American Society of Composers Authors and Publishers

Hit Songwriting Secrets (not!)

Posted on by IJ

I spend a lot of time perusing the internet for other songwriting news, tips, ideas, etc., in part for my own curiosity, and also because of the articles I write for Muse’s Muse and those I post here.

American country musician Taylor Swift perform...
American country musician Taylor Swift performing live. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

One phrase that always makes me laugh is “songwriting secrets”…whether they are pitching a book or some kind of one-on-one session with you as a songwriter, or maybe they’re just trying to get you to sign up to their website so that they have your email address so they can spam with you with stuff later on;  the idea that there are secrets to songwriting that no one else knows is FALSE!

Why?  Because the songs that are successful are not secrets at all!  They are out there on the radio, on iTunes, on videos and CDs for you to listen to, analyze, reverse engineer and learn from.  If your ambition is to write a hit song, you have literally hundreds of thousands of hit songs out there at your disposal to teach you, they are not secret at all.

So how do you learn from them?  This is the the real “secret”.  What is it about a song that makes it successful?  Studying different hit songs, what they are comprised of and how every part works together, you will get a better sense of what makes it successful.

So let’s get to the songwriting first.  Some will tell you that there’s a secret “formula” to hit songwriting…for instance, always have a particular number of verses, always keep the intro short, always write in the first person, come up with a title first…etc., etc.  Don’t “always” do anything;  each song has its own personality and if you’ve already written a few of them, you know what I mean.  Do you use the same chords every time?  The same form or subject matter?  Of course not.  The only formula you need is to make it good, and “good” is a very subjective thing.  If you listen to the top ten pop hits right now on Billboard, (or country, or any other chart for that matter) you’ll discover a few things.

They don’t necessarily conform to any one key or song form (although as far as subject matter, when I checked Billboard for the most recent top 10 pop hits they were pretty much all about love/lust or breakups/relationships!), but they do use certain techniques to keep the listener hanging on.  Sometimes those elements are simply the recording and production itself, sometimes they are the way the verses and chorus (and/or pre-chorus) relate to each other, sometimes the lyrics and/or music are really catchy.  And often it’s simply the artist or band that has such a huge following, almost anything they do will become a hit.  If your ambition is to write a hit song, then your job is to study what’s out there and come up with something better!   Easier said than done, I know.

But lets back off the actually writing for a bit and consider what else makes a song a hit.  First of all, many songs that you hear are not necessarily “great”, but they make it to the charts because of the artist or band, as I mentioned earlier.  If these artists and bands don’t write their own material, who does?  A lot of them get their songs from their record label, who may have their own writers or have a publishing branch.  Quite often, the same circle of songwriters write a lot of the songs you hear…particularly in country and pop.   You can find out yourself by checking out the BMI or ASCAP records (or whichever performing rights organization exists in your country).  These P.R.O.’s have search able records online, so there’s no secret there either.

So, okay, a lot of it is who you know, in which case, part of your job as a potential hit songwriter, after you’ve come up with some great songs, is getting to know people.   Go to music centres like Nashville or Los Angeles or New York, research publishers who might be interested in your style of writing.  Join organizations that can help you like N.S.A.I. or songwriting associations that give workshops in all areas of the craft and business.  Be prepared to keep learning, learning, learning.  Hang on to your day job and save money for these ventures.  When you meet people who can help you, be polite, don’t shove your CD in their pocket, ASK first.

You also need to be patient.  I met a guy once who wrote his first ten songs and immediately went to Nashville to pitch them.  He was so sure that’s all he had to do…but when he got there he learned pretty quickly that he had spent nowhere near enough time on the writing part before he did the pitching part.  It was a huge reality check. That’s a true story. So remember to use your head and do everything in the right order!

The recent stories about Taylor Swift’s success are interesting because on her earlier releases she co-wrote a lot of material,  but on her most recent release “Speak Now” she wrote every single song herself.  She’s young and she’s smart, getting the experience she needed under her belt first by co-writing.  Co-writing is a “given” in the pro songwriting community…a lot of the songs you hear are written by more than one person, so you should consider doing that yourself too.  Chances are that if you get anywhere near working for a record label, you’ll be thrown into situations where you’ll have to write with someone you don’t know.  And if you’re a singer/songwriter and hoping to make it as an artist, you might take a cue from Taylor.  Don’t assume you know everything…you don’t!

