The dirty tricks artists can pull on their songwriters
Songwriters have long been stifled by the music industry. Now, a group of campaigners called The Pact are demanding they be heard
9 April 2021 • 5:42pm
Elvis Presley's manager would insist that the singer also be credited as a songwriter
Credit: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
There’s a fair chance you’ve never heard of Joel Little or Amy Allen or Ross Golan or Emily Warren or Victoria Monet. But you’ll almost certainly have heard one of their songs.
Last week, these songwriters – whose pop star clients and collaborators include Ariana Grande, Dua Lipa, Harry Styles and plenty more – broke cover to publish an open letter that’s since been signed, the group says, by more than a thousand other writers. The group is operating under the name ‘The Pact’, and the terms are simple: they’re not going to give songwriting credit to artists who haven’t made a contribution to the writing process.