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Page 2
and call themselves a publishing company. If you are thinking about signing
a songwriter agreement with a small or unknown publishing company, ask
a lot of questions. Try to make sure the company has an established
track record of placing songs on acceptable records. Otherwise, your
songs are going to be gathering dust until the songwriter agreement expires.
But that is a topic for another day.
If I co-write a song with another writer who is under contract with a publishing company, I like to do a relatively simple Co-Publishing Agreement. One that outlines the ownership in the song, and gives both parties the right to administer the song, with certain restrictions. For example, each company can grant mechanical license agreements. But neither party can grant exclusive license agreements without the consent of the other party. The amount of money that can be spent and recouped from income is also spelled out in detail. Set forth below (in italics) are selected provisions from my form of agreement, followed by a discussion of the purpose for such provisions. In the example below, the other publishing company is referred to as 2Publisher. In fact, that's how it appears on my form. That way, I can do a search and replace and quickly have the actual company's name inserted into the appropriate places in the contract. Statement of Joint Ownership It is the intention of Err Bear and 2Publisher by this Agreement that they shall jointly own, as provided for herein, those musical compositions described on Exhibit A attached hereto and made a part hereof for all purposes (the "Compositions"), the Compositions being covered by and subject to those certain songwriter agreements described on Exhibit B attached hereto and made a part hereof for all purposes (the "Songwriter Agreements"). This paragraph sets forth the purpose of the agreement. The companies will share the ownership of the song, on the terms to be set forth later in the agreement. The Songwriter Agreements are mentioned because they almost certainly have reversion clauses and therefore can affect this agreement. If certain songs revert back to the writers, this agreement is, in effect, terminated as to those songs. All of that is covered in more detail later in the agreement. Agreement to Co-Publish Err Bear and 2Publisher shall jointly own the Compositions in the shares (together the "Shares" and each a "Share") set forth below, including, without limitation, the copyrights, the right to copyright and the renewal and extension rights therein and thereto: Err Bear...............50% Writers have consented to the arrangement provided for herein, to the extent their consent is required pursuant to the Songwriter Agreements
The copyright of the article The Art of the Deal- Independent Co-Publishing Agreements - Page 2 in Songwriting Industry is owned by Kent Newsome. Permission to republish The Art of the Deal- Independent Co-Publishing Agreements - Page 2 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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