Four Reasons You Should (and Shouldn’t) Collaborate for Royalties Only

If you’re a songwriter looking for a lyricist or vice versa, our Collaboration Zone helps you connect with musicians and writers online. When you post a project, you have two choices. A) sticking to your budget, if you’re planning to pay your collaborator for their work, or B) choosing to collaborate on a royalty-only basis, with neither party receiving an upfront fee.

There is no right or wrong here; there are advantages and disadvantages to both options. In this article, we’re going to discuss the factors you’ll want to consider so you can give yourself the best chance of getting the desired results from the collaboration. You can also take these points into account if you’re unsure whether to charge an upfront fee when offering your songwriting services to others. Let’s get started!

Obviously, a writer who doesn’t charge an upfront fee will probably receive more offers than one who does. But there’s more to consider.

1)  Quality and reliability?

Although not always the caset, there’s a perception that paying for a service dramatically increases the chances of getting higher quality. Most professionals who charge an upfront fee have the relevant qualifications/ experience, studio equipment, access to musicians and production teams required to create professional lyrics and songs with a quick turnaround time.

That’s not to demean the many great lyricist and composers working ‘royalty only’,  but you should be prepared to experience a greater level of semi professional writers, who might not always have the experience, time, and equipment to bring your song to fruition.

2) What can you afford?

What to charge is an important question if you’re looking to be hired. For both lyricists and composers, if you’ve invested a great deal of time and money on training and studio equipment, you understandably might want to charge upfront, especially so, if you need to pay the musicians and production staff in advance of releasing the songs; that’s assuming the song gets released in the first place-  The songwriter and producer Guy Chambers once said that nine out of ten of the songs he writes do not get released, other prominent songwriters like Lauren Aquilina have expressed similar frustrations-an unreleased song will not generate any royalties!

As a lyricist,  you’ll need to consider the hours spent cramming and editing the lyric for a client, possibly making amendments following the client’s feedback. If you’re also being asked to write the top-line vocal melody, this will require a high level of experience, time, and recording equipment.

Composers spend even longer on projects than lyricists. You could be writing and recording multiple instrumental parts. Even for a solo instrument, it’s time-consuming to compose, then there’s the requirement to find the appropriate musicians and singers, rehearse, record, mix and master the music.

Furthermore, setting a client’s existing lyric to music, is often much more complex than writing the lyric and music from scratch, from a ‘blank canvas’ so to speak.

So these are some of the things needing to be considered when deciding what to charge.

3) Now back back to the question of whether to charge upfront fees for your songwriting services?
Working only for royalties is common practice, and we’re not advising against this, but as a songwriter or lyricist, you need to be prepared to put effort and resources into songs that may never see the light of day. If you charge an upfront fee, you will at least get some compensation for your work, regardless of whether the song is released, or makes any money.

So what charge? If you’re working exclusively as a full time lyricist or songwriter, you might have to charge an upfront fee to make a living. If writing is a hobby, and you have other income avenues, then of course, a royalty only share, might make perfect sense.

What If I want to collaborate with another artists but have no money to do so?

 If you have no budget available for a  songwriting project, seeking a collaborator willing to work on a royalty-only basis is your only and best option.

4) What percentage of royalties do you want to receive?

Each collaborator needs to agree on the percentage of the song owned by each person involved. This is usually decided according to each person’s level of contribution. There’s a common misconception that in a collaboration between two writers, the royalties are split evenly 50/50 between the composer and the lyricist. At first glance that may seem fair, but for the reasons already mentioned, the composer spends more money on studio and musical equipment, more time on writing, rehearsing, recording and mixing, and has to pay all the musicians and production teams in advance. Therefore  75/25 and 80/20 splits in the composer’s favour are commonplace.

If you’re looking to hire someone to work on your project on a royalty only basis, your collaborator may expect a higher percentage to compensate for their time and experience.

Conversely, if you’re being asked for an upfront fee, you can use this to negotiate a larger royalty percentage for yourself, since the other contributor will be receiving some financial compensation in advance of any sales, whereas you will not.

If you’re charging an initial fee, you will probably need to be agreeable to reducing your percentage, depending on the amount paid upfront.

Alternatively, some writers relinquish all rights to future royalties in exchange for a larger upfront fee. This is an option to consider, but it’s important to remember that with this approach you are effectively being paid for your authorship and ownership of the song. If the track is released and does incredibly well, you won’t benefit financially from any royalties. You need to think carefully about pricing this option, since you might not obtain any more songwriting work on the back of the song either. Your client is not obligated to credit you as a writer! – there are many thousands of ‘Ghostwriters’ out there doing this.

Some songwriters choose a hybrid option, working for a slightly reduced percentage in exchange for a smaller upfront fee.

You could try this method if you’re undecided whether to charge an initial fee or work only for royalties.

It’s important to have all involved sign a contract as soon as possible, so each can prove they were a writer on the song.

We’re interested in hearing your thoughts on this subject?
Do you collaborate on a royalty-only basis, or do you set and receive upfront fees? If you would like to collaborate online, please make use of our Collaboration Zone at Songbay. We look forward to hearing your thoughts! ***