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Songwriting Authority covers the craft, business, and history of American songwriting — from chord progressions and lyric fundamentals to music royalties and staff writing deals. This contact page exists for readers who have questions, corrections, or relevant contributions that go beyond what the published reference material already addresses. The scope is focused: songwriting as practiced, studied, and built into a career in the United States.

Service area covered

Songwriting Authority operates with a national US scope, meaning the reference material addresses American songwriting contexts — the Nashville industry, the Los Angeles scene, performing rights organizations like ASCAP and BMI, and the federal copyright framework under Title 17 of the US Code. Questions that fall within those boundaries are the most likely to receive a useful, informed response.

The site covers 3 broad domains, each with distinct depth:

1. Craft — melody, structure, lyrics, hooks, genre conventions, and the technical mechanics of putting a song together
2. Business — publishing, licensing, royalties, pitching, registration, and the economics of the music industry
3. Career and community — education, workshops, competition circuits, co-writing culture, and the working songwriter's path from demo to deal

Questions about international copyright systems, live performance contracting, or recording engineering fall outside this scope. For those, more specialized resources will serve better.

What to include in your message

A clear message gets a faster, more useful response. The difference between a message that gets a substantive answer and one that sits in a queue is almost always specificity.

For factual corrections, include:
- The specific page title and the claim in question
- The source or document that contradicts the published information (named public sources only — industry publications, government databases, PRO documentation)
- A suggested correction if possible

For content gap requests — topics not yet covered or covered too briefly:
- Name the specific subject (e.g., "work-for-hire arrangements in sync licensing" rather than "music business stuff")
- Explain the context, such as whether this is a craft question, a legal framework question, or a career-stage question
- Note whether a related page like song licensing or co-writing songs partially addresses it

For collaboration or contribution inquiries:
- A brief description of relevant background (professional credits, academic work, or industry experience)
- The subject area being proposed
- Whether the contribution involves original research, synthesis of public sources, or firsthand industry knowledge

Messages that arrive without enough context — "I have a question about songwriting" being the classic example — are genuinely hard to route or answer well.

Response expectations

Volume shapes response times more than intent does. Reference sites that cover a topic at depth tend to attract readers at very different points in their journey — a first-time songwriter asking about rhyme schemes and a Nashville publisher asking about mechanical royalties may send messages in the same 24-hour window, and those messages require completely different handling.

What to expect:

What not to expect: legal advice, song critiques, feedback on demos, introductions to publishers or A&R contacts, or help pitching songs. Those services exist elsewhere — a good place to start is songwriting communities and organizations or a songwriting workshop or camp with a critique component built in.

Additional contact options

For readers who prefer to work through published material before reaching out, the frequently asked questions page addresses the most common points of confusion across craft, business, and career topics. The how to get help for songwriting page maps out the broader landscape of resources — workshops, education programs, and professional organizations — that handle the kinds of hands-on, personalized support a reference site isn't designed to provide.

For questions specifically about using AI in songwriting, home studio setup, or songwriting software, those pages tend to answer the most common technical questions without a back-and-forth. Same goes for the business side: music copyright for songwriters and registering a song cover the US Copyright Office process in enough detail that most procedural questions are already addressed.

If a topic genuinely isn't covered anywhere on the site and fits the scope described above, that's exactly the kind of message worth sending.