From the course: The Business of Songwriting: First Steps

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What is a split letter?

What is a split letter?

From the course: The Business of Songwriting: First Steps

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What is a split letter?

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Lennon and McCartney, Simon and Garfunkel, Hall and Oates, Rodgers and Hammerstein, pop stars and their various collaborators. Often, songwriting works best in duos or groups. Sometimes in these environments, one person may compose the music and one person might write the lyrics. Or a great song might just come out of a collaboration, jamming or even happy accidents. Some multi-platinum artists even employ teams of songwriters. How then, when it comes to the business of songwriting, do you decide and document who was responsible for what? Enter the Split Letter. The Split Letter or sometimes called a Split Sheet is a standard music industry form. In which the contributors to a song are listed along with the percentages each contributor is responsible for. If you're a lyricist working with a producer, the writing credit would probably get split 50-50 with you writing the lyrics and the producer writing the music or the beats. If you're in a group setting or a band, each person may get…

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