By Aremuorin — Multi-Award-Winning Songwriter, Artist & Producer
Hearing someone’s work doesn’t make it yours. Rearranging it doesn’t make you its songwriter. Access is not authorship.
Creative spaces should be places where ideas are nurtured, skills are developed, and artists feel safe enough to bring unfinished or finished work into the room.
That distinction matters. A creator may bring a completely finished song into a workshop, rehearsal, writing room or other creative environment simply to perform it, explore it, receive feedback, rehearse it or share it. Being given access to somebody’s work is not the same as being given ownership of it.
Creative spaces should never become hunting grounds for somebody else’s material. These principles protect everyone: songwriters, musicians, producers, singers, poets, authors, performers, visual artists and the communities that depend upon creative trust.
Why I Wrote This
This article came from an uncomfortable moment in a songwriting workshop. Someone approached me before performing their song and specifically asked me not to record it.
I respected the request. But I would be dishonest if I said the encounter did not sting.
I have been writing songs since I was seven. I am a multi-award-winning songwriter with a catalogue of more than 1,000 works. I have facilitated and participated in co-writing sessions, and I understand what it means to respect another writer’s authorship. I have no desire whatsoever to take somebody else’s song and present it as my own.
What made the encounter particularly uncomfortable was the wider context. I have been in creative rooms where entire sessions have been recorded without any clear conversation with everybody present about permission. I have co-written material in sessions where, afterwards, I never received the recordings, never saw a split sheet and never had a proper conversation about what would happen to the songs. I have also had people record performances of my own material, join me in those performances, and subsequently place footage online without first asking whether I consented to my song or performance being used that way.
That experience has made me think much more carefully about the standards we apply to one another in creative spaces.
If we are concerned about protecting our work, that concern should not be selectively directed at one person in the room. The standard should apply to everybody: ask before recording, establish what the recording may be used for, document genuine co-writing contributions, agree splits, give accurate credit and obtain the permissions or licences that may be required before exploiting somebody else’s work.
The person who approached me later explained that the concern arose because their work had not yet been registered with PRS. I understood the explanation, but the encounter still raised a larger question for me: what responsibilities do we have as creators before bringing valuable work into communal creative spaces?
Protecting your work is sensible. Asking people not to record is entirely legitimate. But so is creating a culture in which those expectations are communicated consistently and respectfully, without implying wrongdoing by another creator simply because they happen to be in the room.
For me, that is the real issue. I would never knowingly take somebody else’s work and call it mine. I expect precisely the same integrity from anybody who encounters mine.
Creative trust has to work in both directions.
An Arrangement Does Not Make the Song Yours
Suppose somebody brings a song into a creative space and you hear possibilities for it. Perhaps you imagine different harmonies, another rhythm or a great new arrangement. Wonderful. That still does not make the underlying song yours.
If you experiment with somebody else’s work, an arrangement remains an arrangement; it does not automatically make you the songwriter. PRS for Music’s distribution policy reflects that distinction: for an arrangement of a copyright musical work, it does not usually allocate an arranger share unless the interested parties have agreed otherwise.
Respect begins with a very simple conversation: ask.
What Copyright Actually Protects
In the UK, copyright protection arises automatically for original musical, literary, dramatic and artistic works; there is no general copyright-registration requirement. The creator is usually the first owner of copyright, subject to important exceptions such as certain works created in the course of employment and any rights that have subsequently been transferred.
Copyright can cover different layers of a musical project. The underlying song or composition, a sound recording and a performance are not necessarily the same right. Permission to hear or rehearse a song is therefore not a blanket permission to copy, record, distribute, adapt or commercially exploit it.
This article offers general creative-rights information, not individual legal advice.
Hearing It in the Room Doesn’t Mean You Wrote It
Hearing a song for the first time does not make you its writer. Being present when somebody performs an original work does not make you a co-writer. Suggesting an arrangement does not automatically transfer authorship of the underlying composition to you.
Access is not authorship. Exposure is not ownership. Collaboration is not appropriation.
Recording Someone Else’s Work? Ask First
Creatives should also think carefully before recording another person’s original material in a workshop or creative space. If somebody is presenting original work, do not assume that simply being in the room gives you permission to record it.
