The sun breaks on a new day. The winter chill present this day adds vibrancy to your step as you stir from beneath the covers and approach the morning. The weariness shows from your all-night demo recording session the previous evening as you stumble about your morning routine. Last night’s session lasted 12 hours, a grueling marathon in which you completed vocal, string, and horn arrangements on another batch of songs.

As an amateur songwriter, long days and nights in the studio finding that perfect beat or writing that amazing hook has been your routine for years now. Despite the fact that you have faced what seems like and endless stream of rejection letters, disappoints, near-miss opportunities, and even discouraging words from friends and family, something about these last few days of recording has seemed different--and it’s not just because that new background vocalist you hired has pretty eyes and big legs.(Well, maybe just a little.)

When the morning mail arrives a few weeks later, your feelings appear justified.

That morning, a letter from Dewey, Cheatham, and Howe Publishing (DeCheHo) arrives informing you that they are interested in your compositions. They request a meeting with you so that you can sign a publishing contract for the material. As the big legged singer with the pretty eyes throws her nightgown on to see what your shouting is all about, you then realize this is the second best thing to happen to you in two days.

Several days later, entering into the offices of DeCheHo Publishing, you are immediately impressed by the ornate surroundings which make up their office. Gold and platinum discs line every available spot on the walls in and around the massive executive suite.

As you are led into the conference room and seated at a massive mahogany conference table, you are totally at ease as you place your briefcase at your side. One by one, executives of DeCheHo enter and sit at the table. Each smiles profusely at you as they tell you how much they like your songs. One of the executives places a multi-layered contract before you and informs you that this is simply a “standard” form which signs over rights to your songs to DeCheHo Publishing.

But the DeCheHo executives do not realize that your education on the Art, Business, and Science of the music industry has come from one the most formidable sources around, one whose training has prepared you to probe deeply inside of contracts such as the one you are now being presented: The Recording Institute of Detroit.

“Will you adequately promote the songs I am signing over to you?” you ask. From your RID training, you learned that a publisher’s commitment to promote a songwriter's material should be written out. Many publishers will agree in writing to promote one commercial release within one year of the songwriter signing the publishing contract.

“Will this contract deny DeCheHo Publishing the right to charge my songwriter’s royalty account for the publisher’s expense in promoting my songs,” you continue. You learned that the sole reason that songwriters sign with publishers is to make it possible for them to take advantage of the vast network that publishers claim they have. As you learned in the music business classes you took, publishers get writers to sign with them by promising to get the material to artists, record labels and production companies they are in contact with. This, then, is their job. They should not be charging you for simply doing their job.

“Does the contract before me give an equal share of profits to any other writers who may have helped me”, you ask as you flip through the pages. Songwriters who share their composition duties with others normally--and commonly--split profits and authorship the material generates 50/50. If any other division of money or creative ownership is decided upon, this delineation MUST be in writing.

“Will DeCheHo Publishing agree to pay me--or any other writers who have collaborated with me on the songs in question--50% of all the royalties the publisher receives from issuing mechanical licenses to those who wish to record the song?

“When these royalties come in, will they be based on ‘gross’ or ‘net’ income received by DeCheHo Publishing?”? RID has taught you that money you should be receiving on the songs your publisher has should be based on GROSS income and not net. Gross income means ALL the money the song has earned before any deductions such as taxes, expenses, or promotion has been deducted. If you are receiving money after such expenses have been deducted, you are receiving money based on NET income.

“Although I know that most publishers charge writers a portion of the commission that the Harry Fox Agency charges for collecting mechanical royalties, we need to agree on just how much DeCheHo will charge me”, you state. The Harry Fox Agency (HFA) is an agency established to act as a middle-man between the owners/authors of a song and the people wishing to use them. For a fee, HFA will issue a “mechanical license” which allows a user to do a recording of a song. This fee HFA charges should be borne by both the writer and publisher. The writer should negotiate to be able to have no more than 3% of the cost charged against his royalties.

“Does this contract deny DeCheHo Publishing the ability to ‘cross-collateralize’ my royalties?” you ask, quietly noticing the beads of perspiration lining the foreheads of the executives. You learned in class that if you are a songwriter signed to a publishing company on a song-to-song basis, the money earned from one song should not be used to offset or “cross-collateralize” any losses from other songs the publisher may have. You also learned that if you are a songwriter as well as a recording artist, the money you earn from one of these pursuits should likewise never be used to handle expenses from the other.

The DeCheHo executives are now scrambling to save the contract session for they now realize that you are no one’s fool. You, however, continue your inquiries.

“If my songs become a hit, or reach a specified sales quota, will you contract with a sub-publisher to have sheet music printed of the song?” Print music is a very lucrative end of the publishing market. Many people each year pick up a musical instrument for the first time, and often they actively seek to learn that instrument by playing along to sheet music of current hits. Schools, colleges and universities also use sheet music in teaching their marching bands, choirs, and theater groups. Most publishers, however, do not have a physical printing plant on-site and hire out or “sub-contract” that work to firms who do. Hal Leonard Publishing is one of the largest sheet music printers in the world and handles many major publishers' accounts.

“Will I have access to the accounting books and statements of DeCheHo Publishing at LEAST every six months to ensure that all money owed to me is being paid to me--and on time?"? With this statement some of the DeCheHo executives grow pale and silent for they realize that inaccurate royalty statements has long been a point of contention for most songwriters. The number one complaint that songwriters have against their publishing company is that the publisher had not paid them what they were due and they were late, and that the account statements accompanying these sporadic payments have had gross errors and misstatements on them. By having an “audit clause” inserted in a songwriting contract, RID has shown you that there is some recourse to such injustice. Songwriters, you learned, should insist that a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) hired by the songwriter be allowed to examine the publisher’s books at least twice a year to cut down on such financial “mishaps” from occurring.

“Also, will this contract, so lovingly presented to me here, outline exactly what would be considered a ‘breach’ or ‘default’ by either side and how we can go about and ‘cure’ such a situation?” A “breach” or “default” occurs in a contract when one party fails to deliver on what was agreed to in writing. If the publisher, for instance, failed to get a song written by the songwriter released within a specified time, this could constitute a breach. The publisher, however, may ask for an additional amount of time--such as 30 days--to continue his efforts to get the song recorded and distributed. If the song still has not been delivered upon as promised, the writer could claim a breach has occurred and asked to be released from the contract with the publisher.

As the nervous faces of the DeCheHo execs twist and squirm with the weight of your words, you quietly get up from the table.

“Gentleman, please contact me when these matters can be presented to me in a satisfactory manner”, you say.

As the massive oak and mahogany doors close behind you, the DeCheHo executives curse among themselves for they know that they have lost another one to that damn Bob Dennis and his Recording Institute of Detroit.