Songwriter Advisor Blog

If you want to be professionally successful at songwriting  you have to prepare yourself for the ultimate career challenge and you must ask yourself these questions; Do I have clear vision of what I want to accomplish as a songwriter? Have I sufficiently developed my talent and am I dedicated?  How far do I want to go?  How much am I willing to sacrifice?

Songwriters can make a great living through many avenues.  You can be successful at songwriting in a variety of ways, and everyone’s definition of success varies.  For example, there are many local performing songwriters who are not only content playing in small clubs, they’re actually making a good living selling their merchandise at their shows and through their web sites.   

Okay, so you’ve prepared yourself by developing your talent, but have you concentrated on your appearance and the professional image you want to convey?  Do you carry yourself respectably when meeting up with music industry people?  Music publishing and record label representatives are always looking for talented people, and once they verify you have talent and that you’re most likely the “real deal,” they try to find out who you are as a person.

The moment you engage in a meeting with a music industry representative you’re being “sized up.” Once you’ve made a favorable, lasting impression with your talent, personality and appearance, they want to really dig deep and find out the one thing equally as important as your talent; how committed you are to being successful for their company’s benefit.  The reality is – no one’s in the music business to lose money, and if you’re trying to get signed to a deal with a successful company you better believe they’re thinking about what’s in it for them!

There are many sacrifices we all make in our daily lives and songwriting, by its very nature, requires sacrificing a bit of your family life because of the amount of time you spend writing songs, improving your craft , performing your songs in public, and pitching your songs to the music industry.  This can take a toll on your personal and family life even if you’re prepared but you can minimize this by communicating realistic goals to your partner and/or family members.  

The bottom line is this:

No matter how you define songwriting success at it applies to you, you will have the best chance  at being successful if you are totally committed to songwriting.  Successful songwriters don’t reach their goals by working on their songwriting “here and there” when they get a chance.  Even if they have a time-consuming day job, they develop routines that enable them to work consistently on their music and they use their time wisely.

This is a fact;  The vast majority of successful songwriters live and breathe songwriting.  

The music industry is always overflowing with rags to riches stories and successful songwriters are always a part of this mix because without songs, there would be no hits!  But how does one chase a songwriting career, and are there any obvious, time-tested steps one can take to reach their dreams of being an in-demand, prolific songwriter?

Songwriting is one of the few positions in the music industry not limited by age–you can literally write a successful song at any age.  There are plenty of youngsters with gold records by the time they’re 17!  There  are many “over 40″ songwriters starting out and making a great living through their songwriting.  These are usually, but not always, musicians who never ventured into the songwriting aspect of music, musicians who’ve played an instrument and merely dabbled in writing a song or two without ever exposing their work, or simply people who finally decided to chase their dream of learning the craft of songwriting and “giving it a shot.”

Aspiring songwriters are always posing the question, “How do I get started in songwriting?” and “Can I make any money at it?”  Successful songwriters, along with successful music producers, are the real, consistent money-makers in the music industry.  Think about it.  Very few major label recording artists actually succeed, and many come and go, but proven songwriters and music producers are always called upon to provide their services!

Now, I’m certainly not trying to discourage you performing artists from trying to get a record deal, but if you do, make sure you hang on to as much of your music publishing as possible—that is—learn to write your own songs, and accept outside material only when you really believe in a song, not merely to fill up space.  There are just too many great songwriters out there to settle for mediocre songs.

To make a career out of songwriting, understand you have to wear many different hats.  First and foremost, you have to develop songwriting skills—and yes—I assure you, this can be learned.  Some songwriters are extremely naturally-talented, but even those select few learn the craft of songwriting somewhere along the way to maximize their talent.  With proper training, anyone can learn how to write songs as long as they put forth great effort.  Songwriters, also, at least initially, have to have a little business sense and learn how to market their songs by researching who needs what, and by getting out there and networking with people in the music industry.   

You can’t get into songwriting thinking, “Well I’m going to write this great song for artist X, be discovered, and become rich overnight!”  Although overnight success stories can happen, these are few and far between, and many have originated from somebody already being “connected.”  In other words, in the real world—chances are high that nobody’s going to find you.  On the contrary, you need to go out and find them, and show them how talented you are!  This is mainly how rags to riches stories develop–you’ve got to sell yourself and have the songs to prove it!

In an upcoming series titled “How To Build A Songwriting Career From Scratch” I’ll give you a step-by-step blueprint to give you the absolute best chance at becoming a successful songwriter.  Stay tuned.