Quote:
Originally Posted by bonjovi_cro
Let me ask you all an honest question. For example, imagine you are Jon and you are working on Blaze of Glory record and song. And for this song, you have most of the lyrics panned out and chord structure and melody finished. But you lack something, you obviously lack lead guitar, and also you need band members to record rest of the instruments.
Again, obviously, you don't go to your drummer and give him exact spreadsheet where to hit what and how. You paid him for a job, to both arrange his takes, those takes get approved by you when you're satisfied, and then to record those takes. It's the same for keyboard player, lead guitar player, bassist, possibly string arranger and let's say backing vocal harmonies.
So you pay Jeff Beck a hefty sum, let's say half a million dollars 
to make arrangement for intro, lead guitar work in general, and solo.
But in the process, he really delivers epic stuff, and this elevates song from very promising to global hard rock hit. Do you put him also on songwriting credits, even though he basically only did the job you paid him?
(P.S. Obviously, with band dynamics is a bit different and more particular, but I made on purpose this example with complete hired guns) |
If I gave Jeff Beck the song and he recorded it as it was written on my original demo then no he does not get a song writing credit. If he comes in and puts an awesome solo on it, it wouldn't give him a writing credit. That is what I paid him to do.
But if he came up with an awesome riff and it became a huge part of the song, including the intro and several times within the song, then yes I would be more than happy to give him a songwriting credit. Remember you can give a certain percentage of the songwriting credits, it doesn't have to be split evenly. You could even just give 5% - but in my opinion, it deserves something. I know that's not always how it works though.