How would you go about selling a song?

Question

My two sons wrote the music and lyrics to a beautiful song right around 1985. Everyone who hears it, loves it and says it could easily be a "hit" song. They have been hesitant about selling it because it is "their" song. But they need the money for their families. How would someone go about the process of getting it sold? And, does anyone know approximately what a good song would sell for?

Answer 1

You can copyright it, but that isn't required. You can try to sell it to a publishing company, Nashville has a large number of publishers, so does LA and NY. If the writers have a mild amount of musical ability they can record a demo - pricey in a studio, but with Garage Band for Mac and PC equivalents it can be done pretty cheaply for a demo-quality result, but the demo still needs to be marketed and sold.
Get "The Complete Idiots Guide to Songwriting," it has chapters on how to market and sell songs.
http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Idiots-Guide-Songwriting-2nd/dp/1592572111/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1197071284&sr=8-1

Answer 2

Get it copyrighted first. (Of course this means writing down the words and music on staff paper.) You may need a lawyer to help with the copyrighting.. Then, find an agent who specializes in that type of music (country, rock, jazz, etc). Most recording companies will not listen to un-agented submissions. You can get help finding agents at your library, from your librarian. The agent will tell them if they need a demo tape.

Answer 3

They may want to consider to copyright first. It's their song and if it's a hit, they should get royalties. If they sold it, there's nothing to prevent someone else from taking it and making it a really big hit.

Answer 4

To my abilities, Elton John's remake of Candle In The Wind is the best-ever first-rate promoting tune. "Physical" by means of Olivia Newton John stayed at quantity one million a long way longer than 10 weeks.

Answer 5

go into a recording studio.
but this might cost alot.
make sure you really think people will like it and not just be nice about it.