Those who write parodies professionally (or semi-professionally)

Do you charge clients by the hour or a flat rate?  (you can say how much, if you want, but you don't have to)

What kind of clients do you have - corporate stuff or private functions (birthdays, etc) or both?

Do you let the client pick whatever song they want, or do you have a catalog of songs they can choose from?

Thank you.

Those who write parodies professionally (or semi-professionally)
Do you charge clients by the hour or a flat rate?  (you can say how much, if you want, but you don't have to)
What kind of clients do you have - corporate stuff or private functions (birthdays, etc) or both?
Do you let the client pick whatever song they want, or do you have a catalog of songs they can choose from?
Thank you.

Does anyone write parodies on request, and is it even possible? I have to wait for inspiration - I can't just sit down and decide I want to parody a song. Although, if you could do it, this might be a great way to make some money.... ::)

I'm not sure there's many professional parodistas here - I've written parodies for specific occasions, but I think my largest payment has been a pint or two.

A friend of mine from my M.I.T. days, Howard Boles, has started a company here in Massachusetts called "Lyrical Edge Productions".  Howard's company produces customized business promotions & entertainment which include song parodies.

Howard and I know each other through the M.I.T. Musical Theater Guild.  Over the years since our days at M.I.T., while I was engaged in my own amateur and professional theatrical pursuits, Howard has been the musical director for numerous theatrical productions around the greater Boston area.

Here is the website for Howard's company:

http://www.lyricaledge.com/pages/2/index.htm

Does anyone write parodies on request, and is it even possible? I have to wait for inspiration - I can't just sit down and decide I want to parody a song. Although, if you could do it, this might be a great way to make some money.... ::)


I have written several with a specific theme requested...though I don't know that I could drop something (in a timely manner, anyway) according to a specific song request.  Unless it was "Luka," which I parody quite frequently in my every day life.

I have written for friends, brothers, and others but I never charged. If I was going to start a business up I would probably say a dollar per parody. But if it was for a friend I would do the usual. Freebie.

My clients are normal people, people in english class (in my teen years), and coworkers.
I sometimes let the client pick the song they want me to parody.
I would say I am a professional parody artist, but not a charging one.


from S.T.G.

J.:
Spaff or Rick are two writers who I can think of who may have sold a parody or two.  Do yourself a favor and copyright whatevery you do - it's only $30.00 and I can't emphasize what a value this is (or could be). 

Anyway, you may want to check radio stations to see if they accept freelance work(s).  You might also want to generate some pr for yourself and send your work to your local newspaper in hopes of a feature piece; a local radio station might also be intinterested something like this.

Outside of pieces I wrote while working as a radio producer, I did sell a performance license for my (copyrighted) parody - "The Ballad of Janet Jackson".  I granted the right to perform (and also change a few words) along with a limited use of "bites" to be used to promote this event the next year (I think).  I'd have to look at the language. 

It's really kind of a personal decision when it comes to payment - if you want the exposure, you might be willing to settle for less.  I'm not a lawyer but I would advise you to make sure you limit the use. 
Later,
bob 

I've only done one corporate job, and I charged by the hour.  And my girlfriend and I collaborated on one for her sister's birthday, which of course, we didn't charge for. 

If I were going to try to do work for paying clients on a regular basis, I'd probably have a reasonably diverse list of songs ready that I felt were relatively easy for me to work with (e.g. NOT 'American Pie' or anything epic like that), and I'd use those as possible suggestions, as well as ask the client if they had any specific song(s) they were interested in using. 

If it's not a friend, I'd definitely charge.  The specific amount you'd probably have to judge depending on how long it'll take you and what they can afford, but get an agreement in advance. 

Also, I don't know how experienced you are at parodies (or if you actually write them yourself at all), but if you're not that experienced, and you want to try to start writing them for other people, you might want to put a few parodies up on the site (if you haven't already) to get some sort of idea of how good you really are.  You can't necessarily rely on your friends -- they may be honest with you... or they may not.

::) 

But everyone's opinion has to be taken with a grain of salt anyway, so gather opinions, but in the end, you ultimately have to just be honest with yourself.

