David and Herb.

Somehow I just knew the two of you would help me with this. Thank you so much. You are both absolute stars!

I never knew that you could assign the publishing for just one song. That is great to know.

I think the thing for me to do is terminate this contract immediately. The contract does say “everything you write for the duration of the contract”. They have asked for a schedule of songs and a letter of termination so I will do that. Most of them are already registered on SAMRO (our South African performing rights Org) anyway so it is just a matter of registering what hasn’t already been registered and exporting the whole lot out to Excel. They will then give me a letter of termination.

I can then go forward with the “self publishing” option and if anything ever takes off, look at individual publishing deals for individual songs. I have heard that SAMRO is in a “mess” have collected millions but have no idea who to distribute it to. If this is true I guess the chances of making any money out of the publishing of my songs is slim anyway.

Herb, you said: “Most folks use publishers and libraries because it's easier and frees us up from having to do that leg work plugging our own songs”.

If I could find somebody to do the leg work I would be happy but I can’t help wondering if anybody here anybody here ever made any “real” money from this and how much “admin” is involved?

David: “The biggest thing is though, a music lawyer here told me to NEVER sign a publishing deal with anyone unless they are like, Sony, and promise to do X, Y, and Z for you and have a proven track record. He also said" "Don't bother coming to see me after the fact if you have already signed it." And “never talk to another publisher again unless they are helping you with a 7 figure record deal”

Savvy advice to ALL!!!! Take note!

My first step then is to submit the documents Sheer wants and get a termination date from them.

I really just want to carry on writing, performing and releasing my music (through Songtradr) and also submitting the songs to licensing opps via songtradr as and when they arise. It is easy and fun and I want to do this with as little headache and admin as possible. The first year of doing this (plus those 200 odd songs…) can be written off to “school fees”.

Now off to do the admin to get that termination date….

LyricLab – Where words become music https://www.lyriclab.net/