7 Laws For Smart Songwriting

Music surrounds us every day – we hear it while driving the car, shopping in the mall, or eating in a restaurant. It has become a part of our everyday routine, and some of us can’t imagine an hour of our lifetime without a favorite song.

Music is something we aspire to. It’s something that communicates emotions rather than words. It motivates us to work, rest, cook, exercise. There’s a song for everything we do. It awakes right emotions, so that we can get more motivated.

And if you belong to that type of people, who like to sing about their emotions, you’re probably a potential songwriter. It may seem that if you have an ear for music and a poetic talent, it would be super easy for you to right a hit song.

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Live Performances Are About More Than The Music

I had started writing some posts and giving advice on my social media pages, as my way of giving some advice regarding some of the things that I see and hear, both at shows, and on artists’ social media pages. It always seemed to be the same things, coming from “artists,” who excel in playing the blame game: making excuses for why they aren’t succeeding. So, I thought that I would try to be helpful, by calling artists out on their behaviors! It may not be popular, or politically correct, but if an artist can’t handle the truth and some constructive criticism, then they are in the completely WRONG business.

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How To Write An E-mail Pitch That Gets Your Music Heard

Here are the five key elements you should include to make your pitch e-mails stand out from the rest.

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In The Band: 4 Tips To Having The Best Tour Of Your Music Career

If you’re in a band, you’ve likely dreamt of going on tour. This can be a great time to explore new territories and play for appreciative audiences. However, as fun as a tour can be, you need to take things seriously. A great tour requires plenty of extensive planning. Here are four tips to having the best tour of your music career.

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Urgent Warning!: Time Is Running Out For Artists & Writers To Exercise Their Termination Rights Under U.S. Copyright Law

 1976 Copyright Act provides for the termination of copyright transfers – but authors need to act within a limited timeframe. Creators are entitled to reclaim their copyrights regardless of any contract stating otherwise after certain time periods. Therefore, even if an author, artist, musician, photographer or songwriter signed a contract which purports to transfer all rights in a work for perpetuity, the Copyright Act provides that the author of the work can terminate that grant and demand that the rights revert. Authors and creators are now entitled to terminate their contractual transfers and demand back control of their copyrights; authors can terminate their book publishing contracts, songwriters can demand return of their musical compositions from music publishers and recording artists and record producers can demand return of their sound recordings from the record companies.

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10 Gigging Mis-haps For Your Band To Avoid

It’s show time! There you are, waiting in the wings for what’s shaping up to be one heck of night, and lo and behold, something’s gone wrong. Here’s a few common problems you might face as a gigging band, and how to deal with them as and when they occur.

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15 Best Part-Time Jobs For Musicians

This post was written by Lisa Occhino and originally appeared on the Bandzoogle Blog

You were probably well aware when you decided to pursue music as a career that money wasn’t exactly going to start pouring in on day one. It’s no secret that until you’re able to earn a full-time living as a musician, you’ll need to supplement your income in some way.

The key is finding jobs that provide some financial stability, but also flexibility so you can still play gigs, rehearse, write, and go out on tour.

While having a side job that’s related to music is awesome for obvious reasons, many of the best jobs for musicians are actually in completely different fields, allowing you to dedicate all of your creative energy to your craft. The 15 jobs for musicians below are far from an exhaustive list, but use this as a starting place to see what jumps out at you or sparks an idea.

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Everyone Wants To Build Their Fanbase

I ask everyone who joins my email list at HTSR what the single, biggest, most important thing that they are worried about or trying to do when they are making or releasing music, and here’s a selection of responses (these are actual quotes):

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The Digital vs. Acoustic Piano Showdown

Not unlike everything else around us, the world of piano has been shifting away from analog to digital. The ease and convenience of digital pianos has shifted the market from the expensive, heavy, loud acoustic piano, to the lightweight, inexpensive, volume controlled digital piano. 

Are they all they’re cracked up to be? Or is there still room for the “oldfashioned” analog piano? 

Let’s find out! 

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The Proven Formula For Achieving Music Business Success

You are likely to struggle in your music career when you don’t follow a proven formula for success. Musicians who reach their goals faster than everyone else follow one formula in particular.

The formula successful musicians follow to achieve the highest levels of success is this:

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5 Keys To Success As A Garage Band

So, you have a guitar, a voice, and some friends that want to make music. Well, in order to succeed in this difficult industry you’re going to need some help. Many bands try and fail hard because they don’t remember these important factors that will help you reach your dreams of rocking the big stage.

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The Essentials For Buying A Reasonably Priced Bass Guitar

It can be somewhat naive to think that there’s a sure gem among all those dirt-cheap guitars you see being sold online and in music stores. You know there’s bound to be a catch - a plasticky feel here, an awful tone there, or some structural damage that can cause you to spend more on having the guitar fixed than the guitar itself. 

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3 Reasons Why Your Music Career Fails Even When You Have A Lot Of Musical Talent

3 Reasons Why Your Music Career Fails Even When You Have A Lot Of Musical Talent

By Tom Hess

You must build your music career in many areas besides musical talent if you want to succeed. Here are the main reasons why musical talent isn’t enough:

1. You Don’t Know How The Music Industry Really Works

People call the music business a business for a reason. You become successful in your music career when you learn how to make yourself valuable as a potential business partner for others in this industry. This involves learning how to earn a great living from music alone so you don’t need to work full time at a non-music day job just to get by.

2. You Don’t Have A Way To Leave Your Day Job And Earn Money From Music

One of the most common music career traps you need to avoid is getting stuck working 40 hours per week at your day job while your music career slowly fades over time. To avoid the frustration and regret that comes with this, you need to learn how to create multiple sources of music-related income.

You don’t have to rely on a single paycheck to pay your bills when you earn money from many sources at once. When you understand how to make money from many sources in a passive manner, you gain both time AND money. This way you have more time to pursue musical projects and grow your music career.

3. You Take Advice From People Who Are Not Professional Musicians

You’ve no doubt received tons of music career advice from people who never made it in this business. Although these people mean well, it’s a very bad idea to follow the advice they give you. For instance, a lot of people say that working in the music business is a very unstable way to make a living. They tell you that you must go to college to get a degree as a backup plan. Following this advice only leads to you spending less time with music and more time in some other field (with added student loan debt).

Want to reach your music career goals faster? Read the concepts of this music industry article to learn how to stay away from the most common pitfalls that prevent musicians from succeeding.

About The Author:

Tom Hess is an online guitar teacher, recording artist and music career coach. As a music career coach, he helps musicians from many countries break into the music industry. On his music instruction website you can find out how to become a pro musician and learn how the music industry works.

3 Reasons Why Your Music Career Fails Even When You Have A Lot Of Musical Talent

Songwriting And Building A Sustainable Career

1. As a songwriter, what type of environment do you find you write the best in? What sorts of things or tools do you need around to be in the right headspace to write?

I have a home studio I work from, which can be both convenient and distracting. You basically never have to change out of your pj’s, although extremely comfortable, it can slow the process down. I actually love to write in new locations, i.e other people’s studios, writing spaces, in nature, etc. As far as tools go, another person is usually preferred  in the process for me. I thrive off of collaboration and other artists’ energy. Having a piano and guitars laying around is great too, as I write differently depending which instrument I have in hand. I used to rely on being inspired to write, but when you are trying to make it your path, you really have to become consistent and productive.

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