The vocal melody and lyrics that sit on top of an instrumental, backing track, or beat. refers to the vocal A succession of single musical notes in an organized manner. and The words written to be performed by singers, rappers, and other vocalists. that sit on top of an instrumental, A sound recording typically used to accompany performers during a live performance. or An underlying musical accompaniment, usually the main accent or rhythmic unit in music.. So, a A songwriter that focuses primarily on writing the vocal melody and, in most cases, also the lyrics of a musical work. is a songwriter who focuses primarily on writing the vocal melody and, in most cases, the lyrics of a An original musical composition with or without lyrics..
Topliners can work in many genres and are skilled at creating catchy melodies and lyrics. These are sometimes called The short, catchy, and often repetitive part of a song..
Copyright ownership for topliners
Topliners and all additional songwriters, such as A composer creates the melodies, chord progressions and other elements of a musical work other than the lyrics., A type of creator that writes the words of a musical work., A type of creator that composes instrumental music, which lays the foundation for new musical works., etc., who make an A creative contribution to a musical work that is sufficiently distinct from any pre-existing musical work contribution to the musical work are considered under National laws that protect creators' and other rights holders' moral and economic rights in musical works, performances, and sound recordings.. Therefore, they can all own a share of the The controls creators or rights holders have over what they have created or produced and over their identity and image. in the musical work; it's like sharing a pie.
Agreeing and properly documenting each author's share, also called Also sometimes referred to as shares, the portion of ownership a rights holder has or the portion of income they are entitled to., is the first step for each author to receive a share of earnings if the musical work is used. Learn more about this in the Songwriter Splits and Registering Musical Works pages.
Topliners that have multiple creative roles
If you are a topliner, you might also have additional roles when writing or recording a musical work, in which case you might also have additional shares in the ownership of that musical work and the Typically, the recorded performance of a musical work protected as a phonogram under copyright law..
Learn more about how this works in the Recording topic. To understand authors' rights in more detail, visit the Music Creators’ Rights topic.
Image Credit: Nils Emil Nylander