BARNEY COLLINS NEWS.

By Matt D.

Running a studio and being an old band-dude, people would occasionally ask me questions.

The question I’ve had more than any other is “How do I split my writing royalties?”

The first few times I was asked I didn’t know what to say, because I had rarely shared credits. I started crudely thumbing out songs in my teens and didn’t know any better. Since I was always prepared to share any royalty payments with the appropriate band, it never occurred to me to ask.

Now, years and several collaborations later, my immediate response is “Are you at the stage where you’re willing to fight and potentially break up?”

A band is like any other union of people. It’s a marriage and a business partnership. The conversation regarding royalty splits is one predicated on the idea that

(a) You believe certain contributions are worth a specific amount

(b) That you’re in a superior position to other members. That your contribution is of greater worth because there’d be no band without you; and that may well be the case, but if your band isn’t comprised of session musicians then…an ipso facto position could be argued.

So, with this on board you’re ready to discuss in a professional capacity how some contributions are greater than others.

Frankly, unless you’re ready to record, I’d avoid the conversation or maybe broach it gently over time. While (in Australia thru APRA AMCOS) live performance royalties can be submitted, it’s not a great deal of money in the short term and some of the submissions can be made later in a year, so establishing a solid lineup over the course of your early shows is more important.

Ideally, if you think this lineup is the definitive and final. If you’ve sacked Pete Best and replaced him with Ringo and you are as confident about your John and George to be Paul… discuss it then.

A long running and successful 3 piece I know had a 40/30/30 split. The greater portion going to the member who bought the meat to the table.

I’m personally in a band where the split is 5 ways for every song that we create.

In the late 80’s, Queen also changed their splits to a quarter share when this hadn’t been the case for the years prior. There are other issues that result from member transition or group expansion. When a band has been around for years and loses a member, there can be a reasonable grievance with that member still getting a cut when the old material is played.

If you thought there’d be a silver bullet answer amongst this diatribe, I’m sorry… there’s not.

I have recently completed a multi-faceted and broadly collaborative project. Thankfully the topic was never raised by any of the 15 people that worked on it, but regardless I have gratefully written each of them into the splits for the songs they contributed to. It’s the least I can do and it feels right.

I’m expecting them to give their time and talent to it and that’s worth something.

The one take-away from this post is this: 100% of 0 = 0, so how did you manifest a song from just you strumming alone to a point of studio-readiness? And what is that worth?