SONGWRITING 101: MUSICIANS BEWARE OF THE NEW SONG SHARKS

In the days of the Infancy of my musical journey. I wote poems and short stories, but found an outlet for my creative itch in many old magazines i once read such as Right On, Jet, Ebony and many tabloid magazines  that were available at the time with companies soliciting the public for poems many with nice perks and promises of fame and possible royalties.  The  main purpose of these  advertisements were designed to reach as wide a demographic as possible, using the allure of music stardom to appeal to everyday individuals who consumed these popular publications.  I responded to one of these companies who for a fee would create a melody for your poem and send you about 5 lead sheets of the completed composition.  They would also transcribe your melody from a cassette recording into sheet music as well.  However these were vanity music companies, primarily a scam promising you the reader the possibility of royalties and songwriting contracts.  These same tactics are occuring even now in 2025 only they are adhering to the old maxim diffrent folks the same strokes. These companies advertised as did this popular company Five Star Music Masters.  

I may be from the old school but I am not an old fool, i learned one thing about the creative endeavors of music publishing and book publishing from the school of hard knocks. The number one thing to remember is that the story is to be told and not sold.  if someone tells you that they can make you a famous, singer, author or model or anything but only if you pay them some money then keep stepping.

This is especially true if they claim to be industry insiders or have special information on how to be a success in your endeavors as a musician, recording artist or superstardom. Never pay a publisher for publishing your song, or recording your music because now you are functioning in complete reverse.  The publisher or record label is supposet to pay the artist if they have any confidence in their ablilty to make a profit from the artist talent and ability and catalog.  Music distribution uses the same tactics as the old song sharks did in my day.   

They are not targeting the people who has the propensity to make it big because of their sheer talent or business acumen but the people who are trying to make it in the music industry for whatever their reason.  Might it be that many people miss understand the role of music distribution companies like CDbaby, Tune Core , Lander, Distrokid thinking that distributing through them to the streaming music services will make their music and their desirability to music listeners and big record labels and publishing companies. In order to be successful musicians must make their own way, and promote and advertise themselves because music distribution companies like song sharks get paid whether or not Artist are successful or not. 

These Song Poem Companies were found in all manner of publications and because of he time there was no instant information like the internet, video games was expensive, an there were limited television and radio channel so reading was more of an everyday thing unlike today.  I had just entered the workforce in 1977 and when we get a little money we do the things we want to do.   MY first song was Entitled "Wanna be Real"  I got a handcut single sided 45rpm record for my money. below is that song contract in a video . The purpose of this video is to document my musical journey to where it is today. 

Finders keeper was my second song, and  I sang it on a cassette tape above is the song contract and the orignal lead sheet with melody and chords is in the copyright office.  I failed to copyright my very first song, and the recording has long since been lost and the company that created the record is long defunct out of business. nevertheless i still remember the song and made another song later by the same name in an effort to regain what i had lost when the record was no longer available.   FINDERS KEEPERS 2025

Since then I have completed Finders Keepers with a little help from my friends the Funk Gypsies, but I Have never heard the original song played the way I sang it.  The Copyright office has the last original copy and it cost a grip even to get an uncertified copy of the sheet music in their files.  The way these song sharks operated was they played to people emotions and desires even as today who want a recording contract and to be picked up by a big record label and be a big star.  In actuality they knew the songs would probably go no where but did not care because the success of their business was not dependent on the Artist success but on the Artist paying them money for their services.  

It was never my desire to be a big musical talent it was how i survived my childhood. Everyone have hobbies or something they enjoy doing. I just enjoy making music but for some reason or not, I never learned to play an instrument or to read sheet music. But thanks to techology i found my voice by recording music into a computer using MIDI technology and completed my first complete instrumental back to back with the funk music around 1990 or so on cassette tape with music and vocal.  now also only in the copyright office, then i started , Oh Windy and Will I Miss Seeing you, inspired by a good friend who brother produced a music CD in the early 90's.  I still have all my old midi files from that time period and these became the basis for all of my digital releases today. While i have created many new songs since then.  