There are no secrets to hit songwriting any more than there are secrets to any kind of success.  It comes down to the same things, whether you want to be a great chef, a successful financier or a best-selling author:  hard work, determination, patience, some talent and a little luck.  Shhhh…don’t tell anybody! 🙂

IJ

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    Don’t Digg Baloney

    Posted on by IJ



    As part of my research for writing this blog, writing my column for the Muse’s Muse and Twittering about songwriting tips, I tend to spend a lot of time online looking at other songwriting websites and blogs.

    Digg, Inc.
    Image via Wikipedia

    What I’ve noticed is that people mean well, but sometimes they are giving incorrect information or selling something as a “how to” write something, when it is clearly just “my way”.  It’s hard for a beginner songwriter especially to know what is true and what is simply someone’s opinion.

    For instance, I read a blog just recently that stated that in a chorus, you must have two distinct phrases and then they should repeat.  The blogger also stated that you should also have the hook in the chorus.  Well, the truth is that this is not always the case!  You could simply go through a list of your favourite songs and find that most don’t follow these so-called “rules”.  Now this person is probably just trying to be helpful, but it would have been better for him to say:  “this is one way you might write a chorus”.  And that would be helpful!  And where did I find this tip for writing “better” songs?  On Digg.com.  That means that people are reading these blogs and deciding that they are important enough to digg them and pass them on to others.

    Please do not take ANYONE’s tips (not even mine!) as gospel.  They should simply be thought of as one approach to your songwriting.  You should always be suspicious of someone who tells you “THIS is how you write a song.”  The internet is full of information, but you have to decide for yourself if the information is valid or simply someone’s idea of the truth.


    Research.  Some will make statements that simply aren’t true, or use incorrect terminology or musical references.  There are legitimate sources for information on musical terms and music theory, for instance.  Find out what they are and double check when you’re not sure of something.

    More is better.  If you see the same tip in more than one place, it’s probably because it’s a good tip.

    Trust your gut.  If something doesn’t seem right to you, ignore it.  If it seems ridiculous, it probably is.

    Everybody thinks they can tell you how to write a song.  Listen to their work if they have any online before you decide if they are worth paying attention to.  Check their references.  When they claim that they can guarantee you’ll write a hit, email and ask them to list their hits!  You can go to websites like BMI and ASCAP and check their names.  Have they even REGISTERED a song, let alone written a hit?

    And last, but certainly not least, do not give money to someone before you have thoroughly researched their legitimacy.  I had a guy who sent me a letter from Nashville EVERY YEAR for 10 years, telling me how he was going to get my song (which he would incorrectly name every time!) to top artists in Nashville for the measly sum of several hundred dollars.  I laughed and dumped it in the recycling box every year.  I’m nobody.  Why would he want my song so badly?  Because he didn’t!  He wanted my MONEY so badly :-).

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    Songwriting Topics Poll

    Posted on by IJ

    © I.Woloshen

    I did a little survey on the BMI website (of which I am a member), just to see how many people used certain words in their titles. The fact is that you can’t copyright a title, so if you wanted to write a song called (gag) “I Love You”, you could certainly do that, provided you don’t plagiarize someone else’s song. Now don’t get mad at me if you’ve actually written a song called “I Love You” 🙂

    Do you want to guess how many songs are listed in the BMI catalog with just that title? 2,304. I’m asking myself, do people think that this is an original title?!?! There are probably many others in the ASCAP catalog, even more in other countries, and probably ten times that many that have never even been registered! I picked two other titles I thought were obvious…well, these weren’t quite as common. The title “I’m Alright” had 70 entries, but “You’re The One” had 619!

    Next, I decided just to use single words…I picked some random ones, and here’s what I came up with:

    You (or) I – so many titles I had a runtime error!
    Love – 31,404
    Me – 25,014
    Don’t – 23,943
    When – 19,176
    Why – 7,291
    Life – 5835
    Time – 7778

    And then I picked some odd words…even they had entries!

