Selling my songs...

[Volitan]

Ok, I have like A LOT of songs. I have no band right now, so I figure I might as well try to do the songwriter-for-hire thing. How do I do this and make it legit? I was thinking of posting in some classifieds, but what kind of legal docs do I need if any? Do the songs need to be copyrighted or is a dated hand written copy of the lyrics enough?

[Stackabones]

Songwriter-for-hire? Is there such a job? Has there been such a job since Tin Pan Alley? Sounds like a cool racket! Sign me up!

 

I've always heard that you should live in one of the major song-buying towns like Nashville, New York, etc. For example, the Nashville music industry (who buys tons of songs) won't do biz with folks who don't have Nashville addresses, phone numbers, etc -- but I've heard about songwriters getting the local addresses and phones even though they don't officially live there. Of course, there are ones who don't do this, but they are usually already established in the song biz and have since moved away from Nashville into a suburb or somewhere in Tennessee. Or they live in LA.

 

Like most businesses, it helps to be in daily contact with people in the business. I'm sure that if you look hard enough, you'll find stories about people who have sold songs from Anyplace, USA.

 

If you're going to sell, you'd better have those babies copyright-protected.

[Volitan]

I don't mean selling them big-time. But maybe to local acts or something?

[Stackabones]

 

I don't mean selling them big-time. But maybe to local acts or something?

 

 

I think just getting a local act to play your tunes would be cool enough, but I can't imagine one buying tunes. From personal experience, I've never been in a band that purchased songs from a local songwriter, or even contracted a local songwriter to write songs. To be honest, I've never heard of something like this ever happening (not saying that it couldn't happen somewhere).

 

The best bands in town usually have their own songwriters in the band. Or a songwriter just goes out on his own and sings his songs as a solo act.

 

Is this something that has happened in any band you've ever been in? Have you heard about something like this in your area?

 

Just for the sake of argument ... if you were able to get a local act to do your songs, they probably wouldn't pay you up front for them. Typically, you would get paid when the song was recorded, and pressed to CD or whatever, and then you'd be entitled to the standard 9.1 cents per pressing (iirc that's the current legal rate).

[Fill]

There's a book you can get at major bookstores called something like "Songwriters' Market" for each year. It has label addresses you can send your material to. Some are looking for bands, some just for songwriters.

 

New York, Los Angeles, Nashville are the typical places to live, but with the Internet, you can live anywhere. If the lablels like your stuff, they'll retain you or more likely purchase just one or two of you songs until you build a reputation as the next Neil Diamond.

[Fill]

If you're just starting with local bands, you've got to go to the local clubs and approach the bands you think would be interested in your material and work out the details with them directly.

[Fill]

Answering one question at a time.

 

 

If your stuff isn't being mass distributed, good luck getting a copyright.

 

There are various agreements between songwriters and the web distribution firms. Read the fine print. You can get an attorney to go over it with you if you think it's worth it (which you probably do at this point, but it's not).

 

IMO, the way to get your songs out there these days is to make connections with bands in your area.

[Stackabones]

If your stuff isn't being mass distributed, good luck getting a copyright.

 

Actually, copyright is rather easy to secure.

 

http://www.copyright.gov/

[Nick*]

New York, Los Angeles, Nashville are the typical places to live, but with the Internet, you can live anywhere.

 

 

I live in New York myself, but I've heard that there's a big music scene down in Florida. And of course the music scene is always nice in Seattle

[Stackabones]

I live in New York myself, but I've heard that there's a big music scene down in Florida. And of course the music scene is always nice in Seattle

 

The grass is always greener, ain't it? :poke:

 

[masterbuilt]

There were some folk singers that covered a few of my tunes years ago. I also had a band that fronted for Marshall Tucker play one or two of my tunes.

 

As for selling songs, my mother was a country music songwriter with a Nashville contract in the late 60s and early 70s, but, she lived in Columbus, Ohio. Jimmy Key signed her, though. He also had Bobby Bare, Dave Dudley, Tom T. Hall, and a bunch of other big names in his stable.

 

The key is either getting "an in" through someone, typically an entertainment lawyer or agent, or getting "discovered" by someone willing to take you under their wing (which is pretty much a thing of the past).

 

If you want to send to some record labels and publishers, get a copy of the "Songwriter's Handbook" and give it a look. Be prepared for rejection letters, but, the closer to your genre you pick and the closer you match their submission guidelines, the better your chances. Have a quality demo, too. Don't send something half-baked.

[myredshoes]

Is it even legal to sell your own personal songs? That's like selling children. I would think you could be arrested or something. How can people tell if they're buying a real song, and not a fake? If someone buys your song and then finds out you just, like, made it up, can't you be busted for fraud?

 

Rolling Stone magazine back in ~1975 used to have a classified section for songwriters and musicians that actually worked in some instances but people would always call and want you to move to some off-the-wall place like Athens (WTF) Georgia. Maybe something like this exists today in regional music magazines but again unless we live in Hendersonville Oklahoma or some other future musical flashpoint we better be prepared to relocate.

 

Last copyright I got was in 1992, was a PA form copyright. I assume you can still copyright anything you want. Check United States Library of Congress online, or use the search function. I don't see how a copyright is going to protect you from local bands ripping off your stuff tho as it isn't doing jack to protect The Beatles, The Beach Boys, America, ZZ Top or a number of other fairly well-known acts from having their catalogs gleefully plundered by thousands of local cover bands every weekend. These local cover bands may not look badass but there are four or five of them and one of you, and they have nothing to lose.

 

Most local bands doing original work in my area can barely afford to buy beer, much less songs. Also, these type of bands are often comprised of musicians, so there's a pretty good chance that if they have formed an originals band they already know how to write original music or can probably figure it out.

 

The only type thing I've heard of for people who just want to write and sell songs without performing them is TAXI which advertises in instrument-oriented magazines and I think charges a membership and song listing fee. I think there's a few organizations like that out there.

 

I guess if I wanted to get some songs heard I would post a flier at my local independant music store if any and try to meet some good people to work with that way. Check out the copyright thing first. The whole "dated handwritten copy" thing seems a little sketchy to me though I am not a lawyer.

 

I'm still not sure about this business of selling songs. I guess they're your songs though, so you can do whatever you want with them.