before I ask for his/her address and Social Security number. Some people may be touchy about giving this info to a new acquaintance.

2. How does your partner feel about publishing? Does he have his own publishing company? Is it active? Does he want your publishing as well? How does he feel about working with the major publishers if they offer a contract on the tune? Is he interested in working with a small, untried publishing company?

3. Does your partner have aspirations to be a recording artist? Do you? Will either of you want to keep all the best songs for yourself? This is a source of major conflict with many collaborators and should be thoroughly discussed before the work begins. There is nothing more frustrating than holding back a great song on the chance that your partner might get signed — or seeing all your best songs go to another person, if you’re the one with artistic aspirations. Be frank about this issue.

4. When is a song completed? Ideally, it’s when BOTH of you say so. That’s okay if one of you isn’t a perfectionist or a procrastinator. Clashes of temperament will be a sore spot here unless you come up with a set of rules about this. What if you disagree? How many times do you rewrite after a critique session? After the demo is complete, will you be willing to go back in and make major changes?

5. How prolific are you? How prolific is your partner? If one of you writes every day and one of you only writes when you’re inspired, that can be very frustrating for the more prolific of the two. Do you or your partner need deadlines? Pressure? How long will you give a lyric or melody to your partner before you expect to see some activity on his part? What do you do when one of you wants the song finished and the other one doesn’t want to finish it, or can’t?

6. When do you bring in a third party to work on the song? Who will you bring in? Ideally, it’s when you both agree you’ve reached a dead end. Again, in an ideal situation, it should be a mutually agreed-upon third party. But you need to discuss this thoroughly. Never bring in a third party to work on a song without telling your partner. You’d be surprised how often this is done and it usually means the end of the partnership.

7. What about splits? This is a major bone of contention in many relationships where one party writes both words and music and the other party only writes one or the other. Professional writers split everything right down the middle, no matter who does what. When a third party is called in, everything is divided into thirds.

8. What about demos? Where do you do them? Who decides which songs to do? Who pays for them and how? Who produces, engineers, plays, sings? Generally, the fees are split exactly like the song, 50/50. But what if one partner owns a studio and can play all the instruments, etc.? Does he charge the other partner for the demo costs? This is an individual matter and both parties should agree with whatever arrangement is made, regardless of how they work it out.

9. What connections do each of you have? Would either of you feel comfortable in using them? Is one of you more aggressive? Do either of you go to LA, New York, or Nashville on a regular basis? How will you get your songs heard by publishers, producers, or artists? Do either of you belong to professional organizations such as the Nashville Songwriters Association, The Songwriters Guild or Taxi? Would either of you be willing to join to get professional feedback, pitch songs to producers and publishers and so forth? Most partnerships without goals die quickly. Once you spend the time and money required to write and demo your songs – then what? Are either of you prepared to move to LA, Nashville, or New York to better promote your work?

10. How do each of you feel about songwriting competitions? Who pays the entry fee and how will the winnings be split?

Creating music successfully with your partner will depend on the flexibility and willingness to work things out that each of you brings to the relationship. If the songs you produce are great, the incentive to work out the snags will be greater. It might help if you adopt the belief that people are more important than songs. If you don’t believe that, then maybe you should write alone.

I highly recommend you download my Sample Collaboration Contract.

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