Songwriting vs Lyricism and Composition

When you tell someone in Namibia you are a songwriter, they usually assume you just write lyrics.

A four-line verse here, a two-sentence chorus there, and some chants and ad libs are all they imagine. The technical definition is actually much more interesting.

A songwriter creates both the lyrics and the musical composition of a track. If you only write the words, you function as a lyricist. If you only build the beat or write the melody, you operate as a composer. This distinction matters deeply when it’s time to track down your royalties.

Under copyright law, anyone who makes an original contribution to a song is an author. This includes the main songwriter, the producer and the featured vocalist who wrote their own verse.

Because you all contributed, everyone owns a piece of the copyright.

Yes, that producer or studio operator who adds a few words or melodies during the recording session has a stake in it.

Imagine a live studio session at Mr Ngulo’s place. You are the primary songwriter laying down the main vocal melody.

You sing the line, “Kurukutu, kurukutu, Tate’s Toyota Stout on the gravel road. Omuntele here we come-rukutu”.

A backing vocalist steps up to the microphone, harmonises a minor third above your lead, and then adds a descending counter-melody at the end of the phrase, singing, “My hair is full of dust, I look like a ghost, but I am home, kurukutu-kurukutu!”.

That vocalist did not just perform a part. By creating a new top-line hook and adding those extra words, they legally stepped out of the role of a hired singer and became a co-composer and co-lyricist.

You now have to decide exactly how much of the total composition that specific vocal arrangement is worth.

This omission leaves a massive gap for arguments in the studio. While creatives in other countries have clashed over these details until they developed an understanding on how things should work, Namibia is totally left behind.

Namibians have not clashed enough and even taken any such disagreements to court to force a pronouncement. So here we theoretically adopt the best practices from other countries.

For now, the best advice is to negotiate this yourself. Agreeing on who owns what percentage is called determining your songwriter splits.

You need to document these shares in writing before the song ever reaches Namibian radio stations.

Getting those splits written down is the absolute first step toward earning money when your song is streamed, broadcast or performed.

Without that document, the revenue distribution becomes a messy guessing game.

Sometimes your role goes beyond writing. You might also record the vocals, play an instrument, or engineer the final track.

Taking on these extra duties means you are stepping into additional roles. Each extra job gives you a claim to different types of ownership.

You secure your percentage for writing the actual song, and you secure a separate percentage for the recorded audio file.

We often get caught up in the creative energy of a studio session. Treating your songwriting like a real business is what actually builds a career.

Even though the standard resources give us no perfect formula for dividing ownership, the core message remains solid.

Claim your work, write down the splits early, and make sure your local copyright society knows exactly what you contributed.

The post Songwriting vs Lyricism and Composition appeared first on The Namibian.