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What Do You Do With Your Songs?


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Hi

I thought it might be interesting to see what you guys do with your songs? Okay so you write them... then what? Do you record them yourself, or try and get other artists to record them? Are you involved in pitching your songs or do you rely on a broker? Are you involved in promoting your songs / music?

It's a huge and variable area with songwriter's writing for many reasons so no single approach will work for all.

Cheers

John

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I write, play and record all of my songs but always with the thought that they'll need to be re-done professionally. The first thing I need to do is get the songs recorded correctly so I actually have a "product". I do have a well thought out plan for an EP or CD, but I can't do any of it without cash. So for now, I keep writing, playing and recording as much as possible so I have more songs to pick from when the time comes for me to actually record.

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Sometimes the writing process is a figure - it - out - as - I - record - ideas type thing. In the past, I'd take the ideas to the band and we'd figure out the other instrumentations. Now that I'm solo, I record an acoustic rough draft, solicit feedback and then record a second draft eventually leading up to a "final" piece.

I would like to have an EP released before the end of the year. Naturally, I'm only doing it for fun and don't care if I sell one, but it's always cool to tell people "I'm on iTunes!"

I'd LOVE to press a vinyl.... that would be awesome.

I'm really just keeping the songs as mine these days, writing, recording and playing. I haven't brought any one else into the mix yet, but I certainly would like to play a show or two with a three piece in the future.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I do nothing after I write them. I have tried recording, but I always have trouble with timing and adding multiple instruments (I'm a one man band, so I (try to) do everything). I also cannot sing, so even if I get all the instruments "down", that's as far as it would get.

Maybe if I get some instruments recorded, I could get Mr. Bieber's contact information from Tom and I could have Justin sing them for me...

~Daniel~

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  • 4 weeks later...

I'm a lyrics-only (well, sometimes the melody) person, so after writing (and revising) a lyric, I send it off to a co-writer for music/arrangement/vocals. If it comes back sounding like a 'keeper', I send it to a music library. In this case, it's MusicDealers.com. Last year they licensed a song of mine for an episode in the US TV series 'Hell Cats'. I was tickled pink. :) I submit other songs to various pitch opportunities, including through TAXI. (Had a couple of 'forwards' there recently - for heavy-metal songs, of all things :rolleyes: - though likely nothing will come of them.)

For the most part, though, I simply share my songs on a site or two where I hope folks might enjoy them. :)

Edited by DonnaMarilyn
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I play them at gigs! I've had a few live gig recordings done and send them on to get more gigs etc so they've been useful for me. I haven't done a studio recording in a while though. I play most of them acoustic guitar style but i'd love to add more to them in a studio.

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I tend not to finalize my songs. All songs i wrote years ago are sleeping on harddisc or tape.

But since i work together wid someone who can take care of mixing - i just do the performance

of my new songs and he mixes it and hopfully masters it - playable on any device.

Distribution:

I could ask a friend who got his own label and then could be my aggregator to WB. But the money

you will gain from one download of your song is a funny joke. There are too many people between

the major and the artists which just take their piece of the cake. 5% or less will remain. Noooo ... ...

ok maybe i will think about.

- But i also think bandcamp is a very good alternative. Own artwork, You can promote on youtube or

other video websites. But it seems not so safe into copyright law.

Promoting Songs:

- Open channels like youtube can bring you some fame if you re good. We recently thought

about a lofi video made by us just for the fun of it. Some funny ideas ... i guess we will.

- Till then I just run a website and will upload our songs on it. And make the artwork for each song.

When we got a ep i will think about a distribution with that label or wid bandcamp.

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  • Noob

I write the songs, i record the songs, then i compile an album, and give it to cdbaby.com. 50 dollars for digital distribution of your album. No yearly fee, i make 63 cents for every 99 cent download from itunes. Sweet deal. As many songs on an album as you can make. Genius! Insert smiley here.

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  • 1 month later...
  • Noob

I play guitar but don't really sing so much of my material is pretty-sounding acoustic stuff with a fairly loose structure. However the last 12 months has seen me write with a bit more purpose so some 'real' songs have eventuated. Some are played with the band I'm in and some (ok, just one) have been submitted to a songwriting competition.

I know my way around my DAW of choice (reaper) so usually do a complete arrangement of my songs to the point where I can get the vocal track dropped in, preferrably by someone who can sing. Though I will say that I've recently been subverted to the dark side of personal computing (Apple) and am pretty impressed with garage band (no flaming, please).

Oh and most of the songs make it onto Soundcloud at some stage http://www.soundclou...m/timothykierse (all comments welcome)

From here, I'm considering Taxi for pitching songs as I'm attracted by their promise of critiqueing songs by 'people who know their stuff' and don't mind the 'made to order' approach of their listings.

Cheers,

Tim

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  • 1 month later...

