Three people in a room. Three different legal claims. One fatal phrase: "sort it later".
Picture a writing session three hours in. In the room: a lead writer, a co-writer, and a producer who built the track from scratch and then added the chord progression that became the hook.
They have something real. Everyone can feel it.
But three people in a room means three different legal claims on what they just made, and the claims are not interchangeable. A songwriter, who contributes melody or lyrics, owns a slice of the composition, so their entitlement is a share of the . A producer, who shapes the recording, owns a piece of that , so their entitlement is "producer points", a percentage of the master . A featured performer, who plays or sings on the track, earns neighbouring rights: paid by broadcasters and venues when is used, collected in the UK via . , master, and performance are three separate rights, and one person can hold more than one, here the producer wrote the hook and produced, so they have a claim on two of them.
Then someone says, "We'll sort the paperwork later, yeah?" and everyone heads home on a high.
That sentence. "sort it later", is where most music money disappears, and the single most valuable thing you can stop a client from saying.