Challenge · 5 Days · Intermediate
The Publishing Pre-Nup: Know Your Rights
Simulate a deal negotiation to understand your key publishing assets and non-negotiables.
This 5-day challenge prepares you for the realities of a publishing negotiation by having you audit your rights, analyze a sample deal, and define your own non-negotiable terms.
The plan, day by day
- Day 1Rights Inventory: List your top three unreleased songs. For each, use a split sheet to formally document all writers and their agreed-upon ownership percentages. This is your foundational document.
- Day 2AI Deal Memo Simulation: Using a large language model (as outlined in our 'AI for Musicians' guide), prompt it: 'Act as a music lawyer and draft a sample co-publishing agreement for a new artist with one promising song.' Review the output.
- Day 3Red Flag Hunt: Read the AI-generated memo. Using our 'Publishing, Simplified' guide, identify three potentially problematic clauses (e.g., term length, reversion rights, audit rights).
- Day 4Emotional Core & Sync Value: For your top song, write a paragraph describing its core emotion. Then, list three specific types of scenes (film, TV, or ad) where it would be a perfect fit. This articulates its sync value.
- Day 5Define Your 'Walk Away' Point: Based on your analysis, write down the single publishing term you would refuse to agree to under any circumstance. This is your line in the sand.
