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Collaboration Guidelines

Collabing (or collaborating, or co-writing) is a great way to get to know other fawmers, and to grow as a lyricist or musician.

These are the community guidelines for collabing with others during FAWM.

Summary

  • Get permission before starting a collaboration
  • Your work belongs to you
  • Be clear on collaboration roles
  • Express any expectations regarding editing
  • Agree on how and when to post your collab on the FAWM site
  • Agree on future plans for the song (if any)

Starting A Collab

You must always get permission from the fawmers you want to work with, before you start collaborating, or begin adding to their lyrics or music.

If there is a particular fawmer you'd like to work with, feel free to ask them in a message on their profile page. Not everyone participating in FAWM has the time or resources to collaborate, so they may say no. You must respect their wishes if this happens. "No" means no!

Collabs should be fun! Don't offer to collaborate with someone unless you actually want to and have the time. Don't leave things to the last minute, either. If you can, agree on a deadline for completing your part of a project well before FAWM is over.

Although the emphasis in FAWM is on writing songs, fawmers may also collaborate on production elements (e.g., having another fawmer sing, play an instrument solo, or add some other layer to an otherwise complete recording).

If you're still intimidated, collabs can also form organically in several ways...

Games & Challenges

Each year, many collab-based songwriting games and challenges pop up in dedicated forum threads. These include group collabs (like so-called "4-track" challenges) and even "random collabs" that pair lyricists and composers to write together from scratch.

See the Games & Challenges page for more examples!

Collaboration Classifieds

If you want to explore a new genre or style, you can start a new thread in the Collaboration Classifieds area of the forums. Someone experienced in that genre may be excited to help.

Similarly, if you're looking for someone to help with a particular instrument (e.g., trumpet or cello), someone who plays that instrument may be happy to lay down a track for your demo!

"Open" Collabs

If you have lyrics you want set to music — or music for which you need lyrics — you can post partial songs with tags like #NeedsCollab, NeedsMusic, #NeedsLyrics, etc.

  • These tagging conventions signal to other fawmers that you are looking for an "open" collaboration, on that particular song.
  • If you've found a collaborator and don't need one anymore, you should Edit the song post to remove the tag(s).

Similarly, if you're looking for lyrics/music to add to, you can peruse the Collaboration Classifieds forum area or Songs page for songs with #NeedsXYZ-style tags.

As always, be sure to ask permission before adding to someone else's work!

Important: No "posthumous" collaborations

Fawmers have made life-long friends and songwriting partners through FAWM.

The bittersweet thing about this is that sometimes we lose a "fawmily" member, and one natural response is to process our grief through music. Such as writing a tribute song in memory of our friend.

However, FAWM discourages any attempts to posthumously "collaborate" with the account of a deceased fawmer. This includes remixing, sampling, crediting, or any other effort to write songs and post them on their behalf — for example, to give them a posthumous "win" — without express written permission from the fawmer (prior to death) or their estate. While this may be well-intentioned and feel like a way of honoring our friend, their family or estate may not see it that way, and it is important to respect that.

If you attempt this, you indemnify FAWM of any losses or damages you might incur, as per the terms, and we will remove any disputed material if a representative contacts us and asks us to do so, as per the copyright policy.

Editing

Be clear from the outset about how much or little editing you want.

This has to do with time commitment as well as working style. When posting a #NeedsMusic lyric you may specify things you don't want changed in the liner notes. For example: "open to all changes," "don't change anything," "don't change any gender pronouns," etc.

Check in with each other as you make changes!

Tip: Check with everyone before posting

Unless you agree otherwise in advance, it's best to run a final mix past all collaborators (e.g., over email) before posting it to the FAWM site. This helps ensure everyone is happy with the result.

Exceptions to this might include collab games and challenges, where "revealing" the final finished song has an element of surprise for the other fawmers involved.

Posting

Discuss with your collaborator(s) about who will post the final song.

For example, if you add music to a #NeedsLyrics song post, discuss with the original lyricist whether you'll add a demo to their existing post, or create a new one for the collaboration.

Future Plans

Important: FAWM is not liable for any damages incurred through collaborations!

You or your partners might want to release a FAWM collab outside/after FAWM, so it's best to check with them early on to set expectations:

  • Might the collab be used after FAWM and for physical sale (CD, vinyl, etc.)?
  • Might it be released for digital distribution (Spotify, Apple Music, etc.)?
  • Might it be "pitched" to another performer or licensing service?
  • Might it be re-recorded for such purposes?
  • Who owns the "master?"

You will need a co-writer's agreement signed agreeing the copyright splits for any of the uses above. There may be mechanical, writer's, publisher's, or other copyright/royalties attached to the song. Managing this is outside the scope of this document, so be aware of the considerations!

Unless otherwise agreed, each party in a collaboration on FAWM remains the owner of their individual part (i.e., lyrics or music). For example, a lyricist is free to use their lyric outside FAWM with a different co-writer/composer/singer in a different context, and you cannot that same lyric outside of FAWM, even with your music. And vice versa.