Herb, I was not meaning to discount your advice. Seems to me most everything you have written in this thread is good solid advice and, if someone is truly serious about selling their music, they would do well to heed that advice.

My personal situation is I write songs mostly for my own entertainment. And like someone said on another post, if others enjoy my stuff too, well that is just a lovely bonus.

Because I often work with folks in a songwriting group who are brand new I find I tend to want to help them set realistic expectations and enjoy the process while learning and improving. Several times I have seen a new songwriter with marginal songs and they were just certain they had written huge hits. They then proceeded to annoy folks with their overly protective posturing.

So I guess my point was simply, if you are in this as a business then take all those precautions but if you are mainly in it for fun just relax and enjoy the experience rather than clobbering it with technicalities.

Thanks for the post and the good info!