I'm a songwriter. How do I sell my songs or get people to sing it?
Hi.First, COPYRIGHT your songs.You do this by going here:Copyright Registration with the U.S. Copyright Office |You can save some money if you register several works at once. you can register just the lyrics, if you don’t have any music yet, or record a simple demo which contains : The lyrics sung, the melody, and the harmony and or rhythm that you use in your song.This way you guarantee that you are the original creator and owner of the works (songs).Second, once you have done this, you can make a recording of your songs, to be able to sell them.I have worked for several songwriters, including Jeff Barry (Jeff Barry) and some others.In every case, when selling songs to artists, they record a professional sounding demo (a demo is a version of a song which contains only the most basic elements of lyrics, melody, harmony and basic rhythm) but it sounds professional because they hire session musicians and singers in order to really capture the way they envision their song to sound like and how it is sung.They then take this demo and show it to various artists via their management, or in rare cases, directly to the artist.Once they get an artist or their management to agree to buy the song, you enter into negotiations as to who will get what percentage of the PUBLISHING. You should get 100% of the SONGWRITING royalty payments, because it is your song.This gets rather complicated, so I highly recommend that you hire an ENTERTAINMENT LAWYER to help you in the negotiations. They are well worth the price, since you will guarantee you won’t get screwed over by a shitty deal.After that, keep writing more songs, copyrighting them, recording demos of them, and selling them.
Am I a bad songwriter?
I (think) I am a songwriter, but recently I got rejected by a composer, so I'm beginning to doubt myself. Heres 2 songs written by me, both copyrighted, so please let me know what you think! And be honest! "Clock Made Out of Sand" Chorus: I'm screaming out/ No one hears me/ Calling for help/ No one lends a hand/ I'm dying now/ Can't you hear me?/ Time is falling/ Like a clock made out of sand// V1: I know I did you wrong/ Same old story/ Tell you time again/ That I'm sorry/ Tell me time again/ That you hate me/ Not too much now/ You may break me/ (Chorus) V2: I know I did you wrong/ Same old story/ Tell you time again that im sorry/ You know our love is just/ Like a movie/ But I say it now/ You Wont lose me/ Chorus: There is no tomorrow/ I'm too full of sorrow/ There is no tomorrow/ No more// V1: You tell me its over/ Our time here is through/ You leave me looking/ At you/ I tell you I'm sorry/ and that I can change/ But you say goodbye anyway/ (Chorus) V2: It begins raining as you walk away/ I'm hoping you'll love me/ Someday/ My hands in my pockets/ The rain falling down/ It seems there's nobody/ Around//
What is the difference between a songwriter and a lyricist?
Lyricists typically compose just the words, while a songwriter writes words and music that goes with the words. That "music" part usually includes the melody, the musical part that mostly closely associated with lyrics. So lyricists are closer to poets than a music composer. If a lyricist also started humming the melody that went with the words s/he wrote, then the lyricist should not call him/herself as such, s/he should be a songwriter. Incidentally, I have some experience with lyricists who say they are "writing songs" when what they actually write are just the words. It's semantics but I find it very confusing. Lyricists and poets are closely related (one may say lyricists are poets who can write in such a manner that their poems can function within the confines of a song) but writing lyrics and music are pretty different skills. Needless to say, lyrics alone will not constitute a song, so my suggestion is that if you are a lyricist you should state that you write lyrics, not songs. On the other hand, there are people who just write music and not words -- they most often identify themselves as composers, though if they mostly work on songs with words with lyricists, they may call it songwriting. But usually the term "song" implies that it has words so people who call themselves songwriters write both words and music. In that sense, songwriters are lyricists, though reverse is not always true. There are also "songs" in popular music that is purely instrumental, but people who write instrumental music usually don't identify themselves as "songwriters." I listen to some instrumental post-rock acts and sometimes they identify themselves as composers, but I don't see them call themselves songwriters. All this said, the terms used in English to describe the writing roles and pieces of music are pretty loosely defined. All of the above have some exceptions, so if you're trying to figure out someone else's role in writing a music, you should inquire/research to see the true nature of what they do. If you're simply trying to choose what to call yourself, then generally you can't go wrong with this formula: If you write only words (and no music, not even melodies), call yourself a lyricist. If you write only music and never words, call yourself a composer. If you write both words and music, then call yourself a songwriter.
Help Becoming a Famous Singer/Songwriter?
OK- I am 13 years old and my dream is to become a famous singer/songwriter. I hae dreamed about it since I was 6. But now I want to take action. I really don't think I will get discovered so I would like to try while I am young so I can still have a career if music fails. But there is always a chance... Well, I always gotten told I am a good singer. Even by the meanest, most brutally honest, jerkish guy I know. I don't think I am the best, but I think I am sounding better and it's worth a shot. I know the first tip every one is going to tell me is be realist. I am going to be. I want to try because I love singing, writing songs, playing guitar, and just about everything about music. I know that less than, like, 5% of people who try actually make it...but there is a chance. So I need help with a plan to become popular and get discovered. 1) I think I should get popular on Youtube. I have never made videos before, but I have a good video camera so I was thinking soon I could set it up and make a lot of videos of me singing. I would mostly do Taylor Swift songs and other country songs because that is what I mostly play. Some I would play guitar, others not. Should I post songs I wrote to? Or not? And how can I get really popular on YouTube? Is being a spammer a good idea? Or not? 20 I want to send in demos to all possible record companies. I know I am going to send a video to eleveneleven, Ellen DeGeneres's record label. I need to know other good record labels? And how can I get a demo to them. Do I need to go there? Or can I make a demo c.d with about 5 songs on it and send to to the record companies? Once again...original songs for that? Or not? OK, any other tips or suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thank you so much!
Can a person be registered as a songwriter on BMI and as a publisher through ASCAP?
No. If you're a BMI or ASCAP affiliated writer, you cannot belong to a different PRO as a publisher.If you’re a BMI writer, your publishing share is given to you if you don't have or belong to a publishing company. It is free to join BMI as a writer. If you want to create a publishing company as an individual/sole proprietorship, then the fee is $150. If you are a corporation, the cost is $250.If you’re an ASCAP writer, you have to create a publishing company with them in order to collect your publishing share. Currently, the fee to become a writer is $50 and to create your publishing company is $50.If you wanted to create a publishing company that will handle additional writers other than yourself, you must register your publishing company with both PROs in order to facilitate writers from either one.