Songwriting credit - How to change song...

[Darla F]

My friend who's a singer was working with a musician on some music. They had a band for a few months and then the musician left.

There's a song that the musician came up with a simple piano part for (there aren't even really any chords unless I assign some, it's just single notes repeating except at one place there's a bass note), while my friend came up with lyrics and a melody.

When the musician quit, he wanted to get 50% of the money if the song ever made any money. They parted on bad terms. The guy quit the band by sending an email.

My friend who's the vocalist asked for me to play keyboard for him. I've come up with many different parts that weren't part of the song before and did some recording.

We've kept the repeating piano part in the song for now, but I could easily change the repeating piano part to other notes while keeping the rhythm. This was the only contribution that the ex-band member made to the song.

How much do I need to change the repeating piano part so it's not considered copying what he wrote? Or does the ex-band member have a claim to the song because he was there at the beginning?

Ideally, neither me nor the vocalist want to have to deal with the ex-band member ever again (I've never met the guy, but it sounds like it was a bad situation). There aren't any signed contracts at this point, but not sure how to deal with problems if they come up in the future.

My friend would eventually like to offer the song for sale.

Thanks. I'm in California....

 

[The Occultist]

Any amount of contribution to a work entitles the creator to an equal share of the copyright for that song, and this other musician is correct in that he is entitled to an equal share of all profits that come from the work.

I do not know how much changing must be made, but my guess is you'll just need to come up with a new song altogether. To confirm whether or not this is correct, you'll need to either sit down with an actual attorney (best option), or wait around for more knowledgeable posters than I to offer their insights.