    Dog – 1302
    Spoon – 101

    There are 101 registered titles with “spoon” in them???? 🙂

    Try it yourself…go to the BMI website (link above) and type in a few of your most recent titles 🙂 Think they were pretty original? Ha! I found one of mine that was all by its lonesome…”Fusion and Fire”. I thought that was pretty unique and I was right, at least in BMI’s database.



    So let’s talk about titles for a moment. What’s so important about a title? Well, I guess in some ways that’s up to you. Sometimes you write lyrics where the title jumps out and you and seems pretty obvious. A lot of people use the “hook” line as a title. Sometimes, there is no obvious title…recently someone asked a question on my forum about the importance of titles in instrumental songs. What do you think? I occasionally use less obvious words or phrases for my titles because I like the sound of them…I will never use something that isn’t actually in the song somewhere. As far as I’m concerned, I want people to remember the names of the songs I play. You improve your chances of that when the title is actually in the song!

    But this article is meant to be about topics. I would venture to guess that the most common topic is love, or some aspect of it. Most of the songs I review tend to involve this topic. So if you don’t want to be like everyone else, what else can you write about?

    I was watching a series on Mark Twain the other night, and one thing that was mentioned was that he was most successful when he drew from his childhood experiences to come up with some of his stories. Do your songs have to be about you? Of course not. When we’re first starting out, the majority of us tend to write about ourselves…songwriting CAN be a rather self-indulgent form of expression. But you can use your past experiences, which are “truths”, to embellish your lyrics in a more universal way. Remember, “truths” in songwriting are very powerful. When you express something that is a common truth, people pick up on that. I once wrote a song called “One More”, which was really about a personal experience I had with the death of a friend. I get a lot of response from that song when I perform it, or when people hear it on my CD. I must have found a few universal truths when I was writing it that people can relate to.

    Where can you find new and interesting topics? Well, if your past or your own experiences are not full of potential songs, what about the people around you? Their experiences may also be a source of ideas for you. Just make sure you discuss it with them, or at least make it anonymous enough so they don’t know it’s about them!! Beyond that, there are stories in newspapers, books and magazines. I wrote a song based on a true story that was on a television magazine-type of show…I didn’t write it immediately after, the but the story moved me so much that it stuck with me.

    From the sounds of it, I’m trying to encourage you to write “story” songs. You can use the emotional impact of a story, or isolate small parts of it and only write about that. I have explained this in other articles, but the best songs require a beginning, a middle and an end. Sometimes people think I mean they have to be stories, but that’s not what I mean! I mean that the song has to feel like it makes sense, that it has a beginning, and one verse (one thought) leads to another and then it resolves itself, even if just to say nothing is ever going to be resolved. Does this make sense? In many song lyrics I read, the verses could be all swapped around and it wouldn’t make any difference to the song…whereas a song lyric that is well-written has every verse exactly where it makes sense, and would be ruined if any of them were changed around. THAT’S what I mean. Recently, a fellow who’s song I actually PRAISED for having a beginning, middle and end, told me to read it again! He didn’t get what I meant, and I probably didn’t explain myself well enough 🙂

    Beyond this, you can write about places, spiritual things, or how much your job is a pain in the ass…hell, you could write a song about dancing! Of course it’s been done before…they ALL have, but not with your voice. The fact is that song topics are everywhere around you, and only you can express them in a certain way. And that is the most important point. If we sat down and listened to every single one of those 2,304 songs called “I Love You”…I wonder how many of them would use exactly the same phrases?? So even if you choose to write a love song, remember to write it with your unique songwriting “voice” and stay away from those old, worn out lines and expressions that we’ve all heard a thousand times before.

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    Publishing – A Brief Beginner’s Guide

    Posted on by IJ

    © I.Woloshen

    First of all, I want to emphasize the fact that my experience with publishing has to do with having my music on television series, which is different in some ways from having a song contracted to a publisher. Most of what I’ve learned has been through connections with other published writers or publishers themselves. But I do occasionally get emails asking what publishing deals are, or how to “sell” their songs (you don’t outright sell your songs, but more on that later)…and of course most people are curious as to how they can get a deal! Let’s start at the very beginning and discuss what exactly it is. Warning: Music biz lingo ahead! I’ll try to explain the terms that may be unfamiliar to you.