Hello everybody... I'm new to this site and surely DON'T know how to use it but liked this topic so i'll just jump in if you don't mind.I've been writing now for quite a while and one thing i've learned over the years is that it doesn't matter how good the song is it's who you know. The "big" boys WON'T listen to your song because they don't know you and they have thier own "click" they refer to if they are looking for a new song.It's a shame to because i've heard some dang good songs from some very talented writers but like I said they won't stray away from thier own.Now, to get back to the conversation...lol. I write my own music and lyrics and have written with a co-writer on three of my songs but that doesn't work well either unless you both have the same road in mind. I have my songs professionally recorded in Nashville by professional demo singers and studio musicians.I DON'T do this to every song I write because I would be totally broke but try to do it as much as possible.The one thing i've learned is that if you DON'T put the money behind your music they WON'T even bother listening to them.Its not like it was 20 years ago when you could just send in a song on a cassette tape, now it HAS TO BE "PROFESSIONALLY" done so that they don't have to do anything to it except hand it off. It's a shame to because most people can't afford to do that and there are lots of songs that are great but will never be heard because of that fact. I have hired "pluggers" and promoters but the thing is you just never know what they are doing, they may just be taking your money and partying with it and you'll never know but you do it anyway with the dream that it will pay off in the long run.I have tried just about everything I know but I just keep on trying no matter what. I know i'm not the best writer for sure but the other thing I know is that I write darn good music.I hope that someone out there makes it for the little guy...lol. I think the best thing would be to find VERY SERIOUS bands and singers that are trying to make it in the biz and get them to record your songs and take a percentage of the cd's they sell at least that way it's out there for people to hear and youi get a little money. Does anyone know of any sites where you can go and meet people looking for songs? Take care everyone and HAPPY HOLIDAYS.........

Edited by Muzikguy
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Been about a year since I've posted on the site, glad to be back and back doing music after a year of studying!

I write songs both for guitar or live fretboard instruments (my favourite that I own being the Irish bouzouki!) but I'm mainly writing songs on my computer, using Logic. This means I'm usually writing as I'm producing and don't always know where the song is going when I'm half way through. Does anyone else do this with their songs? I think it's a bad habit for me (I know bands that do it amazingly well), I reckon that I need to think more carefully about the pace and journeys of my songs for them to be ultimately successful.

Anyways, I've been doing a lot of composing for film and theatre recently so they tend to get used for that, then I upload them to Youtube and Bandcamp but any personal songs I do I upload to Soundcloud to test how they do and then remaster them a little bit because I undoubtedly feel unsatisfied with certain elements. I want to start building more of a base of my own personal songs on Youtube, not just my soundtracks.

As for promotion, I'm mainly using Facebook. Got an artist page a couple of months ago and whilst the fans are still mostly made up of friends, I've started to get a few friend-of-friend likes which has been positive. Unsure of many other ways to promote myself. I figure playing live would be excellent but I can't perform my Logic songs live and I don't have recordings of my guitar and bouzouki songs so what would I be promoting aside from just my name.

Evidently need to think a few things through!

Glad to be back, hope to be back on track with the learning.

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Well I tend to make at least ten songs a day most of them are pretty poor so they don't make it past my notepad on my computer but occasionally I write a decent song and record it on my phone (lol) and upload it to youtube. I do try to promote my music but I'm not very good at it yet so here is my best attempt :P

here is my youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/liamlikesmusic/videos?flow=grid&view=1

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well, I mostly abandon mine before I finish them, but ultimately I'm going to start making CGI music videos for youtube. Maybe see if I can get an iTunes account set up. Just need to find a vocalist. My mother said she could put me in touch with my cousin's granddaughter but I'm apprehensive about working with minors even if they are family.

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I write them first, obviously...I have about 5 notebooks full of sketches of riffs, chords, melodies, etc.

Of ones I really like, I record them.

Then, from there I decide whether or not they're good enough to put out.

For my latest record, for example, I've recorded probably 15 (?) songs...with 35 to go. Then I will decide which of those will go on the album...the rest go away on a hard drive...an archive or vault you could say.

Then I release singles on Youtube, Bandcamp, and Newgrounds.com

Then I release the albums on Youtube and Bandcamp

As for promotion, I don't really know how to promote or build fans. So I'm basically releasing music to/for no one :/ But oh well...I do have a tiny amount of fans, but oh well. I'm hoping to reach a wider audience with this next album, I just don't know how I'm gonna do it on the cheap.

Edited by LemonCrush
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Since my band broke up I've been recording more on my own, trying to figure out some things with DAW. I do this for several reasons, for one thing I wanted some halfway decent recordings. I put them out on soundcloud occasionally. Another reasons is learning how to use the program, which has been helpful, I learned quite a bit. I know that I will need professional studio recordings, just not right now. I don't promote much, mostly I just show friends on facebook. I don't think it's important now, because they're not professional recordings and I don't have all the instruments, it's just me. My plan mostly is to play shows with a band, possibly make amateur album to give out to people, and then record band in professional studio.

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