Artist contract work refers to specific assignments that artists are paid to do. Painters and other fine artists are regularly hired to do contract work. For example, an artist may be contracted to paint a portrait of a person. In the music business, artist contract work is also common. Song writers are regularly employed by record labels to write songs for other artists on the label to record. Song writers may be hired to write songs that labels will simply keep until they find an appropriate act to perform the works. In other cases, song writers may be hired to work specifically for a recording artist, writing songs for another person's album. In the case of artist contract work, the work is often classified as work for hire, and the creators of the work may not own the copyright to the finished product. Usually, the company who contracts the work owns the copyright to work for hire assignments, though this is not always the case. A songwriter will be paid either a salary, an advance sum, a portion of future profits, or some combination of the three.