Ask. This becomes especially important where recordings could leave the room, enter studios, circulate among other artists or become reference material for another project. When creators believe material they share may be taken elsewhere without their knowledge, trust disappears.
When Trust Goes, the Best Work Goes With It
If creators begin believing that bringing original material into an environment means somebody may record it, imitate it, appropriate it or rush away and develop something substantially derived from it, eventually those creators will stop bringing their best work.
Everybody loses. The extraordinary song that might have inspired you stays at home. The unusual melody that might have expanded your musical vocabulary never enters the room. The artist whose creativity might have elevated everybody around them becomes guarded.
Creative communities depend upon trust. Abuse that trust and the very thing enriching the room disappears.
Inspiration Is Not the Problem
We all encounter music, art, literature and people who inspire us. Creativity has always existed in conversation with other creativity. But inspiration and appropriation are not synonymous.
There is a difference between hearing something extraordinary and allowing it to inspire your own creativity, and taking somebody else’s imagination and attempting to make people believe it came from you.
For me, the latter is lowbrow. It lacks wit. It lacks wisdom. It is creatively uninspiring. Quite frankly, I do not want to surround myself with that mentality. When everybody goes left, my instinct has often been to go right. What joy is there in building your creative identity around somebody else’s imagination?
Give Credit. Ask Permission.
If you admire another person’s work, there are honourable ways to engage with it. Tell them. Credit them. Ask to collaborate. Ask whether you may arrange, record or use their work. Where permission or a licence is required, obtain it.
“I love what you’ve created. May I work with it?”
That conversation could lead to something better than either person would have created independently. Trying to be slick is unnecessary.
Before You Take a Song Into the Room
- Keep dated drafts, demos and lyric sheets.
- Retain session files and relevant correspondence.
- Agree genuine co-writing contributions and splits as early as practical.
- Establish whether recording is permitted in the room.
- Document permissions, licences and important agreements.
- Make sure credits accurately reflect who actually created what.
Professional documentation is not hostility towards collaboration. It can make collaboration safer.
My Catalogue Is Not an Open Library
I say all of this both as a matter of principle and from the perspective of a multi-award-winning songwriter with a catalogue of more than 1,000 works.
Those works represent years of writing, recording, experimentation, performance and creative development. The fact that somebody encounters one of those works for the first time does not mean the work appeared from nowhere — and it certainly does not mean it belongs to the person who has just heard it.
I take the authorship and integrity of my catalogue seriously. Where protected elements are reproduced, attributed or exploited without appropriate permission, I reserve the right to protect my work through the appropriate professional and legal channels.
Beyond the potential legal implications, I have not one iota of respect for anyone who knowingly takes another creator’s work and attempts to present it as their own — whether the original creator is living or dead.
If You’re Struggling, Ask for Help
If you are struggling to come up with original material, ask for help instead of clowning.
There is no shame in learning, seeking mentorship, collaborating, being an arranger rather than the songwriter, acknowledging inspiration or giving another creator their rightful credit. The problem begins when somebody wants the credit without having done the creating.
This Is for Everybody’s Benefit
This is not simply about protecting my catalogue. It is for the benefit of everyone and for the workshops, writing rooms, rehearsal spaces and creative communities that depend upon people feeling safe enough to share something precious.
We should want creative environments where somebody can bring an extraordinary piece of work into the room without immediately wondering who has their phone out recording it. Where collaboration means collaboration. Where inspiration remains inspiration. Where an arrangement is acknowledged as an arrangement. Where authorship is respected. And where somebody else’s brilliance encourages you to discover your own.
Protect your work. Respect authorship. Credit your collaborators. Ask permission. Get the appropriate licence where required. Document your creativity.
Get your own. Create your own. Give credit where it is due.
— Aremuorin
Creator Rights: Further Reading
For authoritative UK guidance, see the UK Intellectual Property Office guidance on copyright protection, ownership and using somebody else’s intellectual property, alongside PRS for Music’s distribution policy on arrangements and writer interests.
About Aremuorin
Aremuorin is a multi-award-winning songwriter, artist, producer, performer and writer with a catalogue spanning more than 1,000 works. His multidisciplinary creative practice encompasses music, performance, independent publishing and cultural commentary.
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