Watch Out For The Songwriter Sharks

It seems like almost every week, a new site pops up offering songwriters something amazing! “Get your songs in front of Nashville producers!” “We want to help you get cuts!” “Learn to write HIT songs in 10 minutes!” The shark hype goes on and on.

The truth is…if these people could get YOU cuts, they would be getting cuts themselves.

Many of them tried and failed to get cuts on their own, so they start charging you to teach you how to do it. Something about that approach seems off to me.

If I were building a house, I would want a builder who had built many great houses…

A builder that had stood the test of time. I would be leery of someone who had built one house, maybe with an experienced builder doing most of the work.

There are many sharks in the water circling the songwriter life rafts.

They know how much passion you have for your music. They know how bad you want to succeed. And they know that, if they promise you the moon, you’ll pay them until you figure out that they can’t keep their promises to you. So, they lure you with fame in fortune and go in for the kill if they can get you out of the life raft.

One of our foundational principles at SongTown is integrity.

We won’t make a promise to you that we can’t keep. That’s why our focus is on helping you write better songs. That’s really the answer to succeeding. It’s not a short-cut or a quick fix, but it’s the truth. We can help you learn to write better songs. And we can teach you how we have succeeded in the music business. Beyond that, it’s up to you to continue learning and growing as a writer. We can’t write a hit for you. And we can’t help you get an average song cut. We can’t get our own average songs cut. If you have a GREAT song, we can connect you with people who can help you get it placed if they like it too. That’s reality and truth.

Just be careful who you trust with your time and your precious dollar. Check into their history. See if they have succeeded at a high level for a long time, if they’ve had very limited success, or if they haven’t had any real success on their own at all. Then, decide who you want to help you build your “house”.

Clay and I have succeeded for 20 years each in the music business, with multiple #1’s and over 100 songs recorded each. We invite you to check out our body of work. (MartyDodson.com & ClayMills.com) And we invite you to join us on a “real” journey of trying to write a better song today than we did yesterday. That’s what SongTown is all about.

And, don’t feed the sharks. There’s already plenty of blood in the water.

~MD