Music Dealers.com has posted 2 new calls both for Women’s Apparell.  Here’s one:  

Due Date:

09/06/2010 - 6:00pm

TV Commercial - Womens Apparel

Music Call: 

Client is looking to license music for an upcoming TV commercial. The music should have high energy in a poppy-indie-dance vein. Something to really push the spot forward. Not too electro or Hip-hop. Touches of those elements are OK. Lyric content could be anything about what a girl wants, thinks about or something that could resonate with them. Anything really as long as it’s not offensive. The singer could be male or female.

Genre: 

Indie Pop

Emotion: 

Driving, Fun, Upbeat, Positive

Vocals/Instrumental: 

Vocal

Explicit Lyrics: 

No

Duration: 

Full Songs

Other Info: 

The songs should be hip and cutting edge! Nothing offensive!

Tandblekning

I need the practice

July 27, 2010 by songwriterstipjar

Do you wait for the muse before starting to write a song? How’s that working out for you?

When I wait for the muse, it can be months between writing sessions and I know that’s not enough writing for me. I need the practice. So I no longer wait for the muse. I try to invoke the muse and try to be the muse, but most of all, I just try to write more and more often.

Regular writing in itself seems to attract the muse. But it also strengthens the creative muscle. Just like sports and piano lessons, it’s better to practice regularly than to save it up for one long session (i.e. 7 daily one-hour sessions instead of one grueling seven hour session).

Something about the daily repeated action of engaging the creative mind and putting words (or melody) to paper is the perfect practice for writing songs. Writing songs takes practice. But instead of playing scales or doing crunches, a good way to practice writing songs is to actually write a song.

A side benefit is that if you tell yourself you’re writing a song as practice, the pressure is off to create your masterpiece. And when the pressure (usually self-imposed) is off, creativity is freed.

If you’re only writing when inspiration strikes, try writing as a regular practice. And post a comment here to let me know how it works.

Sent: Thursday, July 08, 2010 3:57 PM
To: roberta annicks
Subject: RE: Lost In Blue

 Hi Roberta,i,m glad ya like the song,It started off as a bit of a joke for an italian friend here
called Carlo,he owns a pizzeria/restaurant beside where i live.
Now i start to believe in the song,and i totally agree about the country aspect.
You can send it to anyone who can help with pleasure.
I hope your well and here,s the Lyric.
Blessings David Mac.

Here’s a copy of an e-mail I sent out today.  It updates you about our program. ~ R 

Hello David.  You song Lost In Blue is very good.  I did a once through & immediately thought of the recent & open, call for music at Music Dealers for an old time 50s or 60s Country song about loneliness.  This song you’ve made can hop over to Country rather nicely.  The goal of the Songs2Share program – one of the goals – is to set up a group of songwriters & artists so we can submit to these calls by creating a new recording if needed – on short notice. 

 I’ve thought of approaching demo companies, as they already have some melodies in their catalog to choose.  They also make melodies on a regular basis & can work fast.  & they own good recording equipment.

 May I send this MP3 to one demo company I’ve worked with, along with a copy of the Call For Music from the MusicDealers.com board & tell them about what I’m doing & see if they’ll sign on?

 I’d like to see the lyric & perhaps, tweak that 2^nd verse.  I heard several images & while I know you like your images, just want to check the flow.  The first verse flows so nicely, the 2^nd verse is where most songwriters hang up.  It’s that verse you got to watch.  You put the short i in your rhyme, which is the same as the i sound in your title – Lost IN Blue which is great.  Do you have a long u rhyme?  Might be a good idea. 

 We won’t be able to get a recording for this call.  I think it ends the 12^th.  But one step at a time.  Also, I’ve decided to add purchase of a lifetime license to Indie artists (sold less than 100,000 CDs) to our license agreement.  How much to charge is still open.  I made a survey form & posted the link at our MySpace page.  If you can go there and take the survey, I’d appreciate it very much.  I’m doing this all alone & any help at this point, is gladly accepted.

