Looking For A Little Guidance

[GreenLyricist]

About a month ago, I was talking with a friend who is now a very established composer/songwriter and we were talking about songs and lyrics. I had posted some stuff online that I had written and when he took a look at it, he immediately bought into it and wanted to write songs for the words.

He created some rough musical pieces for two of my lyrics and pitched them to a singer his company was developing. She fell in love with them and asked that I write for her album.

Now we are at the stage where we are signing contracts (so far just split agreements), and also getting to the point where they would like me to interview with a couple production agencies as well as a talent agency.

My questions thus far have been limited to how do I make money off of this and what is the road looking like in the future. Not very good questions to bring to an interview I think. So I am putting this out to all of you. Since I don't know anything about the business or what happens behind the scenes, what can I expect, what kind of questions should I be asking, and what are fair share agreements?

Also, what should I look out for and be cautious about?

Please help me. I leave for California on Friday and would like to have a little information before I leave. Thank you in advance

GreenLyricist

[john]

Hi

Welcome to Songstuff!

I think the best advice i could give to a music business noob would be to read / use as a reference:

All You Need To Know About The Music Business

It explains contracts, terminology, job roles, percentages.... in way more detail than I could easily go into here.

If you can pick this up at your local bookstore it should make for some excellent reading on your journey and beyond.

It's organized pretty well and information is pretty easy to navigate.

Cheers

John

[Retrosaurus Rex]

People take jobs to make money, so I don't think it's something to be embarrassed to ask in an interview. Just be sure to be diplomatic and don't act like money's your main focus. You're lucky to have such a great opportunity, especially in something you love doing... I hope you go far. Stay positive and maintain enthusiastic focus on your strong points, and your willingness to learn. It's pretty basic, but those are my interview tips...