Want to make a living as a songwriter?  Want a publishing deal? Would you be happy just to get a song or two recorded, even if they don’t become hit singles? The answer for all this is the same...

If you want artists to record your music, write songs with built-in S.P.I.N.S.

So, what are S.P.I.N.S., and how do they help you get cuts? Read on.

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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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These days, it seems like it’s harder than ever to land a cut on a major artist.  There are literally tens of thousands of songwriters in Nashville trying to get one of their songs recorded by a handful of major artists.  And that’s not counting the thousands of songwriters in other major music cities and small towns around the world who are competing for cuts on those same records.

But the competition (and opportunity) doesn’t stop there.  A quick check of any online music platform will reveal that there are thousands of independent artists who are releasing new music every day.  How do you get a song on one of their projects? 

You get cuts by writing songs with S.P.I.N.S.  (You know how much I love acronyms.)  Let’s break it down.

S. is for Stickiness.

Your song has to get stuck in the listener’s head.  It has to be memorable- to stick with the listener.  You can do this multiple ways.  A great way to start is by having a unique, compelling hook or title.  Avoid titles that have been done a million times.  “I Love You.”  “Over You.”  Those titles aren’t going to send any publisher, producer or artist scrambling to hear your song.  Be more creative and more memorable.

Have melodic hooks in your song that are ear-worms.  There have to be some melodic pieces that stand out and stay with the listener after the first listen.  If a listener can sing along by the time you hit your last chorus, that’s a great sign.

Imagery is a great way to be sticky.  Give the listener something to see in their mind’s eye, something fresh, real and unexpected, and there’s a much better chance the song will be memorable.

P. is for Positioning.

Your song should be well-positioned for your target market.  It has to make sense for your target genre and its artists.  Your “I’m a whiskey-drinking, fist-swinging rebel” song is not going to work for an artist who is positioned as a “lover, not a fighter.” 

Also, it helps to write songs that are artist-friendly.  Do your songs make the artist look good?  Do they say what an artist wants to say to their audience?  That’s being artist-friendly.

If you song is sticky, but it’s not well-positioned, an artist isn’t going to record it.

I. is for Impact.

Your song needs to make an impact on the artist and listener.  It should make them feel something.  Does your song make the listener want to laugh, cry, dance or think? Will a large audience care about your song’s subject matter ?  This is called being “universal.”

Start by having a clear emotional goal for your song.  Is your song all about getting the listener on the dance floor, on their knees praying, on the phone with mama, or on their boyfriend?  If you don’t know the response you want to get from the listener, you’re probably not going to get it.

Write about something emotional.  It’s not enough for your song to be based around an interesting turn of phrase.  The song must impact the listener’s emotions.

Keep it simple.  Make your song about one clear thing.  If you throw too much at the listener, you’ll confuse them.  If you confuse the listener, you lose the listener, and they won’t be emotionally moved by your song.  Keeping it simple also helps it be more sticky.

Use powerful imagery.  It’s a great way to bring the listener into the story and keep their attention.

It doesn’t matter if your song is sticky and well-positioned if it has no impact on the listener.

N. is for Network.

You and your song have to get connected to the right people.  This is where relationships are key.  Can you get your songs to a legit publisher- who can then get the song in the right hands?  Can you play your songs for a producer?  Are you writing with the artist?Building and leveraging your network is the major difference between great songwriters and great songwriters with great careers.

Your song can be sticky, have positioning and impact, but it’ll never get recorded if it isn’t networked.

S. is for Start Again.

One song written with S.P.I.N.S. isn’t going to be enough.  S.P.I.N.S. isn’t a guarantee.  And even if it were, one song doesn’t make a career.  But the more songs you write with built-in Stickyness, Positioning, Impact and Networking, the better your chance for songwriting success.

S.P.I.N.S. : Stickiness – Positioning – Impact – Network – Start Again

If you want to write songs with S.P.I.N.S. and get your songs recorded by artists, I have a great opportunity coming up.

In the month of July, I’m hosting a transformative online songwriting event called, “Building A Hit: From Blank Page To Finished Lyric.” In this powerful 4-week online workshop, I reveal:

How to find great song ideas. Kill writers block and fill up that blank page again and again.

How to focus your ideas for maximum impact. Don’t waste any more great ideas by leaving them under-developed or confusing.

How to frame your idea for maximum commercial appeal. Having a great, compelling idea isn’t enough. You have to build your song in a way that an artist will want to sing it and an audience will want to hear it.

How to finish your song. Stop leaving your best ideas unfinished. Nobody loves a song they never hear, and a song that’s only 99% finished will never get recorded, never get on the radio, and never change your life.

If you want to join me on a journey that will help you think and write like a pro songwriter, click on the link below. Spots are limited for this event, and I only host it twice a year. Miss out, and it’s gone for another 6 months. Don’t delay. Transform your songwriting today..

DON’T MISS OUT- CLICK HERE TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THIS GREAT OPPORTUNITY.

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, a #1 in Canada & a top 10 in Texas… so far.  He also hosts a top-rated songwriting and music business podcast called, “The C.L.I.M.B.” which can be found on iTunes or your favorite podcast app.

