Q. I saw the piece in today's Advertiser about your Q&A on the music industry and would like to ask you for advice on some songs that I have written.


Originally, they were written for my own pleasure in the hope that one day I might put them to use in a band, but I am too busy to go down that route so I am thinking of selling them on.


How would I go about selling the songs that I have written to a producer/artist/label? Who would I approach and how should I present the song (i.e. barebones music, music & vocals, highly produced mix)?


How do songwriters get paid, is it on a royalty basis or do you just sell the rights? If so what are good terms of sale for a song?


Hope you can help, many thanks in advance,
DB

A. Dear ol' DB, selling songs these days is notoriously difficult.There was a time when a person could pen a tune and have it covered (recorded) by an artist and Bob's your uncle, or he's your uncle and your mum if you're from Penhill.


These days managers and artists pull the great "co-write" scam, which means they or their artists insist on changing a word of the lyric and getting involved in the creation of the song, even if they've never written anything before.


So why do they insist on hamstringing the professional writer this way? Yep, it's so they can take half of any profit from the publishing income.


A bit like expecting a great goal scoring performance from Wayne Rooney but hes got to have a complete amateur tied to his leg while he's doing it.


You can try demoing your songs and sending them in to a music publisher, but be warned, it's a 99.9% chance that you will hear nothing. Your songs will have to be frighteningly good to receive any attention, and if they are then be prepared to suffer the "co-write" scam.


Good luck, Andy