There's a person that I used to write songs with. We had a fallout and now we don't even talk to each other. When we parted artistic ways, some 10 years ago, we had an unreleased album, which we recorded at my own expense at my brand-new studio back then.

I left the band and any association with it. I'm not in prom videos or anything. At best, there are very few YouTube or Facebook videos of the old version of his band.

I'm interested in releasing one of the songs we had. It is properly registered at our local PRO, with credits for both as composers with a 70/30 distribution. I own 70% of the song.

The main question is this:

Should I re-record his parts (only vocals) and release the rest of the song?

Of course, I intend to use the ISWC of the song and maintain the credits as they should. I wrote the lyrics, the music, and footed the cost of production. He made the melody and a rap section (which I'm not interested in). A few years ago he contacted me asking for a release document to publish the song under his label I suppose. I demanded to be paid if he wanted to use my work, and that was the end of the conversation. However, now I think the song is so good it deserves to be out there. I'd love to publish it, respect his authorship and remove him elsewhere in the song release.

Related questions:

Should I contact him?
Would I be getting in some legal trouble?
Could I be sued?
Are you in this forum and might give a direct answer?

I gather your thoughts.

Edit: on an afterthought, I could I use my lyrics and write a new music bed, with a fresher melody, though I love the version we did.

 

Last edited: Aug 18, 2023

i think it is worth contacting him in a purely professional manner, if he says no perhaps take out his parts and fill in the gaps? although there is moral/ethical implications
the likelihood of legal action is low, unless you top charts or make a lot of money, or he has the funding for court

 

have you ever seen forum threads where people just *have* to get into some old sessions? They were using a different computer, recording setup, plugins, room. Whatever. The retrieval of the old sessions is "surely the next big hit in there somewhere", and they will do all kinds of frantic and extreme things to find files, reinstall old stuff, etc. And then wether they get their s*it together and back to working, or not; it's still the last thing you ever hear about it?

Me too. I'd give this idea a hard pass.

 

Contact him if you will be using ANYTHING he contributed to the song.
If you do not use anything he contributed to the song, do not contact him.

 

You're for sure not allowed to use his recordings without his permission and if you use his melody you'd have to pay him. My suggestion would be, new vocals, new melody.