“Great means incredibly well crafted, easily memorable, with a universally relatable sentiment and a sense of authenticity—“from the heart” as they say. Iconic means touching a cultural nerve, standing the test of time and instantly recognizable by many people - that holds true even if it’s not widely considered… Read more...
The end of a year—and the beginning of a new one—is a perfect time to reassess our goals and recommit to them. I hope that revisiting the excerpts that follow will help you all attain a successful 2022. Excerpt from “Bring Me Something New—What Song Publishers Really Mean”… Read more...
I was recently asked how the tools and techniques I teach today differ from those I have taught in the past. Have I noticed any recent changes in successful songs and in the processes of writing them? I looked back over the thirty years that I have been teaching songwriting,… Read more...
BMI is proud to celebrate the 20th anniversary of its R&B/Hip-Hop Awards, recognizing the genre’s top songwriters, producers and publishers of the previous year. BMI’s Song of the Year, Songwriter of the Year, Producer of the Year, Publisher of the Year and 2020’s Social Star were announced across BMI’s digital… Read more...
The Songwriters Hall of Fame unveiled its list of inductees for 2020, and once again, BMI is very proud to count members of this august class of music creators as its own. Initially conceived to honor and celebrate the work of songwriters, composers and lyricists responsible for the world’s most… Read more...
At my BMI Nashville Songwriters’ Workshops, I screen and critique songs from each attendee. When I find songs that I believe are competitive with those being written by today’s top hitmakers, I forward them to ten music publishers who have agreed to listen. After the last BMI Workshop, I forwarded… Read more...
Tonight, BMI proudly honored acclaimed film composer Harry Gregson-Williams with the BMI Icon Award at the 2018 BMI London Awards. Guests including Liam Payne, James Arthur, Natasha Bedingfield, Tinie Tempah and Trevor Rabin attended the awards at London’s Dorchester Hotel for an evening of celebration for UK and European songwriters,… Read more...
BMI honored internationally renowned super producer, artist, songwriter and DJ Mark Ronson last night with the BMI Champion Award at its 66th Annual BMI Pop Awards. The evening also celebrated the songwriters, publishers and administrators of the past year’s most-performed pop songs in the United States from BMI’s extensive catalogue.… Read more...
What constitutes a hook? Any element of a song that grabs a listener’s attention and “hooks” them in. With there being so much competition for our listeners’ attention, including multiple hooks throughout our songs has become more important than ever. According to an article in The Atlantic magazine, “A short-attention-span… Read more...
At the time this article was written every song in the top-10 on Billboard’s Pop, Country, Christian, and R & B/Hip-Hip charts was the result of collaboration. Out of forty top-10 hits, zero were created by a solo writer. I’m not insinuating that successful songs are never written by one… Read more...
Captured at 2012 BMI Urban Awards
