Lyric Sheets: Which Songwriter’s Name Goes First?
My first publisher, Kim Williams, was an inspirational person in many regards. He taught me many powerful lessons about writing AND about life. Kim had been an electrical engineer and had been burned over most of his body. He spent over a year in the hospital and wasn’t given much chance at survival. When I met him, he…
Read MoreSongwriters: Don’t Turn Around Now!
In the past week, I’ve had conversations with several SongTownians who were thinking about quitting songwriting. They were on the verge of never writing another song. Their frustration at their lack of commercial success had proved to be a crushing blow to them. In every case, they had turned over their joy to the fickle…
Read MoreThe Darius Rucker Effect: How 2 Hours Can Change A Songwriter’s Life
ASCAP #1 Songwriter Party for Clay Mills & Darius Rucker I remember 6 years ago driving with my publisher Kurt Denny from Tennessee to Kentucky, where I was about to climb on the Hootie and the Blowfish tour bus. Kurt had arranged my first major artist co-write with rocker Darius Rucker. I was quiet the…
Read MoreLove Can Build A Bridge Pt 1 – Co-writing Mistakes Songwriters Can Learn From
I wrote songs for about 5 years before the first time I had anyone at a ‘professional’ level chime in on my writing or critique any of my songs. (Disclaimer: that autocorrected to ‘I wrote dogs for about 5 years’….and I’m not all that sure it isn’t accurate.) There were bits and pieces of goodness…
Read MoreCritique Your Own Songs: 6 Songwriting Questions That Can Teach You How!
My #1 goal in doing mentoring sessions is to help people learn how to critique their own songs… I’m trying to work my way out of a job, in a sense. If writers learn to critique their own work, then they don’t depend on me or anyone else to tell them when their songs are…
Read More3 Creative Ways For Songwriters To Make Money With Music
These days there are more ways to make money with music than you might imagine. These are not always huge money makers, but they can provide significant income if you get enough songs recorded in these areas. 1) Internet soap operas. I have a friend who made several thousand dollars in one day by selling…
Read MoreThe Truth About Pitching Songs (Revised 2021)
One of the biggest areas in which Clay and I see songwriters being scammed is in the area of pitching songs. There are untold numbers of services that will GLADLY take your money to “pitch your song”. But here is the truth about pitching songs… There are two big reasons that this pitching songs arena…
Read More4 Rookie Mistakes Songwriters Make
Act Like You Know! In the music business, your best bet is to try and ACT like you know what you are doing, even if you don’t. You want to come across to people like you know how things work in the big leagues even if you are just trying out for the farm team…
Read MoreSongwriters: Should You Pay Your Co-Writer To Demo Your Song?
5 Songwriting Scenarios… Recently, we had a lively and awesome debate in the private SongTown Masterclass page on Facebook about whether or not a “track guy” (Or girl) should charge their co-writers for building a track/demo for their song. There truly is no one right or wrong answer to that question. There might be times…
Read More5 Things I Would Tell My Younger Songwriter Self
Someone recently asked me what I wish I had known when I first started trying to be a professional songwriter. There’s a lot of advice I WISH someone had given me back then, but here are a few things I would share with my younger songwriter self based on what I know now. Don’t put…
Read More