BMI made the trip to the Delta and brought homegrown music to the International Broadcasters Idea Bank annual spring conference, held recently (5/14) in Cleveland, Mississippi. BMI songwriter and Ride recording artist Steve Azar entertained more than 100 independent radio owners and executives at the GRAMMY Museum in Cleveland with… Read more...
I can’t count how many times I’ve heard songwriters complain that they can’t get a song recorded unless they write it with the artist. It’s true that you would be hard-pressed to find more than a handful of current pop, R&B, hip-hop, rock, Americana, or alternative recording artists who rely… Read more...
A Nashville music publisher posted on Facebook that a song she represents had been placed “on hold.” The responses and questions that followed pointed out how much misinformation and confusion there is about what having a song on hold means–and what it does not mean. There’s a world of difference… Read more...
At a songwriting conference I attended, GRAMMY winning singer/songwriter Colbie Caillat shared some comments that her father, record producer and engineer Ken Caillat (Fleetwood Mac, Frank Sinatra, the Beach Boys) had made regarding bridges in songs. He had stated that bridges are crucial elements because they are typically the final… Read more...
Turning the page on a new year is exciting! We get 365 new opportunities to accomplish goals and live our dreams. But success is rarely realized by dreaming unless it is accompanied by action. So … here are some tips to help you attain all that you hope for in… Read more...
Imagine receiving airplay and earning income from a song year after year and having that same song be recorded by multiple artists over a span of decades. That is what can happen with a holiday-themed song. For many songwriters and music publishers, landing a holiday recording that becomes the next… Read more...
To grab our listeners’ attention we need to separate our songs from the competition, and one way to accomplish this is by including an unexpected twist—an element of surprise. This article examines various ways to incorporate twists into lyrics and melodies. Story Songs With Surprise Endings “Ol’ Red” (written by… Read more...
J-Pop and K-Pop, respectively, refer to wildly popular (and lucrative) genres of pop music recorded in Japan and South Korea. In many instances, these songs garner airplay and sales in additional Asian countries, and are sometimes translated into Mandarin for promotion in the Chinese market, as well. Young hopeful artists… Read more...
Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to join together this music with this lyric in holy matrimony … As it relates to songwriting, the marriage of words and music is referred to as prosody. When prosody is effectively employed, a song’s music and lyrics present a united front that… Read more...
In their quests for songwriting success, many writers engage a variety of paid services. This article offers a glimpse at some of the companies and services that pitch songs for licensing in television and films, and those that pitch their members’ material for placement with recording artists, music publishers, and… Read more...
