Lyricist

A lyricist or lyrist is a musician who specializes in writing lyrics. A singer who writes the lyrics to songs is a singer-lyricist. This differentiates from a singer-composer, who composes the song's melody.

Royalties

A lyricist's income is derived from royalties received from original songs . The royalties may range from 50% of the song if it was written primarily with the composer, or less if the song was founded from a collaboration. Songs are automatically copyrighted as soon as they are in a tangible form, such as a recording or sheet music; but, before a song is published or made public, it should be registered with the Copyright Office at the U.S. Library of Congress to be able to enforce copyright infringement claims in civil court.

Collaboration

Collaboration takes different forms: Some composers and lyricists work closely together on a song, with each having an input into both words and tune. Usually a lyricist fills in the words to a tune already fully written out. Dorothy Fields worked in this way. Lyricists have often added words to an established tune, as Johnny Burke did with the Erroll Garner tune Misty. Some partnerships work almost totally independently, for example, Bernie Taupin writes lyrics and hands them over to Elton John, who then sets them to music, with minimum interaction between the two men.