A Week In The Life: A Surprising Look At The Schedule Of A Pro Songwriter

Several people have asked, so here is an outline of my week. It’s fairly typical with a few twists thrown in.

MONDAY

9 AM – Meet with Entertainment Attorney to Sign New Contract
10 AM – Deliver Signed Contracts to Publisher
10:30 AM – Write with a new artist that my publisher set me up with. Very good experience. Awesome voice. Came in with half a song already done!
11:30 AM – Finished and work taped the song.
12 PM – Met my daughters for lunch
1 PM – Went to grocery
2:30 PM – Prepped for Songtown Web Chat
3 PM – Web Chat Live
4:15 – Finished up Web Chat
5 PM Cooked Dinner and enjoyed family
8:30 PM – Reviewed ST Web Chat and wrote blogs
10 PM – Relax and Unwind

TUESDAY

9 AM – Songtown Mentoring Session
10:30 AM – Co-write with Sony Artist Ryan Griffin
12 PM – Probably finishing up our song
12:30 PM – Touch base with Song Pluggers and Give them ideas for upcoming pitch meetings
1 PM – Sontown Admin and blogs/Responding to E-mails
3 PM – Songtown Mentoring Session
5 PM – Date with my wife

WEDNESDAY

Songtown All Day/Finishing Up Songs/Scheduling and E-mails/Writing Blogs/Scheduling Co-Writes
Work on Song Ideas!!!!

THURSDAY

8:15 AM – Dentist
10:00 AM – Write with Jay Allen, Clay Mills
12:00 PM – Write with Rebecca Lynn Howard
3:45 PM – Songtown Mentoring Session
5:00 PM – Head Home
7 PM – Prep For Songtown Creative Retreat

FRIDAY

10:30 AM – Writing Double Header with Matt Rogers and Jeff Goldford
3 PM – Wind up the day
3:15 PM – Meet with song plugger Emily
7 PM – Cocktail Reception for Creative Retreat

SATURDAY AND SUNDAY

9 AM Until 6 PM each day: Writing and conducting the SongTown Writing Retreat- Nashville

I try to touch base with my song pluggers each day to give them pitch ideas. I’m more likely to get my songs pitched if I’m reminding them of older songs and interacting with them. We work as a team, and I give them lots of ideas and support.

I’m continually writing down ideas, but I also try to set aside a good chunk of time each week to only work on ideas. That keeps the database full.

Each week varies, but there’s always a lot of different things mixed in. That’s a week in the life. Let me know if you have questions!

Write on!
Marty Dodson