 We sold our first song license to a recording artist over 2 years ago.  A couple of teenage twins in the UK called Duo Canto.  Their pic is in our top friends at MySpace and you can go listen to their vocal cover of our song Celebrate The Day at their page (which you should cover too! – I have 5 female covers & no males & you have a lovely vocal!  Wish we could buy you some studio time & get a radio quality recording David+).  Legally, because their license is expired they should have to remove that song from their MySpace page.  But I don’t want them to take it down & it’s one of my co-writes & Clare doesn’t care either.  It is exposure & they should be able to sell that recording for the rest of their lives.

 They’ll never sound like that again – ever.  It’s a wonderful vocal performance.  So to me as a songwriter, they can have that song forever & sell their recording, even if they make it big & sell a million copies for the one time license fee, they gave that song EXPOSURE – S2S goal, another one, get the song the LARGEST audience.  The SONG.  & the songwriter will earn royalties. 

 So = how much should a lifetime license be?  And, are you willing to let the artist take your song & hopefully, make a hit for that one time fee?  I sure the heck am.  It’s non-exclusive so you sell as many licenses to as many Indie artists as you can find that want to buy a license.  & maybe a major artist will hear the song & come knocking to record the song.  These are also Non-Broadcast licenses.  If they want to get their recording onto the radio, they have to come back & buy a Broadcast License, which is on the back burner as it demands research to get the text right.  I think the future of music will eliminate the Performing Right Organizations as they are a middle man/middle management and the radios may get a better deal for themselves & the songwriters & performers, by buying flat licenses for blocks of music directly from music brokers.  The major performance monitoring station in the USA was turned off by the longtime family that used to run it, a few years ago – so I’ve been told.  So monitoring & paying middle people will go down kicking & fighting as music continues to evolve.  Just my thought.

 $250.00.  That’s a good price.  If an artist can’t afford that or doesn’t want to pay that much but wants to cover one of our songs, & I do go around telling artists at MySpace = “You should cover Celebrate The Day (or another title) for free.  It works with your vocal style” when I find a match– a lot, so I’m putting the word out, “- on a demo for license exchange.”  They make a recording that Songs2Share feels can be used to market that song, they get a lifetime license to make as many recordings and sell them & keep the money, perform the song forever, and try to get a licensed placement if they choose to market.  The original songwriter still owns a royalty percentage of any licensed fee & the recording artist owns a percentage of any licensed fee their first recording earns as well – while the songwriter can sell or give away copies of the new recording & keep all monies generated.  This is also a Non-Broadcast license.  If the recording artist wants to get their song on the radio, they have to come  back & purchase a Broadcast License.  So the artist gets a well crafted song, makes the recording, gives all rights to that recording to the songwriter except a % of licensing fees generated, & then they can perform, record & sell copies of any recording forever.  If I can get a great, even good recording of one of my songs that I own except to share with the recording artist any licensed fees generated, I’m happy to give them a lifetime license.

 A lot of people write a lot of new songs every day.  If you want to get your songs attention, & an artist to cover them, give them a good deal & they will give your song EXPOSURE.

 Peace.~ RobertaS2S  

  ps.  Music Dealers splits their license fees 50/50 with owner of the recording/songwriter.  Pump Audio splits them 65/35 with owner of the recording/songwriter for a licensed placement.  Some of the calls for music from Music Dealers are as high as $50,000.00.  You know a lot of music licensing companies are getting those same calls & sending in playlists for consideration, but you got to get ON the playlist to have a chance.  & to do that you need a radio quality recording of your song.  It’s worth it to me, to get a crew together to make custom songs for these big calls.  I’ll even write a lyric as some calls give you text they’d like in the lyric & throw my hat into the mix.  It’s sort of a music lottery, as they get such good music to choose from – you just got to hit it right for that customer.  J   

Intention – the Bolder Dimension of Songwriting

Wayne Cohen, veteran multi-platinum selling ASCAP hit songwriter, producer and educator, owner of publishing/production company Stand Up Songs.

Wayne teaches individual and group songwriting tutoring sessions at his NYC Stand Up Studio and via Skype.

One of my song tutoring students recently sang me a song she was working on called ‘Listen You’, which I thought was a cool idea about missing that special someone. She had strong lyrics for her chorus, but the chorus chords she had were in a minor key just like the verse had been. The minor chords worked great in the verse, but the melody fell flat at the chorus. I call this kind of chorus melody problem flat lining, as in, the melody didn’t lift enough for a chorus. I suggested that she go to the relative major key for the chorus, and that the melody needed to be ‘happier’ to pay off the manic lyric idea she had set up. This eventually made for a killer chorus for that song.

