What It Costs to Hire
a Songwriter

What songwriters typically charge

Broad market ranges, not quotes — see the note at the foot of the page.

Rates vary enormously, and the single biggest driver is not the writing itself but what rights and credit you are buying. A flat fee that leaves the writer with no publishing share costs more upfront than a deal where they retain a percentage. Treat these as opening reference points:

Level	Typical range
Entry-level / indie	$100–$300 per song
Mid-level / experienced	$300–$800 per song
Commercial / sync	$500–$2,000+ per project
Major label / placement deals	Negotiated per project

Jingle and brand work usually prices per project rather than per song, and often carries a separate usage or buyout fee depending on where the music will run and for how long. Topline writing over an existing track is generally cheaper than a full song written from nothing.

How to brief the work

Most disputes come from a vague brief rather than a bad writer. Before you approach anyone, be able to answer:

• What exactly are you commissioning? A hook, a topline over an existing instrumental, a full lyric, or a complete song including melody and structure.
• What are the reference tracks? Two or three songs that sound like the target. This communicates more in thirty seconds than a page of description.
• How many revisions are included? Agree a number. "Until I'm happy" is not a scope.
• What is the deadline, and what happens if it slips?

Ask for two samples close to your brief rather than a general showreel. A writer strong in one genre may be ordinary in another.

Splits, credit and ownership

Agree these in writing before any work starts, not after you hear something you like. The three separate questions people tend to blur together:

• Songwriting split — the percentage of the composition each contributor owns. This drives future royalties and is separate from any fee you pay.
• Credit — whose name appears, and where. A ghostwriting arrangement means the writer is not publicly credited, which is entirely legal and common across every genre, but it must be explicit.
• Master ownership — who owns the actual recording, which is a different asset from the song itself.

A flat "work for hire" fee with no ongoing split is a legitimate structure, but it should be stated plainly rather than assumed. Where money is meaningful, have a music lawyer look at the agreement.

What ghostwriting means in music

Ghostwriting is when a songwriter writes lyrics or songs for an artist who releases the work under their own name. It is completely legal, extremely common across all genres, and usually governed by a confidentiality clause alongside the split and credit terms. The writer may still retain a publishing share even without a public credit — that is a negotiating point, not a fixed rule.