SongWriter Collaboration Takes Work

Songwriter collaboration takes work. I attended a workshop by Steve Seskin on co-writing. Steve is a number one songwriter. Like many successful writers, he does a lot of co writing. Steve has a great way of describing it. It’s like dating. You have good experiences and sometimes you have bad experiences.

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Sometimes you are dying for another date and other times you’re not prepared to go there again. There’s nothing wrong with admitting you don’t work well with another songwriter in writing songs. It happens all the time.

Most pro writers like Steve end up with a select group of writing partners. Most also write with people outside that small circle. But it is extra work as developing a songwriting relationship takes effort. It’s like any relationship. To make it work you have to make adjustments to how you operate.

Cowriting is like living with someone. Your spouse has habits you love, habits that you accept or others that you want to try to change for the relationship to work for you. Somewhere in the middle is how well your relationship works. Sometimes it’s more solid than others.

When the adjustments you have to make end up causing you to feel uncomfortable or feeling it’s too much work, move on. Be nice about it but find a way to more on and find someone who better suits you. There may be special songwriter out there who better matches the writer you’re leaving.

When you think about it, the whole purpose is to write a great song that you aren’t able to write by yourself, to have fun, feel creative and be productive or successful. Songwriter collaboration is also about serving the song. Think about this in your decision of whether to continue your writing relationship with another writer.

There’s no cowriters divorce court but a pre-nuptial understanding is advised. You are creating songs and they often feel like your babies. And as with babies, you have to plan for their future. This is especially true if you are trying to write commercial songs where money and your rights could be involved.

You must develop an understanding with the other person about the rules you are operating under during the process of writing. This is both for each other in the session and each writer’s ownership rights to the song. It can range from you having a totally informal working relationship up to signing a Co-Writing Agreement.

I’m not a lawyer and this is not legal advice so please consult a lawyer to get a legal opinion on this if you need to. Click this link if you want to look at an example one of these agreements. Its a link to a PDF file near the bottom of the page. Here is an article on Legal Problems with Co-Writers.

There’s no right or wrong answer on the understanding you end up with. It’s what you both are comfortable with. However please have the conversation up front with everyone you write with. Don’t put it off. Get it out of the way and move on to writing a great song.

I’ve taken Steve Seskin’s themes and added some of my own comments, so click here for some songwriter collaboration Dos and Don’ts