I realize now that I've answered you assuming you're interested in doing this, as opposed to asking out of casual interest.  If you're just asking out of curiosity, you can disregard most of what I've said.  And if you're interested in doing this professionally... you can disregard most of what I've said.  Because, what do I know?

???

Does anyone write parodies on request, and is it even possible? I have to wait for inspiration - I can't just sit down and decide I want to parody a song. Although, if you could do it, this might be a great way to make some money.... ::)

Gonfonko - I've written a couple parodies after someone suggested a topic on a few occasions, but merely for our mutual amusement and just to see if I could do it.  Yeah,  it can be done...maybe not always, though...I used to write poems & occasional parodies for people I worked with a few years back - well before I discovered this site, so that was where I picked up the knack...No, I've never tried to make money at writing parodies...only a couple of folks are really that good and I don't think there is a huge, burgeoning market out there clamoring for them...I've noticed that "non-parody" people just kind of look at you strange and remember they had something else to do when you want to show them your pride and joy creations...so I try to keep that in mind now...

The best course, in my always most-humble opinion,  is to write for your own enjoyment/amusement and share what you think is good and funny with others of a like-mind (a good reason to post your works here on 'amiright.com')...you can get positive feed-back, encouragement, occasional constructive-criticism (which is useful if you take it as such instead of getting defensive), and a lot of just-plain fun & funny remarks and comments to savor the next day or so...not such a bad deal - and free, to boot!


Paul Robinson

Thank you to everybody who answered!  I have been trying to get my son interested in setting up a business.  He has sold some funny songs to small business owners I know to use for advertising or personnel training and things like that.  But I have been trying to get him to do more of it.  Thank you.

now i would like to know where small business owners interested in parodies can be found since i certainly don't know any.

I see that RJP gave me a shout-out on this thread, so in case anyone was wondering...

Robert Lund makes his living as a salaried employee of a family of radio stations. He records morning-show promo spots, radio ads, miscellaneous musical filler stuff, etc., along with DJ stints and the occasional song parody. So I guess you could say that he makes money from parodies, but they're really just part of his day job.

He puts out the occasional CD, like, ahem, Elves Gone Wild! - but I know for a fact that the "profits" on those are meager, since I (as the lyricist on some of the songs) share in the meagerness. I've said this elsewhere, but if you take the amount of money I've made from parody writing and divide it by the number of hours I put into it, I'd be far better compensated for sweeping the Wal-Mart parking lot. (And I doubt that their Employee Of The Month contests would be as bloody competitive as Amiright's.)

The bottom line (for me, anyway) is that it's soooooo not about the money. It's about getting comments from random netizens like "This song rockxz!!!!!!" or, alternately, "Your crap crap crap crapper than crap."

xoxox
Spaff

I told you Spaff would know.  Also I agree with the parody master - for me it's the challenge of creating something that I like and comments (pro and con) from the great writers on this site that drive me - the comments certainly help me to become a better writer.  At the time that I discovered I was a victim of copyright infringement, I was sick to my stomach over the fact that my work was taken as ownership by someone other than me - I can't tell you how much that bothered me.  Again, had my work been copryighted at the time, I could have been granted $150,000 per infringement - and my lawyer believed that allegedly there were several.  You may find this hard to believe, but to this day (while richness would be nice), the parody was originally written for pure enjoyment and not for maketability.  (Spaff might even be able to back me up on this.)
Later,
bob

(Spaff might even be able to back me up on this.)


Got yer back there, Bob, on your writing-for-fun-not-profit claim. As for the value of going through the cost and red tape of registering a copyright, I see it as a cost-vs-risk decision that everyone has to make.

A similar discussion, dear reader, is also going on here:
http://www.inthe00s.com/index.php/topic,7259.0.html

xoxox
Spaff

Lets not forget the strength-in-numbers factor. I think that it is far less likely that someone with criminal/profit intent would steal someone elses parody from a clearly stated parody site like AmIright than from the personal home page of John Doe.

Also, it is IMHO less likely that someone would steal a parody from someone here who´s made a name for him-/herself and regularly recieves lots of comments on their parodies, than that someone would steal a parody from John Newbie Doe that posted two parodie two years ago, recieved two votes, both 222:s, and were never heard of again.

Then again, why anyone should wanna steal those two parodies is beyond me!

