Nashville is one of the only places on earth where you can make a living writing songs you will never perform. The staff songwriter arrangement that defines Music Row exists almost nowhere else in the music industry, and understanding it explains why Nashville’s creative ecosystem works the way it does.
The Basics of the Deal
A staff songwriter is not actually a staff member in any traditional employment sense. The term “staff writer” doesn’t appear in the contract. A staff writer is not an employee of the publishing company to which they are signed. They’re not required to work at the publisher’s offices and don’t receive a salary, nor are they entitled to employee benefits such as health insurance.
What they do receive is a “draw”, a monthly advance against future royalties. For “baby writers” in Nashville, advances range from as low as $15,000 annually to $30,000-$150,000 depending on the publisher’s confidence level, paid out in monthly installments. That $15,000 deal works out to $1,250 a month before taxes, not a comfortable living by any measure, but enough to write full-time without a day job.
In exchange, staff songwriters typically sign a one- to five-year contract to write exclusively for a publisher and grant them 25 to 50% of the royalties earned on the songs written during that time period.
The Quota System
Publishers aren’t paying writers to sit around. Staff writers are contractually required to deliver a minimum number of songs referred to as their quota. In Nashville, the quota is most often defined as the number of songs that must be turned in, ten, twelve, or fifteen songs might be the quota if the songs were written solo.
The co-writing culture complicates this. If a song is a 50/50 co-write, it counts as half a song toward your quota. A three-way split counts as one-third. This pushes writers toward productivity, not just quality.
What the Publisher Actually Does
In exchange for their share of royalties, the publisher provides infrastructure that a solo writer couldn’t afford. They pay for demo recordings, the professional “showcase” recordings that pitch songs to artists. They employ songpluggers whose entire job is placing songs with artists, labels, producers, managers, and anyone else who might get a song in front of a recording artist. They connect staff writers with co-writing sessions with more established writers and recording artists.
The logic is symbiotic: the publisher only makes money when songs get recorded and played on radio. Their financial interest aligns with the writer’s career interest.
The Recoupment Trap
The draw is an advance, not a gift. In the event the contract expires and sufficient royalties have not been generated for the publisher to recoup the advance, the writer is not required to repay the money unless stated otherwise. But unless otherwise specified in the contract, the songs delivered during the contract period remain in the publisher’s catalog.
This is the deal’s sharpest edge. A writer who produces 40 songs during a two-year deal but doesn’t generate enough royalties to recoup still loses those songs. The publisher keeps them in perpetuity and can pitch them to artists for decades.
How Hard These Deals Are to Get
There are far more songwriters than publishing deals to go around. Publishers deal with hundreds of pitches. What separates the signed from the unsigned is almost always demonstrated co-writing relationships, a track record of commercial songs, and existing connections within the publisher’s network.
The NSAI’s advice is direct: publishers cannot take unsolicited material from someone they don’t know or that they didn’t request due to legal issues. Every successful approach to a publishing deal happens through existing relationships, co-writes with signed writers, industry events, years of showing up at the right venues and building credibility before the ask.
Staff Deals in 2025
The landscape has shifted significantly from the 1990s, when Nashville had 200+ publishers with robust staff writer rosters. Streaming compressed royalty rates. Modern hits typically have three or more co-writers, each with smaller percentage stakes. The “track guy” (a producer who builds the instrumental arrangement and earns a songwriting credit) became a third party in most modern publishing deals.
Publishers like Sony Music Publishing Nashville, Warner Chappell, and Big Machine Music remain active in signing new writers. Ashley Gorley, perhaps the most sought-after hit-maker in Nashville, recently notched his 55th No. 1, a reminder that at the top of the system, staff writing still creates careers of staggering commercial reach. At the entry level, it’s a grind that requires patience, thick skin, and willingness to give up significant ownership of your work in exchange for the platform to reach a wider audience.
The deal has flaws. But Nashville built a global music industry on it.
Sources:
- BMI MusicWorld, “Staff-Writing: What It Really Means and How to Get a Deal”: https://www.bmi.com/news/entry/staff-writing-what-it-really-means-and-how-to-get-a-deal
- Royalty Exchange, “The Songwriter and Music Publisher Relationship: Part II”: https://royaltyexchange.com/blog/the-songwriter-and-music-publisher-relationship-pt-2
- Victoria Banks, “What the Heck is a Staff Songwriter?”: https://www.victoriabanks.net/blog/blog/what-the-heck-is-a-staff-songwriter
- NSAI FAQ Page: https://www.nashvillesongwriters.com/faq-page
- NSAI, “Are you ready for a pub deal?”: https://www.nashvillesongwriters.com/are-you-ready-pub-deal
- Billboard, “Publishing in Country Music”: https://www.billboard.com/h/publishing-country-power-players-2024/