Sometimes disco comes back to haunt you.
A few days ago a music publishing company reached out to me about a song I co-wrote in 1979. (I wrote the lyrics, a colleague wrote the music.) How they found my email address is a story in itself.
They wanted to know if I was the same person who, under an assumed name, wrote four songs for an obscure disco album.
If I was, indeed, the same person who signed a copyright agreement with them, they had something they wished to discuss.
Here comes the interesting part. Some rapper in New York wants to base a new track on the one of the songs I co-wrote. No details, because the publishing company is still negotiating with the rapper's agency, which happens to be one of the biggest in the business.
It's possible the rapper will sample only a few bars of the original, or he may set the lyrics to a completely different tune. I've been asked to submit bank account details for future royalties, should there be any. It's been my experience, in both music and book publishing, that after the agent and publisher have taken their share, the amount of royalties left to split between co-creators is minimal. Sometimes it's less than the bank transfer charges.
Still, if this deal goes through, it'll be fun seeing what a rap artist makes of something I penned forty-five years ago.