Collaboration Guidelines
Collabing (or collaborating, or co-writing) is a great way to get to know others in the FAWM community, and to grow as a lyricist or musician.
These are FAWM community guidelines for collabing with other fawmers.
Summary
- Get permission before starting a collaboration
- Your work belongs to you
- Discuss collaboration roles
- Express any expectations regarding editing
- Agree on how and when to post your collab on the FAWM site
- Agree on future plans, if any, for the song
Starting a collab
You must ALWAYS get permission from the fawmers you plan to collaborate with before you start working together.
If there's a particular fawmer you'd like to work with, feel free to ask them in a message on their profile page. Not everybody who takes part in FAWM has the time or resources available to work on a collaboration, so they may say no. You must respect the wishes of the other fawmer 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.
There are also several ways FAWM collabs form organically:
- If you want to explore a new (to you) genre, you can post in the Collaboration Classifieds area of the forums. Someone experienced in the genre may be excited to help!
- If you have lyrics you want set to music — or more you want words for — you can post partial songs with tags like #needscollab, #needsmusic, #needslyrics, etc.
- These tagging conventions signal to other fawmers that you are open to collaboration on that particular song!
- Once you've found a collaborator and don't need one any more, edit the song post to remove the tag.
- Similarly, if you're looking for lyrics/music to add to, you can peruse the Collaboration Classifieds forum or Songs page for songs with #needsXYZ tags.
- But be sure to ask permission before adding to someone else's work!
- Each year, several collab-based games and challenges pop up as forum topics, including "random collabs" that pair lyricists and composers to write together from scratch.
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).
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
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 way, helps ensure everyone is sufficiently happy with the result.
Exceptions to this might include collab games and challenges where revealing the final track has an element of surprise for some of the 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
If you might want to release a FAWM collaboration outside/after FAWM, it's best to check with your collaborator early 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, and FAWM is not liable for any damages incurred by mishandled collaborations, 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.
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.