Music Publishing & Songwriting

Having just attended the BMI Pop Awards in Los Angeles, an event so unique and thrilling it’s rivaled only by the ASCAP Pop Awards three weeks before it, and the SESAC Awards, sandwiched in between those two, I couldn’t help but look around the room at the award-winning writers assembled and wonder:

What do they know that the masses of struggling songwriters do not? Why can one writer create four or five BMI-award winning songs, awards that recognize the top-earning songs of the year, while most are hoping just to write one song that someday gets played on the radio?

This is the same question that lies behind my upcoming book, “Hits Only, Please”. I’ve spent the past year interviewing writers, publishers, radio programmers, music marketers and others, trying to understand “What makes a hit song?” and even more importantly, “What makes a hit songwriter?”. What is the key that allows certain songwriters to consistently create “hits”, and to show up on that BMI or ASCAP stage, again and again…

Of course, if I had discovered the magic formula, mine would be a very expensive book. But in interviewing a number of top songwriters, I have found several pretty good hints as to what’s needed to make it to the top of the charts. Here’s just one quick observation to start with:

Hit songwriters WANT to write hits.

Doesn’t everyone? No. In my experience, I’ve found that the majority of songwriters might like to have one of their songs become hits, but most do not actually WANT to write hits. Most songwriters want to write what they want to write, in the way that they want to write it. They are not interested in writing what radio wants or the audience wants. Many of them don’t even think about how their song might fit into a radio format, or which group of people might like their music, or what kind of things appeal to that particular audience. Everything is left entirely to chance, and to the desire for creative expression.

As a songwriter, at some point in your career you must decide what motivates your creativity. Is it a desire for personal expression? Or is it a desire to communicate? They are not the same thing. Expression is an easily attainable goal, and utterly impossible to judge or critique. If you feel you’ve expressed what you want to express, who am I to inform you otherwise? Only you can determine the success of your own personal expression.

However, if your goal is to communicate, you’ve taken on a much larger endeavor. You’ve also attempted something that is considerably more objective. You may feel that you’ve communicated an idea or an emotion quite clearly. But in the end, someone else will be the judge. If I, the listener, don’t understand what you’re saying, or relate to it, then the message was not communicated with success. Like beauty, communication is largely in the eye of the beholder, not the creator.

By and large, hit songs are created by those who have an intense desire to communicate. Hit songwriters have a desire not just to express themselves, but to communicate those ideas to an audience– to reach them, to touch them emotionally, and to entertain them. To that end, they are willing to make their music fit into radio formats and marketing plans. They keep up on trends and fashions to stay one step ahead of their audience. They edit relentlessly, to make sure that only their best work is put forward, and that every second of a song engages the listener with something new. They listen to feedback– from the industry, from their peers, and most importantly from their audience. If something isn’t working, they change it. Hit songwriters want to win.

At the ASCAP Awards, the songwriter of the year, Timbaland, was notably absent, but sent a message to be read on his behalf. He apologized for missing the event, but explained that he was in the studio mixing a new record. Then he threw down the gauntlet. After winning a record-setting 9 ASCAP awards over the past year, he said that he was looking forward to the upcoming year, and winning 10.

The next day, I saw my friends Mikkel and Tor from Stargate, the production team that has been dominating the charts for the past year with hits like “Irreplaceable” and “Please Don’t Stop The Music”. They had been at the awards and had heard Timbaland’s message– and at breakfast the next morning, they were already raring to get back to the studio. “Timbaland made the challenge last night” they laughed. “Now next year, we have to beat him.”

Writing hit songs is never easy. But you won’t win until you decide to get in the game. Congratulations to the all the ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC award-winning songwriters in 2008. I look forward to seeing you there next year!

ASCAP
BMI
SESAC

Maybe its the Kerouac thing– but writers love to hit the road. In the last week, I sent one songwriter from the Midwest out for a week of collaborating with artists and writers in Stockholm, another from the Midwest went to Nashville to co-write with some of the top Country and Christian music writers (both genres are centered in Nashville), another writer came from Dublin to work with urban writers in Philadelphia and New York, and still another flew in from London to work with some of New York’s best singer/songwriters.

This is part of what publishers do– helping their writers to find new collaborators around the world, and then getting those writers across the globe with the hopes of making magic and creating a hit. Not a bad deal for the writers, who get to see new places (albeit usually they only see the inside of a recording studio), meet new people, and even write a song or two in the bargain. Not such a fun thing for the publisher. We tear our hair out making the arrangements, deal with last-minute cancellations, hope we picked out the right collaborators, foot the bill, and then cross our fingers for one or two songs that make the whole effort worthwhile.

So what does make it work? What are the keys to creating a successful writing trip? Here’s some tips from a writer turned publisher. Just wish I knew then what I know now.

1. When In Rome…
Learn how writers and publishers work in different places, and adapt to it. In Nashville, everyone treats their calendar like it’s writ in stone, and people schedule 3-4 weeks ahead. In New York, no one knows what they’re doing until a week before. In London, writers like to spend a couple of days together in order to write a song. In Sweden, it takes about three hours. In NY, you work all night. In Nashville, you start at 10am.

We all have our ways we like to work. But the point of a writing trip is to try something new. So don’t cling to the old. Learn the local customs.

2. Don’t book. Overbook.
As a publisher, the one thing I learned quickly that has proven constantly true is that when planning writer trips, you can always expect the worst. Someone will get sick. Someone’s studio will break down. Someone will suddenly be approached to collaborate with a budding superstar, and you will be dropped from that very carefully arranged calendar in an instant.

When I book writing trips, I like to try to schedule two writing sessions a day– one in the day, and one in the evening. That way, if someone cancels, the day is not lost. Of course, if no one cancels, then the writer is doing daily doubles for a week, which can be pretty grueling. But that’s why they call it a job.

3. Never Arrive Empty-Handed.
Come with some ideas in your head. If you primarily write tracks, then bring some new tracks with you. If you’re a lyricist, come armed with some title and concept ideas. If you write melodies, have a few tunes in your head, in case no one knows where to start. Those first few minutes of a writing session, once the hellos and airport stories are done, can be excruciating. You always feel better if you’ve got a few ideas to break the ice. Even if you don’t wind up using any of them, you’ll be more relaxed with a few ideas up your sleeve.

4. Don’t Slight The Nightlife.
I know– after two writing sessions a day, who is going to want to go out at night? But if there’s an opportunity to go hear some music, meet other songwriters, hear the hot local band, or just go support an artist that you’ve been working with, take advantage of the opportunity to make the scene. Part of the value of writing trips is the chance to establish yourself in a new musical community. You need to take any opportunity to meet other musicians and writers while you’re in town.

The best writing trip I ever saw involved Stargate, now one of the hottest production teams in the industry, with hits like “Irreplaceable” for Beyonce and “So Sick” for Ne-Yo. When they arrived in NY, they were a well-established production team in the UK and Scandinavia, but almost unknown in the US. By the time they left a month later, they had written some of the biggest hits of the year. Much of the credit goes to their managers, Tim Blacksmith and Danny Poku, who not only set up the calendar, but also spent their day doing A&R meetings, while the guys worked in the studio. Much of the credit also goes to Stargate, whose strong work ethic had them turning out a song or two each day– for a month.

And of course, alot of credit goes to Luck. Stargate met Ne-Yo by chance at the studio– that impromptu meeting led to “So Sick”. But that’s the point of a writing trip. You put yourself in the right place, at the right time, with the right people. And then you write. And write. And write some more.