Hi! I'm new to this board and I have a question related to the contest mentioned here in this thread. I've lurked here for a while, but didn't have an opportunity to post before now - and I'd greatly appreciate any suggestions you folks may have!

I'm considering entering the John Mayer songwriting contest and I've written the melody, chords - basically finished up the whole song - everything is written by me except (of course!) the lyrics. I am always very careful about never sending anything out "unprotected" - I always register everything with the Library of Congress beforehand - and I want to protect my music for this song contest entry as well.

In the past, I have written both the lyrics and music for my songs. I have no experience with collaborating as far as just the songwriting goes. How do I go about protecting the music I've written (and the performance) in a situation like this? (A case where potentially large numbers of people will be setting these exact same lyrics to music - and the lyric writer is a famous musician I've never met)

Any suggestions?