Typical Songwriter Credits

Hey Songwriters, I thought you might like to hear from one of your fellow songwriters how a songwriter can get fucked while writing songs for big acts. Here, Heather Bright, songwriter for Britney Spears, Justin Bieber and others gives you a sense of how some deals go down.

From Heather Bright’s Blog:

And before I sign off, I would just like to address one thing! The media is talking trash about how Britney didn’t write any of the songs on her album… HELLO! Wake up everybody! NONE OF THESE ARTISTS WRITE THEIR OWN SONGS!!!!!! (there are a few exceptions… lady gaga, will.i.am/BEP, chris brown is starting to write a lot of his own stuff…ummmm… and now I’m running out of artists). Anyway… here’s my thing… and I feel VERY passionate about this issue. Britney could have come to me, like all these other A-list artists, and said…

“Hey, you wanna be on my album? I’m gonna need writing credit for that song AND part of your publishing even though I didn’t write anything! And then I’m gonna go on tour and gross $150 million in ticket sales and not give you any of that, even though I’m performing your song!”

I could rattle off a laundry list of artists who I’ve had that conversation with! And I’m on the other end like… “Oh okay… so you wanna rape me, but just with the tip?!” *Prince side eye* Britney’s one of the few artists I’ve worked with who didn’t try to take something that wasn’t hers. In my experience, from a business standpoint, her entire team is nothing less than a bonafide class act!

Good Luck With Your Songs….. TM

Todd Murphy is a Music and Entertainment Lawyer based in Jersey City, NJ.  He represents musical artists in all genres such as rock, dance, electronic, pop, hip-hop, punk, new wave, jazz and classical. Click here for Artist Inquiries.