    First of all, let’s discuss what a publisher does. A publishers’ main job is to create a catalogue (collection) of songs that they can pitch (promote) to artists or producers, anyone who might potentially get a song recorded or on a project. Larger publishers are often also connected with, or even a branch of, a record label. Kind of an “all in one” package. In this case, if a performing songwriter is signed to a label, her/his songs are usually published through that record label’s publishing branch.

    But many publishers are strictly in the business of creating their catalogue in the hopes of getting one or more of their songs on a hit record. Why? Because part of the money that is made from a successful recording goes to the publisher. This is how it works:

    When a song gets on the radio it earns royalties. You’ve probably heard the word “royalties” before. Simply speaking, the song being “exposed” to the public in some way, either on radio or television, in a restaurant…wherever you hear music publicly, earns money. Any company or organization that uses music in some way as part of their business, has to pay a lump sum fee to a “performing rights organization” such as SOCAN, ASCAP, or BMI…every country has its own performing rights organization (PRO). This PRO collects information on when a song was played and how much, and distributes this money to its members (publishers, songwriters, etc.). The more exposure a song gets, the more money the publisher (and songwriter) makes. Bingo.

    For the songwriter, the advantage to having a song with a publisher is that the publisher will hopefully have some good music business connections and will work hard to get the song on an artists’ recording. They are interested in finding great songs! This is where you come in because you’ve got the great songs! But how do you find the publishers? How do they know about you?

    One book I recommend you get yourself is called Songwriters’ Market. Check your local bookstore, or buy it online from any number of online sites, including mine. Not only does it go into detail as to what a songwriter can do to get her/his song heard by publishers, but it actually lists names and addresses of publishers to send your songs to! There are articles written by people in the business and it gives you some standards to adhere to as far as looking and sounding professional (very important!) This book is a great place to start gathering information on the business side of songwriting.


    How do you get a deal with a publisher? Well, first of all, let’s discuss what a publishing deal is. There are basically two types of deals: a single song deal and a writer’s deal. The single song deal is easier to get, and simply involves signing only one of your songs with a publisher. The writer’s deal is extremely difficult to get…this involves essentially working for a publisher where the rights to all of the songs you write during this tenure are assigned to them. You do get paid, but only as an advance on potential future royalties. In other words, your songs have to eventually make money or they’ll dump you! These days a writer’s deal is even MORE difficult to get. Many labels and publishers are doing the ol’ “downsizing” and employing fewer writers.

    So let’s assume that you’re only looking for a single song contract. You make your list of publishers to send your demo tape to, you ship them off and you wait. You get a call from a publisher (hey, if that happens the FIRST time you send your song out, consider yourself either LUCKY or an incredible, undiscovered writer!!). The publisher says he’s interested in the song and thinks he can pitch it to an artist who’s in the studio right now and looking for more songs to consider recording. What happens next? The publisher sends you a contract, you are hopefully smart enough to take it to an entertainment lawyer (!!), you decide it’s a good deal, you sign the contract, and voila! You have a publishing deal. Does this mean that the money starts rolling in? NO! The contract only gives the publisher the right to exploit the song for a period of time. “Exploit” seems like a dirty word, but it is the term used for trying to get a song heard. If during that period of time nothing comes of it, the contract runs out and the deal is off. That’s it.

    If, however, the publisher manages to get someone interested in your song…what happens next? Does this mean the money starts rolling in now? NO! The producer/artist/record label has simply put the song on “hold”. A hold means that the publisher promises not to pitch the song anywhere else until the artist/producer, or whoever, decides if they want to use it. It sits in limbo until the decision is made one way or the other. If they decide to record it, you’re in business! Does this mean the money starts rolling in? Not yet. Once the song is on a CD and then manufactured, the first money you’ll see is a part of the mechanical royalties. Usually there is a contract between the writer/publisher and record label or artist for these royalties. The last I heard, mechanical royalties are just a little over 7.5 cents per CD. If they manufacture 10,000 CD’s, you’ll get a part of $750.00. In some cases, the publisher splits that with you. Doesn’t sound like much, does it?

