JPF Home Page Forums General Messages Songwriter Message Forum Question for experienced writers

If these guys are legit, they shouldn't be affecting their writers careers/relationships based on what third parties have to say. If they do that, THEY are the ones with problems. Warner Chapell would not tell one of their potential writers that they were pulling the deal because someone on an internet message board raised a red flag. The idea is beyond absurd.
If they are not offering a reversion clause, it's a bad deal. Period. Why hand lifetime publishing rights on songs to someone who never has to do a single thing in return? That's just stupid. No reversion clause, no deal. The added problem is that based on the description given to start this post, they can't decide if they are a publisher or if they are song pluggers. I say you can't do a good job at both. Why would they pass on publishing something, but feel it was worthy of pitching to other competing publishers unless they were just trying to make a buck (or worse, secure your lifetime publishing with not guarantee they'll ever do a single thing for you). I welcome these folks (whoever they are as I still don't know) to come here and explain why that would ever be a good deal. It isn't.

Then of course there are questions of what their success and abilities are to publish and exploit the song so both parties make money. What is their track record? They can be honest even without hit songs under their belts if they are just getting started. How long have they been doing it? If it's 10-20 years, and there's never been a single charted single, even if they are honest, why give them your publishing? They aren't likely to ever make you dime on it. And why would you EVER pay them upfront to plug your music if they can't get something cut themselves in their publishing company? It makes no sense, unless what they really want is a bunch of entry level songwriters to pay them money to pitch songs everyone knows aren't going anywhere.

Perhaps it would be helpful to have some links to these songs to see what level of quality they are actually so interested in plugging or publishing. That might shed some serious light on the entire discussion. If the songs are truly great, then perhaps they really just want to work with your music. If the songs are average or less than average, then it's a scam to start with because the songs wouldn't be competitive in the first place and why would you bother to pitch them to anyone to start with? If they can't judge worthy songs, they'd have to suck as a publisher and song plugger both. So how good are these songs?

Far more questions raised here than there are common sense answers to them. If you guys want to give away your publishing forever to people who will simply sit on it on the rare outside chance that you might do something with the songs yourself later on to make them money, go for it. If you want to piss away hundreds of dollars pitching songs that may not even be ready or with pluggers who can't even get that same song recorded by their own internal publishing house, go for it. The old circus maxim is still true.. there's one born every minute.

And finally.. if these songs are really great and really ready for the big time, and a company had played games like the one described here has when confronted with a little skepticism and suspicion, they don't deserve to work with those "great" songs anyway and there will be others who will. Keep that in mind. If a song is truly amazing and worthy, there will be others out there interested in publishing it.. perhaps with a track record, perhaps with enough confidence in their abilities to offer a reversion clause and perhaps who are full time publishers and not just some guys looking to hustle some song plugging income out of entry level songwriters.

But that's just my opinion.. I could be right.

Brian