Sam,

Very few writers get to a point where they understand about how the business really works. Many come very naive, never stop to learn and get a lot of mistaken information. There are other people who have been here for a long time and have outdated information. Most just fall by the wayside, quit, be frustrated or simply try to make up their own rules. And of course, there are always a lot of people trying to separate other people from their money.

But the rules on publishing, royalties, the merchandising and publishsing of music, have been around since around 1908 when ASCAP was first formed. Congress started writing laws around copyrights in the early 1900's and it has proceeded since then.

The rules involving these issues are governed by Congress and are updated every so often. There are a lot of sharks and charletons and those are always out there. Need to try to avoid those.

Nashville is full of knowledgable people. They are pretty much every where you look. Just ignore the ones who don't know what they are talking about.

MAB