Watch Who You Get in Bed With!

****to all my readers, I apologize for not posting more often and will change that as I refocus my energies to building up this blog and my other blogs so thanks for your patience****

I did some posts recently on starting and establishing a songwriting/production team. I gave some pointers on that and I want to continue that topic with this statement: watch who you get in bed with!

As an attorney, I am often asked to either draft a contract or look over one. What's written in the contract is what's written. In most cases what is written is written to protect the drafter, more so than both parties' interests in mind though that's not always the case. Read most terms in a terms of service on a social networking website and you'll quickly see my point. As I mentioned before, you can get an attorney to help you decipher the written terms of a contract. Attorneys can be beneficial that way.

But what you don't see on the paper are the people you are about to get in business with. The music business is a people business just like any other business: you have to learn how to work with different people and be in business together. So make sure that you really know who's who beforehand! Do your research! Find out as much as you can about the person. Make sure they are who they say they are. Google them. Make sure you can work with them. Don't be so eager to sign a record deal, publishing deal, distribution deal, etc., that you don't do your homework!

Suppose you are a songwriter, you sign a typical publishing contract where you have to write so many songs to fulfill your obligation or you have work for a music publisher for so many years. You better know who you are signing to, working with, collaborating with, going into business with, etc. before you sign those type of agreements! Do you wanna sign part of your publishing away to someone who is going to use and abuse you and then take part of your publishing even after you leave the situation because it's in the contract that if you leave, they still get a percentage of your publishing! And you left because you felt FORCED to leave the situation!

While I am all for establishing and starting your own production team, songwriting team, etc., just know that the relationships you build now and the contracts you enter into now can be as costly a mistake as marrying the wrong person. So please go into the songwriting and production teams and into a company with your eyes wide open about who you are entering into a business relationship. You'll be glad you did!

Thedy B, Attorney/Songwriter
Hits A Million, LLC
hitsamillion.blogpsot.com