    What about radio airplay? Since most royalties come from that, you’d be really interested in your song getting on the radio, wouldn’t you? But that only happens if your song is chosen as a “single”. The record label decides which songs would be good as singles, songs that are chosen to represent the CD. If your song is not chosen as a single, you won’t see much in the way of royalties, certainly not to begin with. OH, it’s a long and complicated process, isn’t it? 🙂

    Next, if the song DOES get some airplay, eventually you might see some royalties. Might? Well, you have to get a LOT of airplay for your song to be noticed. In Canada, where I live, radio stations send in a sample log to SOCAN (the PRO) once a month. What’s a log? It’s a stack of papers that show the songs and commercials and everything that was broadcast on that station for a day. The log that they send in has to have your song on it, in other words, it had to be played on that radio station that day for it to even show up as having had airplay. If your song played the day BEFORE, well, you’re outta luck! Doesn’t sound very promising, does it? Sometimes it takes months for a song to catch onto the listeners out there…sometimes a radio station will give up on it long before that. Not only that, but politics are involved. Record labels work hard at convincing radio stations to play their artists latest recording, but the programming managers at the station have to like it. Arrgghhh….! Let’s get back to the publishing deal…

    All single-song contracts should have what is called a “reversion clause” written into it. Be aware of this! A reversion clause means that after a period of time (could be 6 months, could be two years) if the publisher is unsuccessful in exploiting your song, you get the publishing rights to the song back. Then you start all over. There are many songwriters out there with single song contracts, getting the song on a recording is much more difficult. A lot of publishers these days are working on getting songs placed in movies…this is another way for the song to earn money. Although movie theatres do not pay royalties like radio or television stations do, the song would be recorded on the soundtrack as part of the movie promotion. Just about every movie has a soundtrack these days! Getting your song on a television show is another way that you can earn royalties. I wrote music for several television series’…everytime that music plays, I get royalties! The beauty of my situation is that I am my own publisher, so the most I end up doing is paying a part of the publisher’s portion of the royalties to the producers of the series. This is a slightly different situation than the publishing deal you’re likely in search of. But as you can see, there are all kinds of possibilities out there.

    Some things to be aware of:

    If a so-called “publisher” asks you for money to record your song, or for any other reason…RUN THE OTHER WAY. This is NOT what a legitimate publisher will do. You should NEVER pay money to a publisher for anything! If they want to re-demo the song, they will do it themselves.

    If a publisher wants to “buy” the rights to your song…again, RUN THE OTHER WAY. A legitimate publisher knows that you can’t buy people’s rights from them. It is not done. Well, maybe in some countries, but don’t be fooled!

    Most publishers listed in Songwriters Market are legitimate…occasionally you’ll come across one that isn’t. How do you know? When they start making all kinds of promises to you. The old saying “If it sounds too good…” you know the rest. For the most part, it is not in a publishers’ best interest to start a bad reputation! They want to develop a good relationship with you, one that will benefit everyone.

    Most publishers will want ALL of the publishing rights to your song. You may have heard of situations where songwriters own some of their own publishing. They are usually well-established songwriters who have a little more clout and can negotiate these kinds of deals. In the beginning, expect to compromise to some extent. Do you want a deal, or would you rather not? This is often what it comes down to. Later on, when you’re a famous writer 🙂 you can get yourself a better deal!

    Is a publishing deal all it’s cut out to be? That’s up to you. In my case, I’m a performing songwriter and not as anxious to get published because I perform them myself. That doesn’t mean I won’t in future, but for now, it’s not in the cards. If you are not a performing songwriter, the only way you’re going to get your songs heard is by somebody else performing them. You may be able to find a group or an artist on your own! That’s the sign of a savy songwriter! But if you’ve decided you’d prefer a publishing contract, and after this article STILL think you want to pursue it, here are a couple of other resources you might check out:

    For a more thorough description of royalties and how to get ’em, read Nancy Reese’s article for the Muse’s Muse…Publishing 101.

    Robert Carter has also written an article for the Muse’s Muse explaining the sources of Publishing Income.

    In fact, for a whole bunch of questions about publishing and copyright, why not take a cruise through Nancy Reese’s many Q&A articles for the Muse’s Muse…you might find your answer right here!

    Hopefully, this information will give you a little insight into the mysterious world of publishing…Good Luck!

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