This started me thinking, if the question is, ‘how do you write a breakthrough song?’ 

This experience with my student reinforced my conviction that having an intention when writing is the answer. In other words, if you can imagine the result you want before you get there, you have a much better chance of achieving that result.

I think lack of intention is one of the things that is crippling the music industry. I see creators in many fields (not just songwriters) influenced by the culture of immediacy that we are living in. I believe some songwriters are influenced away from writing a breakthrough song, expressing a riveting clear universal emotion with catchy melodies, and instead are focused on making trendy tracks that sell immediately. I think the craft of songwriting is suffering as a result, and this shortsightedness is contributing to a lack of certain songs’ longevity on the charts.

But keeping this idea of intention can be a tricky business when writing a song, because sometimes you don’t want to question that magical part of writing from pure inspiration. Great songs can seem to fall out of the sky and flow through the writer.

However there are so many facets of songwriting that can be improved by conscious thought. There are many examples of this, not the least of which is McCartney’s now clichéd story about ‘Yesterday’ starting out as a song he dreamed called ‘Scrambled Eggs’. After further consideration, the title and subsequent lyric story of ‘Yesterday’ had just the right feeling for the melody he dreamed. The title and lyric fit like hand in glove. But he worked at it ‘til he had something great. And that was all because of his intention to write a great song. Luckily he didn’t settle for ‘Scrambled Eggs’.

So, you ask, how can we take an OK song and make it better, with the right intention?

As a starting point, here is a quick intention checklist to run your songs by.

Intention Check List:

How do you want the song to feel?

Does every aspect of the song feel the way you want it to feel?

Does the lyric develop within a section, and from section to section, to express an urgent coherent story, the way you want it to?

Does the melody have the right flow, i.e., does it climax and subside where it needs to? (from the verse into the chorus, etc..)

Is there rhyme scheme consistency and development in the right places?

Have you mapped your melodic rhythm by using slash marks to count the number of syllables (for ex., map the V1 melody so that V2 will have the same melodic rhythm)?

Feel free to drop me a line and let me know how you did with the checklist…I’m curious!

You can contact Wayne here.

http://blog.tunecore.com/2010/03/intention-the-bolder-dimension-of-songwriting.html?utm_source=newsletter_march_22_10&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_content=feature&utm_campaign=newsletter_march_22_10

Thoughts, questions or comments? Share them here!

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UK recorded music sales rise for first time in six yearsStrong performance of digital market sees music industry enjoy first sign of growth since 2003

The British music industry has enjoyed a moderate increase in sales for the first time since 2003, despite a continuing decline in CD purchases. The digital market contributed to a 1.4% rise in sales to £928.8m in 2009, with singles performing particularly well. Successful releases from Susan Boyle and the Beatles also buoyed industry sales. Statistics revealed by the British Phonographic Institution (BPI) show that consumers continue to be drawn to online retailers and ad-funded services, such as Spotify. The report states that online revenues, including digital tracks and video sales, rose by 51.7% to £154m in 2009. However, a spokesman for the BPI said that this did not necessarily signify that the end was in sight for physical music formats. “Digital sales now account for a fifth of all music sales, but you can see from strong releases by Robbie Williams and Lady Gaga that the CD is still the bedrock of the industry. It is too early to sound the death knell for the CD just yet,” the BPI’s Adam Liversage told the Guardian. Earlier this year, industry figures revealed that the singles market enjoyed its best year ever. This was largely down to the success of X Factor finalists and the Christmas chart battle between the reality TV show’s winner, Joe McElderry, and American rock band Rage Against the Machine. Liversage said at the time: “Prior to their closure last year, Woolworths and Zavvi accounted for approximately 17.9% of album sales. Their demise meant that their were fewer places to buy music on the high street.” Liversage now says that CD sales faired better than many predicted given last year’s high street conditions. The burgeoning success of online models such as Spotify has also given the music industry pause for thought. The recently launched social music site Mflow, which offers listeners discounted music when they succesfully recommend new tracks to fellow users, is one of the many ways in which consumers are being offered cheaper, alternative ways of purchasing music. The BPI chairman, Geoff Taylor, was optimistic about the latest statistics, but warned that illegal downloads continued to have a detrimental effect on sales. “It’s encouraging to see industry revenues stabilise and even show modest growth in 2009. But let’s put it in broader perspective: 2009’s modest result follows a five-year drop in annual income, and total industry income has not exceeded £1bn since 2006. The pace of growth of new digital services is encouraging, but the size of the market continues to be constrained by competition from illegal downloads.”

