Career Songwriter

For all of us who have been writing and promoting our own material for any length of time, we’re familiar with the word “no” and its cousins, “you’re not quite what we’re looking for,” “we’ve already got someone like you,” and “sorry kid, I just don’t feel it.” The truth can sometimes hit hard, and so I’d like to shine a bit of light from my own “no” experiences to help thicken your skin.

Before I got signed as a staff-writer for EMI Music Publishing, I spent several hours each week calling friends and co-writers and everyone I knew who might be able to get me a meeting with a publisher. I even walked up and down Music Row in Nashville, TN, where I began my career, introducing myself to the secretaries of various publishing companies. Back then, record labels were the only ones with security and locks on their front doors.

Most of the time I’d get the same response “I’m sorry, we don’t accept unsolicited material.” But sometimes I’d be able to drop a name, like “Hi, I’ve been writing with so-and-so, and I know that (insert publisher name) likes his material…do you think it would be okay if I left a tape for him of a few songs?” Everything around the name-dropping probably went in one ear and out the other, but the relationship was what gave me credibility. In the beginning, it was my collaborations that brought opportunities, as long as I searched those opps out.

As I wrote with more signed writers, I began to have access to their publishers as well. Soon I was able to schedule a meeting or two each month with a publisher who was interested in what I’d been writing with their signed writers or others they knew and loved.

In each meeting, I would play the publisher two or three new songs. I didn’t have money for demos, and so I’d record a simple guitar/vocal or piano/vocal. The most common response I’d receive during that first meeting was “You’ve got some good ideas,” or “I think you’d write well with so-and-so on our roster.” In the short 20 minute meeting, I was trying to get a feel for the publisher, and he/she was trying to get a feel for me. Part of being a good publisher is signing writers that work well within the company relationally, and creatively. Most of my meetings ended with a pleasant “come back when you have more material,” which I learned to receive as a step forward rather than a closing door.

When I first started meeting publishers, I expected more. I expected the publisher to make a decision based on the few songs I brought in for their perusal. The reality is that a deal between a publisher and a writer is a multi-year contract, and the success of that union has as much to do with the talent of the writer as the ability of the publisher to sell the songs. Over the course of a few meetings, or a few years, a good publisher will watch a writer to determine whether the writer is up to the challenge of making the deal work creatively, as well as mentally. Sometimes a publisher is looking for a specific kind of writer to round out the roster. We may walk in with some great material, but if it doesn’t line up with the vision of the company, the match just won’t be very successful. In some situations, we can end up leaving the meeting feeling like we didn’t impress, when actually the publisher is simply trying to figure out how to possibly work with what we’ve given them.

Sometimes “no” just means “no.” In these situations, we’ve got to learn to embrace the doors closing just we do the doors opening. These doors closing are significant in that they push us along towards the people who believe in our music the most. Not everyone will love and appreciate what we do. Even those who appreciate what we do may choose to pass on us, but can be valuable in moving us along to those who really understand our vision. When we sign a deal, we are taking a risk just as the publisher is taking a risk. We don’t want to spend the next 3 years of our career working with a team that is not 100% invested in our success. Similarly, when a publisher considers signing a writer, he/she is in a sense staking his/her job on a belief in that writer’s potential. The music industry is very transient, and what worked yesterday doesn’t necessarily apply today. Just as we as writers and artists are trying to attain and secure a good deal, publishers and labels are looking for writers and artists to believe in and vault their own careers to continued success.

As long as we’re receiving “no,” we can be sure we’re doing what we should be doing to get our music out there. If we’re not getting feedback, we’re not getting anywhere at all. So take heart, throw on some extra armor, and enjoy the ride knowing that you’ve got to kiss a lot of frogs to find your prince.

Andrea Stolpe