But all this goes to say that the more we comment on each others parodies and the more we highlight our really good stuff by entering it in the montly competiton the more we help each other to protect our rights.

K1chyd:
I don't agree with that.  I know one case on this site that would surprise you.  There are professional media people out there who believe that anything on the Internet is fair use.  Additionally, what makes you think that John Newbie Doe's first parody couldn't be a home run?  While I respect the work and feedback from so many on this site, this is just a small audience; and it may not be my target audience.  What doesn't play in Peoria might be playing in LA.  And, there are several people on this site who are more talented than those who do this type of writing professionally; even a stolen idea is an infringement.  Plagiarism is rampant.

About ten years ago, I wrote an obituary for the newspaper I wrote for in Albany, the rival paper (printed in the afternoon) ran the same obituary word for word - one paragraph was omitted from theirs because I used quotes from an interview this guy did with a reporter from our paper many years prior.  I called the other paper and asked to speak to the person who wrote the obit - told them I thought it was a great piece of writing.  The person thanked me, took the credit, and even said she was really trying to capture his life so that others reading it would feel like they were reliving his life.

Later,
bob

P.S. When my last name is run through spell check, "plagiary" comes up as the first choice of alternatives. Hmmmm.

What an interesting discussion.  I guess these types of plagiarism issues wont really come up if youre writing for business clients, since their use is so specialized.  And I guess, once the client pays you for the parody, they own it anyway.

To the guy who wanted to know where to find small business owners, I'm sure there must be some in your town.  Just show them what kind of stuff you do.  One of my sons clients used it for his holiday greeting card.  I guess really what he does aren't really parodies, they;re really just humourous songs based on other tunes.

Jon, you might also want to read up on "work for hire" laws.
Later,
bob

...what makes you think that John Newbie Doe's first parody couldn't be a home run?...


If you´re at an office party, gets a little drunk together with your peers and suddenly cracks the most brilliant fart joke in history, and there´s an internal webcam on for those who are sick at home, and that fart joke somehow makes it way out in the world and two weeks later gets told on Conan, Jay or David, would you sue for copyright infringement? Would you use the film to prove you´re right? Should you?

Well, I guess that you actually could, just to get your 15 minutes of fame, a little money and a shot at a career. But unless you were able to back yourself up with more material, would it be worth it?

But I see your point. And considering the litteral (yes, two t:s) quality of many hit songs today ("Call on me" anyone?) I´d say that John Doe´s work has a greater chance to be a Top List Hit somewhere in the world than almost anything from anyone here who regularly places in the upper half of the monthly competitions and that if that happens John Doe should get credit for it.

It might even be that writing too good here makes it less likely to be picked up and signed as a professional artist or text writer for company artists in general. What record company hires people that have proven that they have an above average brain and an attitude when they can get hormon rushed teenage girls in their not-a-girl-not-yet-a-woman phase that they can boss around during the first three albums?


...this is just a small audience; and it may not be my target audience...

It´s still an audience, and publishing your stuff here is still one way to make sure you put a copyright symbol on it. Whether or not it is THE BEST way is still an open question.

But for the sake of argument, I still think that having made a name for yourself here is an important factor. What are the odds of a John Doe lyric being stolen to appeare on a big marketed album compared to the odds of a Spaff or Claude or Philbo lyrics having the same thing happen to it?


...even a stolen idea is an infringement. Plagiarism is rampant...



And these are the changing times of the internet. One of the most interesting phenomenons in the world right now is the birth and growth of the pyjamahedin movement. OK, so it originated as a political thing but that only goes to prove what John Does with keyboards can accomplish when it comes to digging up facts without actually having to travel physically and spend weeks in dusty old archives.

No infringement law, incantation or pentacle ever kept the strong from the week. But like I said in my previous post, there´s strenght in numbers. AmIright is like a public think tank institution. John Doe with his personal site in the dark alleys of the internet is more likely to be robbed than what anyone here publishing regularly and regularly recieving good votes and comments are.

I don´t wanna disencourage anyone here from having their stuff copyrighted in a juridical way, it might be a good idea, it might also be just the equivalent of putting a second spare tire in the trunk of your car for the trip to the mall.


...there are several people on this site who are more talented than those who do this type of writing professionally...

Amen to that, brother!