Want to land one of YOUR songs on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart?  Then an important step is to study what kind of songs already DO land on the chart.  If you want to hit a target, you gotta know where the target is.

Today, let’s dive into the top of the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart for the week of May 25, 2019.  We’re going to look at some of the important qualities of those songs- qualities that can help YOUR song get on this chart someday.

If you want to write hits… read on!

________________________________

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

_________________________________

I focused on the top 15 country songs on the chart.  I looked the writers, the tempos, the overall vibe, point-of-view, and a few other aspects of these songs.  Here are my biggest takeaways.

1. Keep It Positive!

Of the top 15 country songs, not a single one was a “downer.”  There were a couple of lost-love or breakup songs: “Whiskey Glasses,” “Beer Never Broke My Heart” and “Miss Me More.”  But even those songs felt really good or were empowering.  None of them was a cry-in-your-beer song.

So that’s the biggest takeaway: keep it positive.  Even if it’s a breakup song, it doesn’t have to feel sad or make you wanna cry.  True, some downer songs can still be hits, no doubt.  But look at the math.  Most hits – and EVERY SINGLE ONE of these 15 songs are feel-good or positive songs.

 2. Write Tempo!

Of the top 15 country songs, 11 were mid-tempo or up-tempo.  This means they have a good groove to them or have a beat you can rock out or dance to.  Energy!

Even looking at the 4 songs I listed as “slow,” they aren’t all sloooow ballads.  “Beautiful Crazy” is the most ballad of them.  After that, “Good As You” “Speechless” and “Talk You Out Of It” each have some R&B elements to them.  They don’t just sit there.  They have groove and make you want to move, even if they aren’t true tempos.  And they’re sexy, makeout songs.  That’s different than a slow, contemplative ballad about the singer’s grandpa or how the singer’s girl left him.

Bottom line: Radio loves tempo, so it’s hard to beat a good beat.

3. Write With The Artist.

Yeah, this one is the most painful.  But I’m not doing you any favors by hiding the truth.  Of the top 15 country songs, 9 were cowritten by the artist.

Let that sink in for a moment.

The hard truth is that it’s hard to get a cut of any kind.  And it’s REALLY, REALLY hard to get a hit single without writing with the artist.

Does this mean you should quit?  Give up right now and go back to that cubicle?  No.  But you do have to be honest with yourself about reality.  For one thing, some songs still become hits without the artist in the writing room.  But you do yourself no favors by ignoring that your odds go up dramatically when an artist IS in the room.

So, as you build your songwriting career, it’s wise to 1) start cowriting if you don’t already.  It’s gonna be extra hard to write with an artist if you don’t write with anyone.  2) Try to identify and write with future stars- while they’re fairly unknown and still accessible.  3) Build your music business network.  The more people you know who also know you, the better chance they’ll connect you to an artist someday.

However, one of the best ways to eventually attract an artist cowrite is by writing songs that are hit-worthy.  It IS so much about relationships, but relationships are a whole lot easier to make if you’re writing commercial, compelling, hit-worthy songs.

Great commercial songs will solve so many of your problems.

So, there you go.  These are some of my biggest takeaways from a recent hit country singles chart.  If YOU want to discover even more of the elements of building a hit song, I have an awesome opportunity for you.

In the month of July, I’m hosting a transformative online songwriting event called, “Building A Hit: From Blank Page To Finished Lyric.” In this powerful 4-week online workshop, I reveal:

How to find great song ideas. Kill writers block and fill up that blank page again and again.

How to focus your ideas for maximum impact. Don’t waste any more great ideas by leaving them under-developed or confusing.

How to frame your idea for maximum commercial appeal. Having a great, compelling idea isn’t enough. You have to build your song in a way that an artist will want to sing it and an audience will want to hear it.

How to finish your song. Stop leaving your best ideas unfinished. Nobody loves a song they never hear, and a song that’s only 99% finished will never get recorded, never get on the radio, and never change your life.

If you want to join me on a journey that will help you think and write like a pro songwriter, click on the link below. Spots are limited for this event, and I only host it twice a year. Miss out, and it’s gone for another 6 months. Don’t delay. Transform your songwriting today..

DON’T MISS OUT- CLICK HERE TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THIS GREAT OPPORTUNITY.

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, a #1 in Canada & a top 10 in Texas… so far.  He also hosts a top-rated songwriting and music business podcast called, “The C.L.I.M.B.” which can be found on iTunes or your favorite podcast app.

Kenny Chesney’s current single, “Better Boat,” is navigating up the country singles chart. Today, let’s take a look at some of the ways the songwriters built this song to be a Chesney hit.

Great songs don’t happen by accident- they’re a series of wise choices.  And the songwriters (Travis Meadows and Liz Rose) made some great choices when building “Better Boat.” Now, I wasn’t in the room with them, so I can only speculate at the thought process behind the end results. But as a professional songwriter myself, I can take an experienced and educated guess.

If you want to write hits, too… read on!

