Split Sheets
Many songwriters I know are singularly focused on their creative pursuits. They hustle hard in their home studio and spend hours toiling away at the proper lyric. And yet, they are not so concerned with the business side of things, namely cataloguing their songs through the use of split sheets.
Back when I worked at Warner Chappell, I made sure that my writers were fastidious about filling out split sheets after every co-writing session. In fact, I refused to accept any songs that didn't have split sheets available. Split sheets are documents that record the title of the song, the song's date of creation, the percentage of ownership owed to each songwriter, each songwriter's PRO information, and the name of a writer's publishing company. These split sheets allowed me, the publisher, to have all the necessary information for cataloguing the song. When a song was placed on an artist's album or on a television show, all the business ran smoothly thanks to these pieces of paper.
Some of my songwriter's have filing cabinets full of these split sheets and, recently, I've gotten calls from them thanking me for being so annoying about documentation. These days, music supervisors, folks who places songs in film or television, have been getting into contact with my former writers about using their songs. Because my writer's have all of the information about each song readily available, the music supervisor is able to use the song immediately. This allows my songwriters and their co-writers to get paid quickly and establishes them as credible business people who the music supervisor can rely on in the future.
Until you as a songwriter or artist secure a publishing deal, an agency representative, or a record deal, you are a cottage industry. You must handle the creation of your product (the songs), the distribution of your protect (getting songs to Soundcloud or Spotify or iTunes), the collection of monies (through PROs or private contracts), and the cataloguing of all relevant song information (i.e. split sheets).
I know that keeping these records may seem benign or counterintuitive to an artist's free flowing spirit. However, split sheets will ground your business and allow you to take advantage of opportunities when they show up at your door step. At the end of the day, your songs are your business so you must do what you can to protect them and make them viable money making projects.
