Will Elliott Yamin Deal Leave Him as a Forgotten American Idol?

Last week, Elliott Yamin announced on his My Space blog that he had consummated a publishing deal with Sony/ATV Publishing. Elliott’s fans are elated, but is that elation premature? Let’s look at publishing deals in general and what such a deal might mean for Elliott. When Elliott and I talked in October, he was extremely excited about this deal. “I will tell you that we are ‘this’ close to signing off—we just got all the paperwork and a firm offer from Sony Publishing. Sony Publishing wants to get behind my project and give me a publishing deal, which is great. It’s a good start, you know?” Elliott is correct that this is a start for him. How “good” of a start this deal is remains to be seen.

Will Wind Up as Another Forgotten Idol?

Publishing deals are typically offered to songwriters. According to Rob Hassett, an Atlanta entertainment attorney, “Anyone who writes a song (not in the course of employment for someone else) owns the [copyright to] that song. They can take care of registering the copyright and pitching and negotiating rights for the song to be sung by others, used in movies, deal with ASCAP or BMI themselves, license the song to be used for ring tones, etc. or let a ‘publisher’ take care of that.  A publisher will ordinarily do all of that for half the income that may come in.” The interesting aspect of Elliott signing a publishing deal also comes from the conversation we had in October: “As far as my writing, I’m kind of a rookie writer, just kind of starting out and getting used to writing.” So, what does a publishing deal—usually reserved for songwriters—mean to a “rookie” writer? The implications can be many or none. I find it interesting that a publishing company is willing to back the music of a self-described “rookie songwriter” but that a label isn’t jumping all over a singer with a fabulous voice.

Traditionally, music publishers helped to sell sheet music. Sheet music is no longer demanded at its earlier level, though, periodically, companies do release songbooks to the public (www.alankorn.com). Now, publishers help their signed artists through copyrights administration, song licensing, and royalty collection. For example, if an artist writes a song that another artist wants to perform, the performing artist must pay royalties to the writer in order to use the song. David Foster comes to mind as one who likely understands just how lucrative the songwriting business can be. David Foster has written thousands of songs and has worked with artists too numerous to name here. While he obviously does not perform himself, Foster has still been able to carve out quite a living for himself by writing, arranging, and producing songs. Perhaps Elliott is more of a writer than he let on during our interview, and he is poised to make millions as a songwriter. I do know he is quite good at arrangements, and perhaps, arrangements count as writing.

During his run on Idol, Elliott was hands-on in arranging the songs he performed. “Every time we sang a song, we only had about a minute and a half, you know, a minute forty at the most, to really get our songs out. That was a huge part of our rehearsals—cutting the song down to that minute and one-half that we were allowed, so that was a big part. We had everything to do with how that song was going to be arranged. Of course, we had help from Michael Orland and Dorian Holley, the two—the pianist and our vocal coach—or our performance coach, Dorian Holley, and they really helped us cut the song down and gave us great ideas on where to take it, but we ultimately had the ultimate final say-so on how we were going to sing it and present the song on stage.”

We also know that Elliott has written at least one song, the scratch vocals for which he recorded with DJ Lethal prior to the Idols tour. Let us pretend, for the sake of this discussion, that Steven Spielberg hears this song and wants it for the theme song of his next movie. This is where Sony/ATV comes into the picture. They will handle all the negotiations with Spielberg and settle on the selling price for the song. Sony/ATV will collect the payments, and they will pass along to Elliott his share of this sale. In the case of copies of any song(s) sold via downloads and CDs, Elliott will receive what is referred to as the “statutory rate” for each song. According to Alan Korn, an entertainment attorney in Berkeley, California, that rate is approximately $.085 per song. Alan Korn states, “This means that a single song can generate up to $.85 cents for every 10 records sold. Unfortunately, it is record industry custom to pay only 75% of the statutory rate to new or moderately successful songwriters.” I think “new songwriter” best describes Elliott Yamin.

Elliott’s fans should be disappointed in this news, not overjoyed. Elliott belongs on a record label, not with a publishing firm. Until he has amassed a truly impressive catalog of self-written songs, he doesn’t stand to make a lot of money or gain notoriety on this deal, and as with David Foster, writing songs does not ensure that the writer will perform them. A friend of mine, who works with Atlantic Records, believes a publishing deal to be a precursor to a label deal. On the other hand, when I posed that question to Rob Hassett, his response was: “My experience is that when a record company signs a recording artist who writes their own songs, the publishing affiliate will want to sign the artist to a publishing contract because they know that some of the songs are going to be recorded and released and will typically take less than the 50%.” In other words, the label deal typically comes first. Look at Chris Daughtry, for example. Clive Davis signed him shortly after his elimination from Idol. Now, according to Hits Daily Double, BMG Songs has inked a publishing deal with Chris.

So, what’s really going on with Elliott? He recently dropped out of several appearances, one of which meant national exposure for him, and announced his deal on a blog.

Elliott has one of the best voices I’ve heard in a very long time, and with the right music, he could be a huge star. Why he has not yet been signed to a recording contract is a huge mystery to me, especially given that the fourth, sixth, eighth, and ninth place finishers have all been signed to contracts. What’s up with that? Only he, his management, and those closest to him know for sure. I hope that I won’t be sharing Simon’s humble pie for disagreeing with him that Elliott will be forgotten in a year. American Idol contestants are typically overlooked once their fan frenzy dies, which usually happens with the introduction of a new crop. We are one month away from that new crop of Idol contestants. Will Elliott Yamin forever remain a former American Idol contestant? He is scheduled to have a Christmas single out this week and a full album in 2007, though, as far as the public knows, he still has not been signed to a label. He is a very fortunate young man that most of his fans continue to stand by him and wait for news. I hope that Elliott is signed to a label. If he isn’t, it will be a waste of a perfectly good singer whose voice, in all fairness, begs to be heard by the larger world.

Shirley has a bachelor’s degree in Political Science, with an emphasis on Creative Writing, from Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia. She is currently pursuing her Master’s in Public Administration from the University of Phoenix.