Career Songwriter

I was recently asked the question, ‘how financially stable is being a songwriter?’ As the inquirer suspected, the answer is dependent upon many factors. But just in case your daydreams about being a songwriter involve large bags of cash, I thought it might be interesting to talk about the realities of the career. Don’t get me wrong – some realities do involve bags of cash, but it’s also true that most don’t. All in all, songwriting is something that if you don’t love the process, you probably won’t see the career through to the end of the rainbow. If you do love the process, however, then the risks are always going to be worth it.

One of the ways in which songwriting can be lucrative is that a song may be recorded over and over, generating money over the course of our entire career. When this happens, we’re receiving royalties years down the line for just 3 hours or 3 days of writing – depending on how long it takes you to finish a tune. Like any career, the bulk of the hard work is done up front. After the time invested in networking and writing a significant catalog of songs, we can become known amongst circles looking for the music we create, thus making it easier to get placements, etc. We also improve our writing skills and write better songs, meet writing partners we gel better with, etc. But there is no guarantee that after getting some placements we’ll continue to get placements. I’ve known hit songwriters of the past to use pen names while pitching their material now, just to avoid any assumptions made by producers and A&R about the songs they’re writing. It’s an unfortunate reality that what is ‘new’ is viewed as hot, and whatever is ‘old’ is, well, old.

The point I’m trying to make, though rather clumsily, is that our careers as songwriters can drag, pick up again, and then slow down again to a barely audible hum. Because we never know when our next song will be picked up, when we’re going to meet someone who will be instrumental in our career, or how the industry will change around us, it’s very difficult to determine whether all our efforts will pay off like we hope. In Nashville, for example, it’s common for writers to get signed, get dropped, and get signed again to another company awhile later. During those unsigned months, our job remains the same – to continue writing the best songs we can write and make ends meet until the next gig. For performing artists and independents alike, the job description doesn’t change.

On the upside, it is entirely possible that you as a songwriter find yourself in a situation that is somewhat stable for a period of time. That might be a publishing deal, or it might be writing as part of a team working on projects for pay. Again, it all comes down to working the opportunities you see before you, and letting them carry you to broader and broader circles.

If we’re looking for something stable, perhaps we should look elsewhere than songwriting. But, if we’re truly inspired to create songs, then no matter how we make our money we’ll find a way to put pen to paper and pick to guitar.

Good luck –

Andrea