________________________________

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

_________________________________

1. Stick to the brand.

Overall, this song is built to fit Kenny’s brand of country.  Kenny is like the tide- time and again, he returns to the ocean.  So a song with a title like “Better Boat” certainly fits that bill.

Chesney is also tends toward introspection every now and then.  If you’ve listened to his beach albums especially, you get that feeling in several of his songs.  Some artists don’t tend to go there, but Kenny will.

 2. Fill a G.A.P.

We all know how much Kenny likes “beach songs.”  But at this point, he’s done so many…. like… a LOT of them.  So how do you bring something different?  Well, you get it into his brand (as mentioned above) by the theme of a better boat.  Then you open it up by making it a metaphor for dealing with life and growing as a person.

Maybe the Chesney of 10 years ago wouldn’t have released this.  But as a mature superstar, he’s going to these more thoughtful themes.  He’s doing more introspection, as also mentioned above.  Mixing these two things: a boat-song-not-about-the-beach and introspection, puts “Better Boat” into a gap in Kenny’s catalog that isn’t over-served.  It gives him (and the listener) a little different slice of the familiar pie.

3. Hit me in the feels.

This doesn’t go where you’d think a country song with “Boat” in the title would go.  It’s not a good-time-boats-and-beaches song.  It’s very emotional.  It’s honest, raw, bittersweet, and ultimately hopeful.

It doesn’t spell everything out.  What put the singer in this emotional place?  What demons haunt him?  What “ain’t workin'” and what’s “still hurtin’?”  While it leaves out many details, the song does a great job of painting enough of a picture that we don’t feel lost.  It contains enough imagery to anchor us.  It presents the moment wonderfully, while leaving the backstory open.  It’s a really hard thing to do, but I think they did it well.

The song makes you FEEL.  It’s not a “heady” song.  It’s not an intellectual thing, and it’s not a toe tapper.  The writers know that if you’re gonna write a ballad, you sure better bring the EMOTION.  It doesn’t mean you can’t also bring imagery, but you sure better bring the feels.  What’s in this song for the listener?  It moves them.  And if they’re dealing with something like the singer is, it lets them know they’re not alone.

4. Break every rule (for a superstar).

First of all, this song is a ballad.  That’s one strike “against” it.  The production is also strikingly sparse.  It’s just acoustic guitars (courtesy of Mac McAnally).  Of course, that kind of simple production worked out okay for “The House That Built Me,” but it’s still a risky move.  It really sticks out on country radio, and country radio doesn’t usually like that.  It takes both a killer song and a powerful artist to make that risk a worthy gamble.

These days, most country singers seem to reach into the pop world for a female guest spot (Florida Georgia Line’s “Meant To Be feat. Bebe Rexha,” Keith Urban’s “Coming Home feat. Julia Michaels,” and… Chesney’s own “Setting The World On Fire feat. P!nk”) .  However, Chesney brings Mindy Smith, an Americana darling, on board.  She’s great, but she’s not a name that’s going to bring over a ton of pop listeners.

And this song isn’t a fun positive uptempo.  It’s not shallow (boat pun intended).  That’s not the mark of the usual radio hit.  Again, Chesney is bringing his superstar muscle to bear on this one.  Most artists simply couldn’t get away with this type of song.  But Chesney has earned it by years of bringing radio hit after radio hit.

What’s the lesson here?  If you’re going to break the rules, realize that you’re hurting your changes of getting a cut.  And know that you better be writing something AMAZING that also happens to fit right where an artist is or is going in his or her career.  Travis and Liz wrote the heck out of it, that’s for sure.  But there are probably only a couple of major artists that could cut this song, and only one who could make it a hit.  Just so happens they got it to him.  And I’m glad they did.

Okay, those are four areas in which Travis Meadows and Liz Rose built “Better Boat” to be a surprising hit song. Of course, those aren’t the only elements that make the song a hit, but they’re four important ones. If YOU want to discover even more of the elements of building a hit song, I have an awesome opportunity for you.

In the month of January, I’m hosting a transformative online songwriting event called, “Building A Hit: From Blank Page To Finished Lyric.” In this powerful 4-week online workshop, I reveal:

How to find great song ideas. Kill writers block and fill up that blank page again and again.

How to focus your ideas for maximum impact. Don’t waste any more great ideas by leaving them under-developed or confusing.

How to frame your idea for maximum commercial appeal. Having a great, compelling idea isn’t enough. You have to build your song in a way that an artist will want to sing it and an audience will want to hear it.

How to finish your song. Stop leaving your best ideas unfinished. Nobody loves a song they never hear, and a song that’s only 99% finished will never get recorded, never get on the radio, and never change your life.

If you want to join me on a journey that will help you think and write like a pro songwriter, click on the link below. Spots are limited for this event, and I only host it twice a year. Miss out, and it’s gone for another 6 months. Don’t delay. Transform your songwriting today..

DON’T MISS OUT- CLICK HERE TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THIS GREAT OPPORTUNITY.

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, a #1 in Canada & a top 10 in Texas… so far.  He also hosts a top-rated songwriting and music business podcast called, “The C.L.I.M.B.” which can be found on iTunes or your favorite podcast app.