Split sheet: who wrote what, agreed on day one

When two or more people write a song together, the question of who wrote what is easiest to answer on the day the song is written, and hardest years later. A split sheet is a short document that records the answer.

• The song title (and the working title, if different) and the date.
• Every writer's full name and contact details; if they belong to a collecting society, its name.
• What each person contributed: music, lyrics, or both.
• The agreed share for each writer, adding up to 100%.
• The signature of every writer.

On the day of the session, before anyone goes home. Memories drift further apart with every month.

1. One split sheet per song, and a new one if the writers or the shares change.
2. Keep the signed sheet with the song's other files: demo, lyrics, stems. Which files to keep
3. Send a copy to every writer.

Collecting societies have their own registration forms; a split sheet does not replace them.

A scanned, signed split sheet is a file. With DAS Sound Proof you can record that it existed on a given day, together with the demo and the lyrics: $9 for up to 3 files of one song. The split sheet records what the writers agreed; the timestamp records only when the file existed.

DAS Proof writes a file's fingerprint (SHA-256) into a public XRP Ledger transaction; the file itself never leaves your device. The timestamp shows the file existed in exactly this form no later than a given moment — it does not establish authorship or ownership. Anyone can verify it, free: dataanalyticsystem.com/proof/verify

Related: Our music

Educational content. Not legal advice.