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

Terri Lynn,

First of all, as we've stated above, I have no idea who this company is. And I think that makes it easier to discuss things like reversion clauses and whether or not you should ask for one.

Even with your endorsement (which means a lot to me personally) I STILL would not sign a song to a publisher like this without a reversion clause. Though I understand the logic you are suggesting where the publisher involved does a co-write on the song to bring it up to pay and thus wants to wrap up publishing rather than co-writing to protect their input, I don't think that practice is appropriate. Either you are a co-writer or you are not. People on these message boards help other writers tighten up and polish their lyrics every day without expecting or asking for writing credits or publishing. If they want to get writing credits for making specific changes that allow for publishing, that's fine with me as long as they are upfront. BUT.. to ask for permanent publishing rights because they changed a word here or there to what THEY think will make it acceptable to artists to record is the wrong way to do it. What happens if their changes aren't right? Then the original writer has given away their publishing, meaning no other publisher will EVER be interested because there's no benefit to publishing that song or doing anything else with it in the future. If instead, you give then co-writing credits, then the publishing is still up for grabs to whoever can exploit the song. An agreement could be signed that along with co-writing credit, co-publishing could also be shared. That way if your guys DO place the song, they get a writers share and half the publishing which is the same 50% of the song, BUT.. (and this is huge) if they aren't able to make anything happen with the song, the original writer can still pitch to OTHER publishers and have a shot at still getting them to work with the song. Once that publishing is gone, the only option for the original writer is to work with those guys and that's the end of the song. If those guys DON'T get the song cut, it's over.

As I said above, just because someone is honest, it doesn't mean they can get the job done. Since I still don't know who these folks are, I have no track record of success to consider here. If these guys have a history of getting cuts that became hits, or at least garnered significant airplay and royalties, then that's important to know in context. But even in that case, I STILL doubt giving away all the publishing without a reversion clause is a good idea. If they are working a song for 2 or 3 years and haven't gotten it cut, the writer should have the ability to go elsewhere. They could always re-sign with the same guys for another 2 or 3 years, but at least this gives them an option. Even if these guys are your friends or even if they are my friends, I don't believe in giving away permanent rights to publishing without any strings attached. It's bad advice and it sets someone up to lose the ability to ever get any other publisher to work with them should your friends company fail to get a cut. Why take that risk?

We also haven't explained why your friends would pull a legit deal away from a writer because someone else, unrelated to that writer, posted something on our message board? That's ridiculous and shows a lack of professionalism on their part. Since they apparently are reading this, I'd like to know where they would justify that action if they are in fact legit as you suggest?

Brian