Songwriters are a sick bunch of folks.
Songwriter pains include:
*I’m not getting cuts.
*I can’t find good cowriters.
*Publishers won’t set me up with cowrites.
*My ASCAP/BMI rep won’t introduce me to publishers or cowriters.
*Publishers won’t give me a meeting.
Songwriters are often tempted to treat each of these conditions as a separate illness, but I think that’s usually a mistake.
These are just symptoms. The disease is having songs that aren’t good enough.
We can treat the symptoms all day long, but until we address the disease itself, your songwriting success will be limited. For example, we might be able to smooze our backsides off and finally talk our way into a cowrite with a pro writer… but so what? He or she will figure out pretty quickly that our songwriting isn’t up to snuff, and we probably won’t get a second cowrite.
But if we write strong songs, it’ll be a lot easier to get a pro to sit down to write. And when we prove our skill again- in the writing room- it’ll be easier to get a second cowrite.
It’s hard to think of a “songwriter symptom” that isn’t dramatically helped or fixed completely by writing better songs.
Want your ASCAP or BMI rep to start introducing you around? Write better songs.
Want better song evaluations? Write better songs.
Want better cowrites? Be a better cowriter yourself- by writing better songs.
Want cuts? Write incredible songs, which lead to more relationships in the biz which lead to more opportunities to write more incredible songs, which put you in a much better position to get cuts.
Treat the illness and the symptoms become a lot less severe or just go away on their own.
God Bless,
Brent
