Opinions on Publishing Songs

[bassnutj]

Hey Janek-
Your new CD sounds great.
Question for you: in your experience in the pop/rock world, what's a good way to go about selling songs you've written for other artists to pick up? I guess you need them with a publishing agency? How does one go about doing such a thing? Have you done this with any tunes you've written? Also, do you have any experience knowing how an artist will "shop" for a song to record? Is it based on the producer's recommendations? Aslo, does the writer get a flat rate plus a percentage of sales for the song?
Any thought in this area would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

[janekbass]

the shopping of songs is normally done by a lawyer or perhaps a manager. You can have a publishing deal with a company like Universal records for instance. You will keep a library of songs with them and they will shop your songs to artists they think are the right fit. It can also happen totally by chance. You might be in the studio working on a song and an artist is in the next room working and hears your stuff and wants to use it.

You really have to build up a library of songs you've written and have a great demo real to play for people. You can take meetings with companies about getting publishing deals I'm sure, but it more often than not comes from word of mouth, being in the right place at the right time, or knowing the right people and having an "in".

I have publishing on a few songs I've written for various artists. In my case I charge a producers fee up front because I normally end up producing the track as well as writing it, and then I get a percentage of sales/mechanicals etc... on the back end. The producers fee can often come in the form of an advance from the label though. So you end up seeing some bread up front, but that recoupable and you won't end up seeing any checks from sales until that producer fee is recouped by the label.

Easy,

Janek