People taking songwriting credits for songs they didn't actually write and compose

[TerryFinch1964]

I've seen this alot in music where sometimes the producer of a song will give him/herself a songwriting credit on a song that he/she had nothing to do with. The reason why they do this is because a songwriting credit means more royalities and so they'll get more money that way. Same thing can happen with the artist as well when an outside songwriter will come in and write a song for them and then the artist will give themselves a co-writing credit to get more royalties for themselves.

What's everyone's thought about this? Taking credit for somebody else's work is something i really don't like. How would you feel if you put alot of work into something and then someone comes along and gives themselves a co-credit without contributing anything?

I am a professional musician and have in the last decade started writing and recording my own music, I am a completely unknown artist, but it hasn't stopped people from trying to muscle in on my song writing credits, I have had a couple of vocalists, a producer and recently a bass player after one listen all telling me they can "improve" my work, I gave a few of them the benefit of the doubt and the result was that they ruined the songs, the producer used an age old tactic by telling me that my music is so terrible it's not worth bothering with, he was motivated enough to bother with it by suggesting he could improve it though, he must have thought I was born yesterday. I have seen other plagiarism on the work of well know artists, where someone literally changes a single note in a piece of music and then claims full writing credits, just to claim a paltry couple of quid from the PRS, as Hunter S Thompson said, "the music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where pimps and thieves run free and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side".

 

[TerryFinch1964]

I've seen this alot in music where sometimes the producer of a song will give him/herself a songwriting credit on a song that he/she had nothing to do with. The reason why they do this is because a songwriting credit means more royalities and so they'll get more money that way. Same thing can happen with the artist as well when an outside songwriter will come in and write a song for them and then the artist will give themselves a co-writing credit to get more royalties for themselves.

What's everyone's thought about this? Taking credit for somebody else's work is something i really don't like. How would you feel if you put alot of work into something and then someone comes along and gives themselves a co-credit without contributing anything?

I have personally experienced this myself, I have had several people try to make "improvements" to my songs without actually asking if it was OK to do so, after they have crapped all over my song they then announce how much better it sounds and that they "collaborated" on it, one arsehole told me my songs were terrible and i should give up, but then proceeded to offer his services to once again "improve" my songs, I asked him if he thought I was born yesterday, I am once again concerned about a couple of guys who have offered to form a band with me to play my songs but are very keen to make changes, my music has been out on social media sites for years and I am quite happy with them, if I needed to make changes I have already gone over them with a fine tooth comb and I am happy with what i have released, it seems a bit cheeky to start suggesting changes to my songs and we haven't even met yet, just talked on the phone, I have had this issue about 5 times now and it has made me very suspicious of people's motives, I have also seen ruthless individuals take credit on well known songs, the industry must be rife with these mediocrities trying to steal other peoples talent, it makes me really angry, I sweated over these songs and the idea that some idiot thinks he can just waltz in and ruin my music and then demand credit really upsets me. I once saw some arsehole claim writing credits on Cole Porters music just for translating the lyrics from English to Danish and force cabaret artists to use music "written" by him so he could claim PRS royalties (in reality he literally just took a random piece of music and pencilled in a single different note).