When I think about collaboration in songwriting, my mind goes back to my days at Utah State University, sitting with my friend Joe Maki in a dorm room with guitars, notebooks, and a 4-track recorder balanced on a milk crate. We called ourselves Baby Fred and released an album that somehow captured our boundless energy in the early 1990s. It wasn’t polished, but it was real. And, like a lot of young songwriters, we were too busy writing and recording to think about things like copyright registration, publishing, or getting our songs out into the world.
Fast forward to now: Joe and I are reconnecting, creating new songs, and revisiting old ones. But we’ve realized something important—we’ve never really taken care of the “business side” of our music. No copyright filings. No publishing management. No outreach for licensing or sync opportunities. Just songs written, recorded, and stored away.
If you’re in a similar boat—writing with a partner you’ve known for years, or even just starting a collaboration—let’s walk through some steps to do things right this time. Collaboration is both an art and a discipline. The art part comes naturally when you’re in sync with another songwriter. The discipline part—protecting, managing, and sharing your work—takes a little planning.
1. Honor the Past, Build for the Future
The first thing Joe and I had to do was acknowledge our history. We have decades of material—finished songs, fragments, demos—that deserve attention. If you and your collaborator have a back catalog, make it a shared project to organize it. Collect everything you’ve ever written together, even rough cassette recordings or scraps of lyric sheets.
Catalog it in a spreadsheet: song title, co-writers, date written, recording status, where the files live, and any notes. This step creates clarity. Suddenly, the foggy memory of “we wrote a bunch of songs back in the day” becomes a tangible body of work that you can act on.
From there, commit to building a catalog going forward. Every new song should go into the same system right away. It doesn’t have to be fancy—Google Sheets will do—but it will give your collaboration structure.
2. Define Roles and Responsibilities
Collaboration doesn’t mean doing everything together. In fact, the healthiest partnerships often involve clear divisions of responsibility. Joe and I both write separately as well as together. That’s normal. Some of your best songs will come from your independent efforts; others will come from late-night writing sessions together.
But when it comes to managing your songs—copyright, publishing, outreach—decide who handles what. For example:
- One person might take the lead on registering copyrights with the U.S. Copyright Office.
- The other might handle uploading songs to PROs (ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC) and making sure writer/publisher splits are accurate.
- Marketing, pitching, and sync outreach can be split, or you can hire help down the road.
The key is not to let everything fall into “we’ll both do it.” That’s when nothing happens. Assign and follow through.
3. Take Care of Copyrights
This is where many of us fall behind. In the U.S., copyright exists the moment a song is created and fixed in a tangible form. But registering that copyright is what gives you strong legal protection. It’s also what makes it easier to license and collect royalties.
For collaborative works, copyright registration should list all co-writers with their proper ownership percentages. If you and your partner split everything 50/50, great. If not, spell out the division clearly. You can register a batch of songs together, which saves time and money.
Think of copyright registration as the foundation of your house. Without it, everything else is wobbly.
4. Manage Publishing Like Professionals
Joe and I each set up our own little “publishing companies” years ago, mostly in name only. If that’s your situation too, now’s the time to formalize it. Register your publishing entities with your chosen PRO (ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC in the U.S.). Make sure your writer accounts are linked to your publishing accounts.
When you co-write a song, the publishing splits should mirror the writer splits. That way, royalties flow correctly when the song is streamed, performed, or licensed.
If you want to keep things simple, you can designate one publishing entity to handle the administration for your joint songs. Or you can each maintain your own, as long as the splits are properly filed.
5. Think Beyond Writing—Focus on Outreach
This is where collaboration really has power. Two songwriters mean two networks, two perspectives, two sets of skills. Use that to your advantage.
- Licensing and Sync: Start small. Research music libraries and sync agencies that specialize in your genre. Submit together. Even one placement can energize your collaboration.
- Performance Royalties: Make sure your songs are registered with your PRO so live performances (even your own gigs) generate royalties.
- Digital Distribution: Use platforms like DistroKid, CD Baby, or LANDR to release your music. Be clear about who controls the account and how revenue is split.
- Press and Outreach: Split the load. Maybe one of you writes press releases, while the other handles social media.
The point is: don’t let the songs just sit in a folder. Push them into the world.
6. Protect Your Relationship
A collaborative partnership is part music, part friendship, part business. To keep it healthy, communicate openly. Disagreements will happen—about lyrics, about mixes, about money. That’s normal. What matters is how you resolve them.
A simple written agreement can save you heartache. It doesn’t have to be a thick legal contract—just a clear document outlining:
- How you split songwriting credit
- How you split publishing and royalties
- Who controls the masters
- How decisions about releases are made
That way, the partnership is protected if things get tricky down the line.
7. Celebrate the Joy of Collaboration
At the heart of all this structure is the joy of making music together. Joe and I have gone decades without doing the “right” things administratively, but the music never stopped. That’s the magic of collaboration—it’s about connection.
Still, setting up the business side properly doesn’t diminish that magic. It actually strengthens it. When your songs are registered, protected, and managed, you free yourselves to focus on the fun part—writing, recording, and performing. You also increase the chances that your songs will reach more ears, which is the whole point.
Conclusion: Doing It Right This Time
Reconnecting with Joe has reminded me that collaboration isn’t just about creating songs. It’s about building a legacy together. We’ve got a second chance to do things right: cataloging our past work, protecting it with copyright, managing publishing properly, and taking our songs out into the world.
If you’re in a songwriting partnership, whether new or decades old, take these steps seriously. They’ll set you on the right track individually and as a team.
Because collaboration is more than just sitting in a room with guitars—it’s a commitment to honor the songs you create together and give them the best possible chance to live in the world.
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