Source: The Guardian

Digital economy bill rushed through wash-up in late night session

Government drops clause on orphan works but inserts amendment criticised as over-broad which could block sites based on ‘intent’

The House of Commons during the Committee stage of the digital economy bill, April 2010 [this caption was amended on 8 April 2010. It originally said that the Bill was at the third reading]

The government forced through the controversial digital economy billwith the aid of the Conservative party last night, attaining a crucial third reading – which means it will get royal assent and become law – after just two hours of debate in the Commons.

However it was forced to drop clause 43 of the bill, a proposal on orphan works which had been opposed by photographers. They welcomed the news: “The UK government wanted to introduce a law to allow anyone to use your photographs commercially, or in ways you might not like, without asking you first. They have failed,” said the site set up to oppose the proposals.

But despite opposition from the Liberal Democrats and a number of Labour MPs who spoke up against measures contained in the bill and put down a number of proposed amendments, the government easily won two votes to determine the content of the bill and its passage through the committee stage without making any changes it had not already agreed.

Tom Watson, the former Cabinet Office minister who resigned in mid-2009, voted against the government for the first time in the final vote to take the bill to a third reading. However the vote was overwhelmingly in the government’s favour, which it won by 189 votes to 47.

Earlier the government removed its proposed clause 18, which could have given it sweeping powers to block sites, but replaced it with an amendment to clause 8 of the bill. The new clause allows the secretary of state for business to order the blocking of “a location on the internetwhich the court is satisfied has been, is being or is likely to be used for or in connection with an activity that infringes copyright”.

The Liberal Democrat MP John Hemming protested that this could mean the blocking of the whistleblower site Wikileaks, which carries only copyrighted work. Stephen Timms for the government said that it would not want to see the clause used to restrict freedom of speech – but gave no assurance that sites like Wikileaks would not be blocked.

Don Foster, the Liberal Democrats’ spokesman for culture, media and sport, protested that the clause was too wide-ranging: “it could apply to Google,” he complained, adding that its inclusion of the phrase about “likely to be used” meant that a site could be blocked on its assumed intentions rather than its actions.

The Lib Dem opposition to that amendment prompted the first vote - known as a division – on the bill, but the Labour and Conservative whips pushed it through, winning it by 197 votes to 40. The next 42 clauses of the bill were then considered in five minutes.

Numerous MPs complained that the bill was too important and its ramifications too great for it to be pushed through in this “wash-up” period in which bills are not given the usual detailed examination.

However the government declined to yield – although it had already done a deal with the Tories which meant that a number of its provisions, including clause 43 and the creation of independent local news consortia, would not be part of the bill.

Source: The Guardian

Here’s the call for music at the www.musicdealers.com website.  If you want to submit, please visit their website and upload your song right there.  I won’t be checking the box this weekend and the song is due by Sunday afternoon.  Happy Mother’s Day to all moms!  

Due Date:

05/09/2010 - 4:00pm

TV Commercial - Beverage Company

Music Call: 

Client is looking to license the ultimate feel good song. The song should be very poppy and anthemic. It should be very energetic and upbeat. Lyrically it needs to have a story telling quality, with lyrics about being happy and feeling good. it should NOT be preachy in any way, but more relaying a very positive feel good feeling through the story. It must be in a MAJOR KEY!

The song should uplift the listener and motivate them to move and be happy, it should resonate with teens especially! 

Genre: 

Pop

Emotion: 

Happy, Energetic, Upbeat

Vocals/Instrumental: 

Vocal

Explicit Lyrics: 

No

Duration: 

Full Songs

Other Info: 

Bands to reference are: Coldplay, Black Eyed Peas, U2, Lady Gaga, Outkast. All these bands have very poppy sounds and songs that are uplifting and energetic and can speak to the whole world.