Hit Song Challenge - Pt 1

[younine]

I didn't understand the challenge i thought to make exposure to track's people got to comment their stuff

[john]

27 minutes ago, younine said:

I didn't understand the challenge i thought to make exposure to track's people got to comment their stuff

 

No worries. You could do this yourself, but it is a personal challenge, to help writers and artists grow and break new ground, try new things.

 

Ideally you would collaborate with a team of up to 5 people. Part of the challenge is in assembling the team, writing and recording the song and then releasing it and promoting it.

[James Anderson]

for   the   Ateam     i  am   toying    with   the   idea  of  writing   a   anti  drug   song     for  the  hitsongchallenge      i  thought  this   might  be a good  band  project      i   have  never taken  drugs       but  as a young  guitarist    i did  know   a blue's   guitarist      that  i looked  up to     he  had  emense  tallent     but  his one  failing    was smoking   cannibus    and   he  did  get  a prison  sentence   for smoking  it  or supplying  it   i am not  quiet sure  which   he  was  a big  insperation   for me  when  he talked   he  was  great  for  playing  hendrix music  he told  me the story of  one night  he was playing  purple  haze  in a bar   years  after  jimi  had died    and  a women  in the  audence shouted  out   hendrix  is  alive   and then  fainted    after  hearing  this   that  night  i composed  a song  called jimi  hendrix   is  not  my  name     from the prospectus  of   this is what  the blues  guitarist  should have played  next   the  angle  i was  going to write  the anti  drug song   was   from   the  blues guitarist being  the  mentor   and  i being  the  student     i being  more  rock  orientated     and frustrated  with  him his mind  all over the  place    i write and  play this song  as   a telling  of  to him   and   show  him   that  a blues  guitarist  may  pick  the notes  he plays  carefully    but a rock  guitarist   cranks  that  up  a lot  more    and  through the  song  i am going  to have  to come up with   some  blues concepts  that  no other  blues player  has  ever  heard     i  would  like to  hear  what   songstuff  members  think  of this  idea    and    do any  of you think  the world  is  waiting  for the next  guitar  hero 

[tomcollins]

Just seen this... I'm so lame...lol 

 

[James Anderson]

hi   Tom  you are  not  lame   you  are cool    i  want  people   to  laugh    and be intertained  by  what  i write    and  the music  and  lyrics    i come  up  with     i have found  most of  my  life   when  i say  i am  going  to do  something    most  people  say   are  you  joking  and  i  say  no  i am not   and  manage some  how  to  do what  i  say    i  want  to be  a insperation  to  others  on  songstuff    i  feel   we  all  have  our destiny in  our  own   hands  this  hit songchallenge    i would  say for the  last  42  years   was   what  i have been  building  up  to    i  have  always had  the  vision   since i was  16  and  started  having  musical thoughts which  i  put  down  to being  left  handed    i  went out and  bought  a electric  guitar   and thought   one  day  i will come  out  of the woodwork  the  quote  i have  come up with  for this competion   for entering it   is       It   will   take  one    song  from  me  to  put  me  on the   map   and then   a  second   to  keep   me  on  the   map  

[John W Selleck]

Hi James,

The first/only rock band I ever played in, circa 1965,  had a lead guitarist so talented he could listen to anything a couple of times then play it lick for lick. We won a battle of the bands and cut a 45. The band fell apart when the guitarist, a friend of mine, and the drummer both landed in an asylum from bad trips on acid. The guitarist, to my knowledge, never got out. What a waste. He is not the only person i have seen ruined by drugs, and before anyone thinks I am holier than thou, I did more than my share in the late 60' early 70's. Good luck with your song.

[James Anderson]

thanks  john   i will  do   my   best

[john]

17 hours ago, tomcollins said:

Just seen this... I'm so lame...lol 

 

you would be ideal for a team Tommy boy. In fact you would be great driver for any team (no, not the limo driver!)

[tomcollins]

6 hours ago, john said:

you would be ideal for a team Tommy boy. In fact you would be great driver for any team (no, not the limo driver!)

Crossed crossed a few high seas, and slept it off in limousines.

Bout as close I've come to driving one😌

So..... Let's make some noise!!

[crystalsuzy]

Is it OK to submit a song that you do on your own?

[john]

On 11/18/2019 at 9:34 AM, john said:

Although you do not need collaborators, this is an ideal time to experiment.

@crystalsuzy absolutely.... although the PR aspects it would be good to have collaborators, but it is your choice. You are challenging yourself here.

[crystalsuzy]

7 hours ago, john said:

@crystalsuzy absolutely.... although the PR aspects it would be good to have collaborators, but it is your choice. You are challenging yourself here.

OK thanks. I understand the PR aspects, but I would have know idea how to get collaborators together on songstuff.  I don't know anybody and I don't think anyone would want to collaborate with me anyway.

