How To-21: "How to Write and Sell Your Songs"

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Ever wonder why some songwriters get the deals while others, with incredible talent, style and know-how, never even get the slightest nod from industry professionals? As if talent and know-how weren’t enough, today’s writers are faced with the ever increasing challenge of partitioning their writing styles from the endless barrage of production makeovers of what would otherwise be mediocre songs at best.
Read on to learn how to get your songs published!

Steps

1. Understand how the industry works and your new role within it. Gone are the days when great songs were recorded in what would seem the worst of conditions for a recording facility and recording hardware. Today, the onset of the computer, drum loops, samples and limited music abilities rule – or do they? In one sense that last statement is true, and in another, it’s not. Let’s take a closer look.
   
2. Realize that music is now written, deployed and embarked upon from a market driven perspective. While a volume of music is being created from a very shallow writing and production style, there is left a vacuum for songs and music that is yearned for by a large segment of the population, particularly baby boomers, who miss the “days of the past" where style and passion ruled. Don’t forget that, and in fact, if you will keep that in the back of your mind while you are writing, you will be one step closer to success.
   
3. Continue to write from within and from who you are, but don’t be caught up in the music fads, what’s hot at the moment and what “seems" to work – stay in it for the long haul. If you continue to write with substance, style and from who you are and where “life" has carried your writing style to, you’ll be driven by the craft of the song and not the latest music industry craze.
   
4. Know how to market yourself. Today’s music industry demands that you not only write the next “hit" song, but that you are able to sell and market your next big “hit" – Forget the song selling itself. Sadly enough, this is the case a lot of the time. There are still A&R directors, producers and artists who look at the strength and character of the song, but they’re becoming more and more rare. If you write country music, you’ll have an easier time finding individuals who will look at the strength of your song and not just pure marketing. Other genres are not as conducive to song viability, but marketing viability as the “rule of law".
   
5. Build your production strength. Many great songs today don’t make it simply because the production doesn’t yield the emotional tone, upbeat or not, that the song implores. We all wish the day was back when a great song stood on its own, but many a song demo is actually the track used for the final artist record cut today. You can no longer get away with “fairly" good sounding tracks, they have to sound like a record cut. You may be able to get away with a lo-fi sound in country music, but even this has changed as the popularity of this genre has increased.
   
6. Stay focused, believe in your writing, but be honest at the same time and demand the highest in quality of your song demos and learn from others who have the “sell ability" factor in marketing their songs or products. This is a new day in the music industry, but you can succeed if you will hold to your writing values and not to the latest music whim.
   

Tips

• Have fun making your songs and selling hoping you will make some money.
  
• Try to get a local band that you know well to perform the song.
  

Warnings

• Try not to get too cocky with your songs or you'll get disappointed if your song doesn't sell.
  

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