I've got a mucho confusing writing-credit issue
Four members of my band contribute to our songs. Some of the songs are written exclusively by one person, some are written in different combinations of two of us, three of us, some by all four - we even have one song on which two ex-members of the band contributed, in addition to the four of us who are currently writing.
We don't have nearly enough money to register each song individually, but if I send in all of our songs at once we will have to share credit equally on all of the songs correct?
So what happens when Natalie Cole wants to cover one of these songs, and it happens to be one that our trumpet-player wrote all by himself? He probably isn't going to be happy if the royalties for his song are being split up among the four of us. I suppose we could sign a separate agreement among ourselves allowing for this eventuality.
I know that Paul McCartney and John Lennon shared credit on all of their songs even on the songs that were written by only one of them. That's why Yoko Ono collects royalties for "The Long and Winding Road", even though John didn't write even a little bit of that song.
I am tempted to ask the other three writers if they're willing for the four of us to share credit. It makes it more likely that with the four of us writing one of the songs will be a hit - but what if it turns out that two of us get lazy and the other two end up writing all the songs which are still being shared by all four.
Okay here is another thing slightly related -
If we register with BMI do we do that as a band, or four separate writers, or a publishing company, or what?
Also, if we don't register w/ BMI or ASCAP etc. that means that anyone who wants to do a song of ours has to contact us directly and we will then negotiate a royalty-rate. Is that correct?
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Tucci
Four members of my band contribute to our songs. Some of the songs are written exclusively by one person, some are written in different combinations of two of us, three of us, some by all four - we even have one song on which two ex-members of the band contributed, in addition to the four of us who are currently writing.
We don't have nearly enough money to register each song individually, but if I send in all of our songs at once we will have to share credit equally on all of the songs correct?
So what happens when Natalie Cole wants to cover one of these songs, and it happens to be one that our trumpet-player wrote all by himself? He probably isn't going to be happy if the royalties for his song are being split up among the four of us. I suppose we could sign a separate agreement among ourselves allowing for this eventuality.
I know that Paul McCartney and John Lennon shared credit on all of their songs even on the songs that were written by only one of them. That's why Yoko Ono collects royalties for "The Long and Winding Road", even though John didn't write even a little bit of that song.
I am tempted to ask the other three writers if they're willing for the four of us to share credit. It makes it more likely that with the four of us writing one of the songs will be a hit - but what if it turns out that two of us get lazy and the other two end up writing all the songs which are still being shared by all four.
Okay here is another thing slightly related -
If we register with BMI do we do that as a band, or four separate writers, or a publishing company, or what?
Also, if we don't register w/ BMI or ASCAP etc. that means that anyone who wants to do a song of ours has to contact us directly and we will then negotiate a royalty-rate. Is that correct?
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Tucci
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