I know it can be any style, but I'm wondering what audience we're aiming to write a hit song for, because if it has to be anything like what's popular on the radio these days, I'm not interested.

Edited March 9, 2020 by crystalsuzy

[john]

There is no genre requirement. The idea is to challenge yourself to write a song specifically to be popular (rather than serving only artistic vision, that artistic vision has to be filtered through a “popular” filter.) It is a learning exercise. There is no doubt it challenges us as writers, producers, and music marketers.

 

So, for example, you could write prog rock with a view to writing a popular, successful prog rock hit... or whatever genre you want. I think for many “serve only the artistic vision” writers/producers they don’t realise for a large number of popular oriented writers, that is simply a set of additional filters on top of the artistic vision, rather than instead of the artistic vision. It’s worth remembering that most genres have been the de facto popular music of the day at some point. Understanding what make something popular or not takes effort to learn. Intuition only takes you so far.

 

Also worth remembering is that music is communication between writer, performer and listener. To get a hit you have to be communicating very effectively. That is a big part of the challenge. Hits come when the writing, production and promotion are all communicating very effectively. All have to be creative, challenging, and achieving a good balance between new ideas and the familiar, it has to be memorable and catchy. Different genres have different core lyrical needs. One genres are more forgiving, or more rigid than others.

 

Personally I love to challenge myself. It’s a huge part of my growth as a writer. I also think when 
I get the balance right, I also challenge the audience to just the right level... but that’s me.

 

I hope you try the challenge, and enjoy it!

[crystalsuzy]

thanks John, that explanation really helped. I do like to challenge myself when it comes to song writing, but I guess I've mainly focused on artistic vision, so this will be an interesting challenge. I'm not sure that I have the skills to even write a hit song, let-a-lone produce or market one. I can see why a collaboration would be helpful. Where can I find out what the "additional filters on top of the artistic vision" would be, and how is the best place to start such a project? Listening to popular songs in a genre I prefer, and trying to imitate the production and writing? Any suggestions would be helpful. thanks

Edited March 9, 2020 by crystalsuzy

[Dakota Cochran]

On 1/28/2020 at 2:58 PM, John W Selleck said:

The first/only rock band I ever played in, circa 1965,  had a lead guitarist so talented he could listen to anything a couple of times then play it lick for lick. The band fell apart when the guitarist, a friend of mine, and the drummer both landed in an asylum from bad trips on acid.

 
So sorry to hear the loss of a modern Mozart, yet happy you are here and together enough to tell the tale J.W.S. 
 

[Dakota Cochran]

On 11/18/2019 at 4:34 AM, john said:

There is more. Step 1, assemble your team and name your “band” project. This might include askinging non-members to join Songstuff. Step 2 start writing!

 

@Timbre @DonnaMarilyn  @McnaughtonPark  @symphonious7 @Pahchisme Plaid  @Ray888 @ALOPRODUCTIONZ

@Rudi @Peggy

@Lisa Gates @snabbu @Patty Lakamp

@Capo3tanya @Kimberly Shires @Glammerocity @TPistilli

@TodaysTomSawy3r

@TwistedJourney @Witness @Kristiana Azariah

@Kel @Strat1958

@Mahesh @Lisa Gates @James Anderson @SongWriterJoe @Michan @Tom Collins

If we are still going, I saw initially you thought a month for the challenge, then I saw the repetitive "Self-Challenge" memo being posted.

To clarify the big questions: 

How may a team become featured by Songstuff?

Which team or teams, will receive the promotion services mentioned in the original post? 

When Songstuff Promotes any given Producer/Labels Published Work, what is the entirety of, if existent, any Policy, Code of Conduct, or Binding Legal Agreements governing the Producer/Labels Published Work?

In other words;

Will the Promoter, "Songstuff" take a Percentage of the Producer/Labels Royalties?
Will the Promoter, (a.) direct traffic to the Producer/Labels YouTube Channel, Spotify Artist Page, and other direct streaming services  (b.) embed the Producer/Labels Published Work into the Songstuff streaming services and or (c.) License, by means of ISRC Licensing, the Producer/Labels Published Work to use "At-Will" per terms of said License
 

 

Edited March 11, 2020 by Dakota Cochran

[tomcollins]

I wanna jump in on this.

Anyone needung to colab hit me up. Have a few strong points I can offer 

Rock on!!

[John W Selleck]

Anyone want to try this in "Country", Christian Country", or "Gospe"l? I have tons of great lyrics looking for a home. I can also send a voice only MP3 for tempo/timing/feel if anyone wants to have a go at this. I would offer vocals but I haven't found a studio here on Saipan.

Edited March 11, 2020 by John W Selleck

[john]

17 hours ago, Dakota Cochran said:

If we are still going, I saw initially you thought a month for the challenge, then I saw the repetitive "Self-Challenge" memo being posted.