These Song Sharks have much in common like  streaming music Distributors like Distrokid CDbaby , Tunecore, Distrokid, and to many too list. I am not going to tell you what I think about any of them But i have discovered a good use For CDbaby one that I may share with you later.  I caution readers to understand that cdbaby have a service that they call CDbaby boost. It may sound good but what it is not is a promotion and advertising service. It is a rights management program that is suppose to collect artist, royalties from all over the world This is another fee or extra that Artist pay to have others do what they can do for themselves. 

CD Baby Boost is an optional service for CD Baby distributors that helps them collect royalties and secure sync licensing opportunities for their music.  CDB Boost collects mechanical and digital performance royalties for CD Baby's users through their partners like The MLC and SoundExchange, while Songtrust is a publishing administrator that handles worldwide publishing and collection for songs it represents. Streaming music publishers have been relegated to bedroom Producers, who knock out tunes on Garage Band in the night with hopes of finding fame and fortune on streaming music platform.  

Music Distributors have all manner of fees that they charge artist claiming that they will collect all of their streaming royalties and money that is due. However there is a fee for this.  CDbaby boost does not mean that they are going to promote or advertise your music.  It is a method of collecting money that your music generate and to help themselves first by taking their "fees"  Therein lies artist first problem.  What they are doing the artist can do for themselves if they would only educate themselves. They also have a lot of other tools that artist can purchase but all of them are not good if the artist do not use them creatively to benefit themselves like Bandzoogle or Hear Now page from CDbaby.  

Tools are just that. Better tools will never make a man a better Mechanic, nor will Musicians tools make a better recording artist.  I used what I had to create my music before technology made it easier to create music even collaborate with real musicians from around the world. Such as with the Song Poem that  I had created entitled - After The Dreams Begin To Fade  in 1987 more than 39 years ago. The Music in the 2017 audio was recreated by a talented Piano instructor by the name of Joy A. Brown.  I found her on fiverr.com A fantastic gig site where people will help you complete your projects whether artistic or musical.  She created the song introduction added the chords to the melody and tightened up the shown lead sheet.  She created the audio and sent it to me.  Then I sent it to the classical guitar  and from there I found the rest of the instrumentalist and vocalist to complete the song and release my first project.  ORIGINAL 1987 SHEET MUSIC --  After The Dreams ALBUM 2017

ARTIST - BE ABOUT THE BUSINESS OF MUSIC

In order to safely navigate the Song Shark infested waters of this streaming music age especially on the internet with so many Youtube influencers ready to sell naive neophyte and sometime desperate Artist all manner of snake oil that is suppose to make artist and their music instantly successful.  These vain talker lay claims to be lawyers, and having once been somebody important in the music industry makes me wonder with so much money in the music industry why are they living on past glory and not off of the industry they seek to share their secret inside knowledge of how  to be rich, famous successful and all for a fist full of dollar.  Instead of telling Artist how to make like they did by example most if not many will ready to sell you a seminar, a technique or book in order to seperate desperate artist from their hard earned money.  

I'm saying in order to have a chance to succeed artist must not only be talented, and good at making and performing music but be about business also.  At the end of the day it is always about the money. The way artist do this is as follows. This is not legal advice please read the disclaimer and make up your own mind what you want to do. This information is working on the premise that you are not co-writing or sharing credit with anyone else.  The basic thrust of this information is that you will be your own Publisher and yourself as The Songwriter to ensure that you get 100% of your royalties.  If You Register only as a Songwriter or not at all you will have to sign with a publisher that you can trust, however the song Sharks will smile oh so sweetly saying trust me I will take care of you.  As a publisher i am creating my Musicians Submission guide as I am not acepting submissions yet but Songwriters must copy right their and Join Preferably ASCAP or BMI

