12 | March | 2018 | Songwriting Pro

Congratulations to our newest “Play For Publisher” Top Ten songs and songwriters!

First of all, BIG thanks and congrats to each of you who took a chance, took positive action, and submitted one or more songs to the “Play For Publisher” event with Courtney Allen of BMG Music. Ya’ll are just plain awesome.

Out of over 200 songs, it took a while to whittle it down to just 10. We have country songs, pop songs, cowrites, solo writes, male songs, female songs, full demos and a worktape!

There were a lot of worthy songs sent in, and I felt bad about leaving so many out. If your song wasn’t chosen this time, it doesn’t mean that it isn’t a good song.

By the way, here’s a little about how I pick these songs. Brave, awesome songwriters like you sent in your song or songs. I downloaded them and listened – BEFORE I looked at who the writers are. I picked the Top 10 and On Hold songs, THEN I looked up who wrote them.

So these were picked based on the song, not on the songwriter. As a result… some folks got more than one in the Top 10 and On Hold. Congrats to them for doing good, consistent work.

You know, one time I turned a song in to my publisher, and they didn’t know what to do with it, so they didn’t want to do anything with it. My cowriters wanted to demo it, and the publisher said they wouldn’t pay for a demo.

The song was called, “Crickets,” and we got it cut by Joe Nichols. It’s the title track to one of his recent albums.

That’s right. The song my publisher wouldn’t even pay to demo got cut anyway. (My cowriters did an out-of-pocket guitar/vocal, and we pitched it ourselves.)

Welcome to Nashville. So while I listened to each and every song and did my best to pick the ones that have the best chance of catching Courtney’s ear… I could be wrong. That’s just the way the music biz works. So if your song wasn’t selected, it doesn’t mean you should give up on it.

Okay, here are the Top Ten (in no particular order):

“Furniture” by John Watts

“I Can’t Blame Her” by Doug Folkins & Keesy Timmer

“What’s It Gonna Hurt?” by Janine de Souza & Russell Fogg

“Cake” by Ashley Taylor

“Vintage” by Dave Quirk, Troy Castellano, Victoria Banks

“Up” by Mikalyn Hay, Maddy Rodriguez, Johnny Simmen

“You’re Not Gonna Hurt Me Anymore” by Mary Hartman

“Fireball” by Davis Weir

“Just Friends” by Donna King & Joe Slyzelia

“Tupelo Trippin'” by Todd Dickinson & Kevin Rowe

(The Songwriting Pro community would LOVE to hear your songs, so if you have a link you’d like to post to your “Top 10” song, please post it in the comments below or in the Songwriting Pro Facebook Group!)

Congratulations! Courtney and I look forward to hanging out with you on March 19. (In the days before the event, I’ll email the winners the instructions about the online meeting.)

Like I said, the 10 songs above aren’t the only good ones I had the pleasure of hearing. There are several more that were put “on hold” for the top 10 songs. This list could be quite a bit longer, but I’d like to spotlight a few of them, too. (Ya’ll feel free to link up your songs in the comments or in the Facebook group, too!)

“ON HOLD” songs…

“Like That” by Betsy Walter, Adam Doleac, Steve Mitchell

“Pictures Of Us” by Davis Weir, Russell Sutton, Kyle Coulahan, Elvie Shane

“Float” by Davis Weir, Elvie Shane, Russ Sutton, Drew Green

“Short Enough” by Ibby Hausman

“Stars In The City” by Cody Coggins & Cheryl Jividen

“Closer To Home” by Kerry Meacham & Christen Cooper

“The Devil Talks” by Chelsey Stallings, Cody Robbins

“Like A Rose” by Eugene Hanes & Wendell Hanes

“Vibe” by Todd Dickinson & CT Robinson

“All You Do Is Take” by Joe Slyzelia, Mary Beth Stone.

These songs, along with others, were in there battling it out with the top 10, so be encouraged!

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To BE a pro, you need to THINK like a pro, and this FREE ebook will help transform your thinking, your songwriting, and your success. Get it today!

Click Here For The Book

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God Bless and Enjoy the Journey,

Brent

Brent Baxter is a hit songwriter with cuts by Alan Jackson, Randy Travis, Lady Antebellum, Joe Nichols, Gord Bamford, Ruthie Collins, Ray Stevens, and more. He’s written a top 5 hit in the US and a #1 in Canada… so far.

If you write songs and aspire to get cuts- to get them recorded in a way that makes you money- then you’re in the music business.

Notice, I didn’t say you hope to get into the music business. I didn’t say you aspire to get into the music business. You ARE in the music business. Congratulations!

And now that we’ve established that you’re a small business owner, let’s talk business.

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To BE a pro, you need to THINK like a pro, and this FREE ebook will help transform your thinking, your songwriting, and your success. Get it today!

Click Here For The Book

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Businesses make money when they make a product or service available, and somebody wants it enough to pay for it. If there is no demand for what you supply, no money changes hands. If there is great demand, but you don’t supply the product they want, then no money changes hands.

In the music business, it gets a little complicated since we, as songwriters, don’t usually go direct-to-consumer with our product (our songs). Songwriters compete to get a middleman (the artist) to present our product (our song) to the consumer. If that artist gets the consumer (the listener/fan) to buy the song, money changes hands and some of it eventually gets to us in the form of royalties.

This brings us to the “Chain of Demand.”

The listener wants songs that move them in the way they want to be moved.

Mostly, it’s songs that make them feel good; sometimes songs that make them sad. If radio plays songs they like, they keep listening. If not, they may switch to another station or listen to music on some other device or service (Spotify, smartphone, etc.).

Radio wants songs that keep the listener listening.

The more listeners a station has, the more they can charge for advertising, which is how they make money. Therefore, radio wants songs that keep the listener feeling good and listening through the commercials.

The artist wants radio airplay.

Airplay is still the main channel by which the audience hears new songs. The artist wants a hit so their song is exposed to more listeners, listeners who may buy the single, the album, a concert ticket, a t-shirt, etc. Therefore, the artist wants songs that they believe will both get played on radio and will motivate the listener to buy something from that artist. The artist also wants songs that fit them artistically.

The songwriter wants artists to record their songs.

They also want those songs to get played on the radio, and for the listeners to like those songs enough to buy them.

Easy, huh? Yeah… about as easy as threading a needle from across the room with the ceiling fan on.

Knowing this reality should make a big difference in YOUR music business. Applying the chain of demand will help you write market-smart songs: songs that have a competitive advantage in the market.

If you want to learn more about how to write songs that will get you noticed in the music business, I have a great opportunity for you.

Every Monday night in April, I’m hosting The C4 Experience. It’s an exclusive, live online event where I help 10 writers like YOU create explosive growth in your commercial songwriting. I want you to win, and I’m going to help you write songs that artists want to sing, radio wants to play and fans want to hear.

CLICK HERE TO GET ALL THE DETAILS AND RESERVE YOUR SPOT IN THIS EXCLUSIVE EVENT!