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.

Songwriting is a terrible career for control freaks. Sorry. It just is. There is just so much that’s out of your control, and you need to make peace with that.

You control a few things. You control how hard you work… and that’s about it.

You don’t control your natural talents. For example, I can work really hard on my singing and melody-writing, but I’m never gonna be great.  So that means I have to give up some control.  It’s not me singing the demos or up on stage at the Bluebird.  It’s not me writing the melody.  Sure, I have input and cowriter approval rights, but it’s not total control.  It’s collaboration.

If you don’t have solid producer chops (or communication skills), you don’t have full control over what happens in the demo session.  It’s not you playing every lick on every instrument. You just have to hire the best and hope for the best, giving your input along the way.

Once you start pitching the song, you don’t control the reaction of anyone who might hear it. You can’t tuck them in bed the night before to make sure they’re awake and focused. You can’t keep a bad-news email from hitting their inbox just before your meeting, etc.

And if your song makes it to the artist and they like it, you can’t control if they just cut a similar song the week before so they pass on yours.

And you sure don’t have control if an artist takes your song into the studio to cut it.  You don’t hire their musicians.  They don’t have to cut the song just like the demo.  And the artist doesn’t have to sing it exactly like you want.

And you don’t get a vote on whether your song makes the final album or gets singled.

So many things can happen to derail your song. But that doesn’t mean you’re not doing your job. Your job is to work really hard, write the strongest songs you can, and do your best to put them in a position to win.

At the end of the day, that’s how you should evaluate your success:

Did I work hard?
Did I write the best song I could?
Did I do what I could to get my song in front of someone who can say, “yes?”

If so, you controlled what you could. Make peace with the rest. I know it’s hard, but when you stop spending all that emotional energy on being a control freak, you have more energy to devote to your life, your family, and to working on things that matter.

God Bless,

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.

Are you just hoping for success? Waiting on the universe to give you what it’ll give you? Or are you taking responsibility for it?

It’s easy and tempting to wait and hope for your cowriters, publishers, or manager (or ASCAP or NSAI…) to make something happen on your behalf. And while these people can be a valuable part of your team, they will never have as much riding on your success as you do. They have their own families to feed.

I know there’s a lot of uncertainty surrounding the music biz. There’s not a simple 1-2-3 process for earning success. And since it’s often unclear how to make success, it’s easy to become passive.

But you have to take ownership. You have to resolve to never be a passive participant in your life. Take action. Good things don’t come to those who JUST wait. Good things come to those who are disciplined and patiently persistent.

Decide what success looks like for you, then try to figure out steps that will take you in that direction. And remember, these aren’t steps that happen TO you- these are steps that you TAKE.  Good things rarely just fall into your lap while you’re sitting still.  It’s a lot more common to find unexpected blessings when you’re out there moving with purpose.  So get moving.

The sooner you OWN your success, the sooner you EARN your success.

God Bless,

Brent

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

At different times in my songwriting history (and I guess I’ve been doing this long enough to officially consider it “history”) I’ve had various “endpoints.”

What is an endpoint?

The endpoint is the basic target your efforts try to hit. It’s where you focus your effort and where most of your effort ends. It’s the horizon you don’t often look past.

When I first started out, my endpoint was a finished song and a worktape. It felt great, and I had a sense of accomplishment and something to listen to. I dreamed of hearing one of those songs on the radio. But pretty much all I did about that was dream.

Years later, after I had moved to Nashville, my endpoint was to impress a publisher so they’d start pitching my songs. Sure, I dreamed of getting songs on the radio, but on a day-to-day basis, I didn’t work at anything beyond landing a good publisher relationship.

Later still, I had a publishing deal and my endpoint was often getting my publisher to demo songs so THEY could pitch them. I’d even had a hit on the radio by this time, but I couldn’t really see beyond the demo.

These days, my endpoint is the farthest it’s ever been. The endpoint now is getting cuts and singles. I’m writing with just a few artists and the conversation and work centers on getting songs on their records and on the radio. Demos, if they’re discussed at all, are recorded to pitch to the artist’s label for their own record. (If it doesn’t make their record, then we’ll pitch it around. But that’s Plan B.)

Sure, I’ve worked for years to get to the point where it’s realistic to talk about cuts and singles. But how much further would I be in my career if hits had ALWAYS been the endpoint?

Instead of aiming at just writing songs, what if the endpoint had been writing songs that an artist would want to sing? (And not just what I wanted to say?)

Instead of effectively washing my hands and walking away when a song got demoed, what if I kept going, getting my demos in the hands of decisionmakers myself?

Instead of playing that demo for an A&R rep and then letting off the gas, what if I kept working to get the song to the people who made the final decision?

Instead of being happy to just write a song with a baby artist, what if I had really focused on writing that special deal-getting song with that artist?

Most of the endpoints I’ve had have not been set consciously. There were just set at the next song or the next step in my career.

And those steps (write, publish, demo, etc.) are each good steps. But they are each just steps on a staircase. If those steps are your focus, where your attention and energy is focused… you might just miss an elevator with its doors wide open.

I wonder how many I missed?

I encourage you to take a look at your goals for your writing- then take an honest assessment of where your attention and energy is focused. Have you set your endpoint where only a milemarker should be? Milemarkers are great- they mark progress and keep you feeling motivated.

But a milemarker is NOT an endpoint.

God Bless,

Brent