JPF Home Page Forums General Messages General Message Forum Advice on co-writing

You may want to listen to his 'change' of the 'tune' and see if your judgment is that it is a true improvement.

You do not have to accept their change if you do not feel it is in your interest to do so.

You can refuse their 'offer' to 'cover' your Song.

You can refuse to accept their 'change' as having any bearing on 'Co-Writer' status, allowing them to make the change as they 'cover' the Song, but documenting their agreement that no 'Co-Write' authority is transferred to them. You remain 100% owner of Song-Writing Royalties.

Registration with your Performance Rights Organization (PRO) is Registration of the title, affiliated with the name of the Song-Writer(s) and Publisher(s)

What you Register for Copyright with your Government, Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) is a Lyric and the Melody to which the words are sung.

It was a practice a few years ago to get a Song-Writer to let an 'artist' who wanted to 'cut' and 'release' the Song-Writer's Intellectual Property, to change a word in the Lyric, thereby cutting them in as a co-writer, co-author of the Song, and giving them the right to a share, generally agreed upon in 'negotiations' as a 50% share of the Song-Writing Royalties. Most Song-Writers agree, as the opportunity to get the Song to market where it might earn Royalties is 'lucrative' in possibility, possibly financially. It could become a 'credential', opening other doors to the market for an unknown Song-Writer. A 'credentialed' Song-Writer may have more leverage in their next 'negotiation'.

The Publishing Royalties also take a bite from the Song-Writer as their share earned by getting the Song to market, whether they do anything more or not. Their 'negotiation' may be asking for 100% of Publishing Royalties, or 70%, for an unknown Song-Writer, again, generally grateful for consideration, and not careful about the terms of this 'transfer' of 'ownership' and just what a Publishing Company is going to do to earn those Rights.

A Reversion Clause in a Publishing 'deal', a 'contract', specifies the time during which the Publisher promises to work to get the Song to market. If the time expires, the contract ends, the Publisher no longer has any legal rights to the Publishing Royalties and the Song-Writer owns 100% of Song-Writing Royalty rights, and 100% of Publishing Royalty rights, and is free to find another Publisher.

If the change is significant, in your judgment, you may negotiate a share, a percentage of Song-Writing Royalty rights, to THAT version of the Song, should it ever get to market and earn Royalties. Those rights could be contractually specified as ending in a specified time frame, if the Song doesn't get to market within three years, for example.

Ideally, a 'cover' version, with the variations the 'cover' artist wants to make, their 'interpretation' of your Song, does not need co-writer status. Only a very significant change or contribution to the Song would merit assigning 'rights' to the 'cover artist', in my opinion.

Commercial engagement is complicated. Your 'company' is engaging in commerce with his 'company'. His company may engage with a third party, a Publisher, a label, which entangles you as a 'partner' in the ownership of the IP. All of you would have to agree on assignment of Publishing Rights, Producer Points maybe, and the 'share percentages to each. The more parties involved the more likely you need a lawyer to help you think through your end of things.