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: After Writing

Music Business Plan, part 5

By Pamela Parker, Esq.

How did you answer these questions:
I have sold a song or two (or more).

I know what genre the music industry would classify my music as. y/n

If you are a songwriter, you should be trying to sell songs.

The exception is if you write only songs that you, your band, or a specific band with which you are associated perform, AND that band is successful enough that you are making your whole living from it, AND you are only interested in writing the type of song that band uses AND you only write enough songs for that band.

Unless the above exception applies to you, you should be trying to sell songs if you are a songwriter. Oh, I just thought of another exception: you have a trust fund and don't want anyone to know who you are.

Anyway, you get the point. If you write songs, at some point you a) want those songs to be heard, and 2) would like to make a little money. So you should be trying to sell songs.

The tough part is doing it. If you have already sold one or two, great. Think about how you sold them - was it a pure fluke? Or did you seek out a market and make a pitch? Did you make your own pitch, or do you have a publisher that made it for you?

Think about whether you can capitalize on your prior sale. Even if the sale was a fluke, are there contacts that you made as a result that you can nurture? If you sought out the sale, maintain the contact that you made. Good contacts can also be a source of industry information or related contacts. You must have networking skills to do this - or you must associate yourself with a partner, publisher, or agent of some sort who has networking skills.

Now think about genre. Musicians have a tendency to rebel against categorizing their music, but to sell you must be able to do this. You don't necessarily have to write to a genre, but you must know the genres, you must know how the industry, rather than your fellow musicians, understand those genres, and you must be able to fit your songs into a genre. Song buyers use words to describe what they are looking for, and they will typically use words that describe a genre - and then they will throw in references to well-known acts, tempos, and possibly the emotion or feel of a song. So you'll have to know what the genres are, how they relate to your music, and you'll also have to know the major acts in those genres.

Full post as published by After Writing on January 22, 2007 (boomark / email).