07/11/2020
Here's a thought for my fellow songwriters.
We want to make money from our songs right? Well, when someone buys an album (or these days buys a single song) they are not just buying a song that they want to listen to. It's more than that. They are buying an experience. An emotional experience. Be it a happy one, sad, angry, funny... They are paying for the way a song makes them feel. There are a lot of good songs out there, even great ones, that never saw much popularity simply because the song failed to evoke some emotion in the listener. When we wright about Our experience in the song, we are emotionally tied to it, but the listener isn't yet. They become emotionally effected by it when it makes them feel the same thing, because they can relate to it somehow. This is what people will press that .99 cent download button for. And if we are consistently making people feel something with our songs, they will become a fan. So when we have written a song, try to step away from it and become the first time listener and ask... What can I use this for in my life? What mood does this support? Can others use it for their life situations too? Remember, once that song is written and out there, it's not ours anymore, it now belongs (in a sence) to the listener, for them to use in their life situations. Our job as songwriters is to write the soundtrack to other people's lives, not just our own. So as we write let's try to keep this in mind...
'Make people Feel something.'
It's one of the keys to being marketable and a crucial ingredient in the recipe of a "hit". I don't have this nailed yet myself, but I'm working on it and sharing the journey with you!
-"Songwriters write the soundtrack of life."
Happy writing !!