To clarify the big questions: 

How may a team become featured by Songstuff?

Which team or teams, will receive the promotion services mentioned in the original post? 

When Songstuff Promotes any given Producer/Labels Published Work, what is the entirety of, if existent, any Policy, Code of Conduct, or Binding Legal Agreements governing the Producer/Labels Published Work?

In other words;

Will the Promoter, "Songstuff" take a Percentage of the Producer/Labels Royalties?
Will the Promoter, (a.) direct traffic to the Producer/Labels YouTube Channel, Spotify Artist Page, and other direct streaming services  (b.) embed the Producer/Labels Published Work into the Songstuff streaming services and or (c.) License, by means of ISRC Licensing, the Producer/Labels Published Work to use "At-Will" per terms of said License
 

 

Teams are considered like any other artist. You can post to the showcase board and may be chosen. We try to choose based on interesting music and artists and a number of other criteria. We also try to support artist releases. Ie, if you tell us you are planning a proper release we will try to support you in any way we can while reserving the right not to. We need to promote the best music we can if we want to get listeners. If we promote poor music we lose potential listeners for future artists. Listeners give us a chance. When we promote good music, they might be interested in future music we promote. If we promote poor music they may well ignore future posts we make... so we have to draw a line somewhere. If we do think your songs need work, we will tell you and try to tell you what needs work.

 

Currently, If we choose to promote you we do not seek to be paid, by fee or royalty. Should you wish to make a donation to help with community costs, that is appreciated but entirely up to you. Any donation should be made after the fact. A donation would not influence our selection process. 
 

At some point in the future we do plan to offer PR services on a paid service basis through a media company. This would be for a very reasonable flat fee, not a royalty. This would be completely separate to us choosing to promote you. 
 

We direct listeners to artist pages, sites and channels.

 

We currently embed media from 3rd party services under the terms of usage of that 3rd party service. For example, including YouTube videos or Soundcloud audio in interviews, or within playlists on our channels on those platforms.

 

Currently we do not directly embed video or audio and do not directly license content with the artist.

 

We do plan on these scenarios:

 

Where you conduct an interview with us, we own that content. Not featured songs or videos, but the text of your reply to our questions.
 

Where you record a video interview, we ask that you act as our camera person (to ensure high quality footage). To that end we ask you to electronically sign a work-for-hire agreement. We would own this video. We also ask that you license Songstuff to distribute photographs and artwork and include such images within our interview videos on a non-exclusive, royalty free basis. To be clear, while we own the video, but you still own your photographs and artwork. Such artwork is covered by the license of our forums, extended to allow us to add photographs and bio text etc (which we do not own) to Songstuff, Songstuff UK, our social media platforms and blogs in order to promote you. We will only do this with content added to a specific gallery folder we would direct you to.

 

In the future we plan on two other items of promotional content:

1. Live web cam performances
2. Songstuff generated lyric and/or EQ or audio spectrum videos for your audio

For 1, this would be owned by you, but Songstuff would have permission to brand the video, edit the video to create promotional clips, under royalty-free, exclusive license for a period of one year. Thereafter the license would become non-exclusive. You retain ownership of the song and the video. Note, the license applies to the specific video performance of the song, not the song itself. We are also prohibited from commercial release with the exception that we are allowed to earn from YouTube ads.

 

For 2, we would generate a video for you.You retain full right over your song, we would either collaborate with you, jointly owning the resulting video, which would use artwork, photos and song on a royalty free basis, or we are considering doing it as an unpaid, work-for-hire agreement, where Songstuff again gets a 1 year exclusive license etc. We can earn from ads but no commercial release is allowed.

 

Neither 1 nor 2 are in place yet. We need a lawyer to go over the draft copyright permissions before we offer this. We have work-for-hire agreements prepared and draft copyright statements, however the terms are pretty complex and we need a lawyer to make sure all parties are being fairly treated. To do that we need money lol

 

As Songstuff is largely funded from my rather empty pockets (lol), we need to wait until Songstuff launches it’s subscription tier to get funding for lawyers, workshops, courses, staff, server improvements and a load of new nice features. We are not far away.

 

Sound good?

 

[john]

Oh and all team-artists are eligible for our PR relating to this challenge. 
 

BUT

 

We need to accept your submission.
 

That means it has to be of a good standard. We want this to reflect well on all who enter. We want it to reflect well on Songstuff for that matter. So, if we say no, we will say why and do what we can to help you reach the required standard.

 

Indie artists miss that. Normally a label acts as a quality gate keeper. Hell everywhere you place a submission with may reject your submission. They just don’t usually tell you why.

 

Of course, you can release without the PR help... it is up to you.

 

Our aim is to do this to as high a standard as we can. The full artist package, as supported as possible. Ideally building future connections and support teams. Make sense?