We've gotten some emails from fans and musicians asking us if we can use their lyrics in songs. Even though we know they mean well, unfortunately the short legal answer is "No." The catch is that if we make the song with your lyrics, then you can claim that we owe you money.
In the music industry, record labels are very picky about "unsolicited" songs for this reason, and usually music needs to go through a lawyer before the label sees it. It's lame, and possibly an outdated model because of social media and user-generated content but that's the way the laws are now. I used to write songs with large workshop groups at anime conventions, and was able to get away with it then because the songs were given away free.
What we are considering as a future workaround for this issue, is drafting our own legal document as a PDF, which will allow fans to solicit music or lyrics to us if they are willing to sign away the copyrights to the songs. That's the only way that we can currently look at fan-submitted music and lyrics. It's ugly, and we truly believe you have benign intentions when sending us ideas, but it also creates a potential legal minefield.
The other option, if you want to be creative is to record your own songs or start your own band. We will be more than happy to help promote any otaku musician, as we've done in the past and will continue to do so. Or, post your lyrics here in the forums as "fan art" and we can feature them on a future Fan Fridays.
We value fan creativity and are flattered by the fact that we're inspiring people to write songs for us. But if this is going to happen at all in the future, then there are strict legal mandates that we need to adhere to.
Thank you!
