Placing/marketing Lyrics

[Dennee]

I have a lot of lyrics piled up and very little time to do anything with them. I am not a musician and don't personally know any musicians any more. (Wow, how did that happen?) I am also a writer and poet (and for money, an editor), and I see ads in mags like Writer's Digest that ask for lyrics, but before I send them anything, I want to know if anyone knows if they are scams of some kind? (Edlee Music, Majestic Records, Song Partners, Empire Music, etc. Since they offer "free appraisals," I'm suspecting there is something else that's NOT free.) I'd also welcome advice about finding a collaborating musician to work with. Where to start? I've written a wide range of stuff--maybe it's mostly pop, but also blues, country, rock, inspirational. In addition, I have a great (if I do say so myself) Christmas song, and somehow came up with something that sounds like a Celine Dion or Barbara Streisand. The Christmas song and a couple of the others have music already, but most of my lyrics still need music, and I've come to the conclusion that I will never have time to master an instrument. It's also pretty clear that no matter how good a lyricist you are, you can't sell anything unless you have a professional-quality demo. Anyone have any advice?

[Retrosaurus Rex]

Hi Dennee, welcome to SongStuff.

Your concern about those shops that are looking for lyrics is well-founded. Many of these offer a free "evaluation" which is the precursor to a full-blown pitch where they swear you're the next great songwriter, and all you have to do is pay for your half of the "professional" demo, $500.00 or so, plus a fee for their song-plugger, and you're on your way to stardom. When you get the "professional" demo you find it's mediocre at best, and then you look around and find you could get a better demo done for as little as $50.00 a song. The worst of these require a contract that effectively makes them co-writers, so they can try to muscle in on a piece of the action if any future version of the lyric gets anywhere. Of course, some of these are legitimate studios that do their thing as a work-for-hire, but mostly these put out the same canned melodies and arrangements over and over. Even with a high quality demo, such a song is not going to stand out among the 1,000s of other songs that it's going to be competing with.

The answer for this SongStuff! ...and other sites like it, depending on your focus. Post some lyrics for review. Read and review other people's work honestly and sincerely. There are also boards for people posting music, with and without lyrics. If you like someone's style take the first step and approach them about collaboration. Don't take rejection personally. Seriously, get involved and connect with people. Even in genres that have traditionally been open to outside writers and songs, like country and pop, more and artists are writing their own material, or strongly favoring their own inner-circle of people they work with regularly. So, if you want your lyrics to go someplace, they need to be matched with distinctive music, and you're unlikely to find that without connecting with a co-writer who will take a personal interest in your work, as you should take a personal interest in their's.

I wish you success and look forward to seeing your work.

[Dennee]

Thanks! That's very helpful.

[Retrosaurus Rex]

I'm glad you found it helpful. Also useful insights are to be found in this topic pinned in the lyric review section:

wherein valued member Carnival shares his experience working with a collaborator