1. Never Sign or Agree to anything from anybody without reading it. Especially long convoluted legalese in most Terms of service and End User Liscense Agreements. 
2. Regularly copyright new music and maintain careful records when sharing credit with a co-writer or another interested party.
3. Join JOIN ASCAP or JOIN BMI as a SONGWRITER  OR PUBLISHER. Set it up correctly and aquire Federal EIN and  State Tax ID  for your particular state and open a Business Banking  Account.
4. Register your Publishing Entity with the MLC -Mechanical Liscensing Collective and With Sound Exchange.
5. Using Your Publishing Entity Register your entire catalog with  ASCAP or BMI.  whichever you use for your publisher use the same for your artist account.
6. Once Registered With ASCAP and Music is Distributed you will Receive two numbers that will be needed in the MLC - ISRC - ISWC. Keep these with song titles.
7. Once you have these numbers go to the Mechanical Liscense Collective and register your catalog of songs there.  
8.  Then register your entire catalog of music at the Sound Exchange, Esentially you would have set yourself up to collect your own royalties if you executed correctly
9. If you have not already done so create a BANDCAMP ARTIST account but for a small monthly fee you can get a BANDCAMP PRO ACCOUNT.
10. Upload all of your MUSIC to band camp. if Digital on CD BABY use same track listing and cover art using same Metadata ISRC and IWSC numbers
11. promote your BANDCAMP FOR ARTIST  page and music. Because people are not going to just come if they do not know that you exist outside of your friends and family.
12. Create you Own Website that will be used to direct people to your bandcamp page.  See example of my BandCamp for Artist page and my Primary Music Site below.
13. Promotion and Advertising through youtube, Google Ads, Physical Media and building your YOUTUBE Channel its not going to be an easy road.
14. Get a friend or someone to help you with your website preferably a word press hosted blue host website.  Someone you can trust to help with google Analytics.
15. You might lose some sleep but doing the Paperwork will generate multiple income streams if the streaming music is going through the system and people listening.

All of these points can be expanded up but this blog will go on forever.  Feel Free to inquire if  you have any question or leave comments in the comment section. There is a lot here but the option is to continue to allow the music distribution companies collect our royalties for us and to sell us promotional tools we are not able to nor willing to use.  

This is My Online Bandcamp store and with a little time and effort you can set your own Band Camp for Artist store and also set up a Fan Account for Music exploration and Discovery FUNK GYPSY MUSIC STORE  -  Warren's Music Company

APPENDIX  OF DEFINITIONS

MUSIC PUBLISHER - The primary task of a music publisher is to manage, promote, and monetize the copyrights of musical compositions on behalf of songwriters and composers. Music Publishers also register songwriter work with ASCAP, BMI The MLC and collect any royalties generated by songwriter song being played and also make sure songwriters are paid for their music as  well as protect rights owners compositions.

COMPOSER - The person who create the instrumental of a musical composition. The Publisher share of royalties is 50% and the Songwriters share of Royalties is 50% for a 50/50 split.  

SONGWRITER - COMPOSER - There are two classes of songwriters, the Composer who create the instrumental track which is not to be confused with a beat, and the Lyricist who write and sing the melody or top line to an instumental track.  A beat is a foundational element, typically the rhythmic pulse, while an instrumental is a complete, full-length track that includes all components like melody, harmony, rhythm, and a full arrangement that in the past served as the B-side of a 45rpm record. When a person compose the music, the lyrics and perform the initial vocals and do not share credit with another person they maximize their Royalty since the songwriter share is 50%.  If more than one songwriter they will have to come to an agreement on how to make the split. If there are 5 songwriters and they agree to even split they will receive 10% each. 

Disclaimer: Nothing in this blog is to be considered Legal Advice The information provided on this blog is for general informational and educational purposes only. All opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not reflect the opinions of any organizations the author may be affiliated with.The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional legal counsel on any subject matter. We are not a law firm, and the publication of this information does not create an attorney-client relationship between you and the author or the blog owner.Readers should seek appropriate legal or other professional advice from a qualified attorney licensed in their jurisdiction before acting on any information from this blog. Discussions on this blog about music contracts, assignments of rights, royalty payments, and music ownership are for informational purposes only and should not be considered legal, financial, or business advice.Always consult a qualified music lawyer for advice on contracts, assignments of rights, royalty payments, and music ownership. 

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