PG Music Home Forums General Discussion Songwriting Opportunities for songwriters

Personally, I avoid songwriter competitions. They're not worth the time and money.

But you have a great question.

As far as selling the song to artists.... That's not exactly how it works. But I understand what you mean. You sign the song to a publisher and they place it for commercial use. That's generally, in a nutshell, how it's done. If you happen to personally know the artist, you can write with them and get it published that way too. That's extremely hard. In fact, the competition for album cuts is beyond competitive. You're competing with the artist, his close circle of top tier writers and everyone else who are staff writers with publishers.... It's brutal. Not impossible but hard to do.

There's also songwriter groups. Folks like Nashville songwriters association international in Nashville, and Taxi in LA, that serve various purposes. NSAI is primarily educational. But if you write a killer song, they can offer suggestions on what to do. Taxi is a lead service. They provide leads to commercial projects. Films and TV shows looking for specific music and other such opportunity. Of course, you pay a membership and a submission fee and then have to get it past their screeners. Then, you're in competition with hundreds of top tier writers for that one spot. If your music is selected and used, you can make anywhere from 5¢ to a few dollars. In some cases there's actually pretty decent money involved but that's not common and is for big name companies producing a national TV commercial. Money is made by having a large number of cuts in rotation and use. I saw the PRO statement for one individual who had been doing this for a number of years. It was five or six pages long of cues used. Pennies add up.

Another option is to search the internet for music libraries and publishers. Find your own, vet them and submit your music to them. They get the listings from producers and place your music in the inbox of the end user and hopefully, your music gets the cut.

This last method is how I got a few TV and movie cuts.

Keep in mind that nothing worth doing is going to be easy. This is no exception. Look at this like a business, approach it With a plan and see where it takes you. Right now, understand that no one is looking for your music. You must create that market yourself.

Hope this is helpful.

Good luck.

Some other folks here are also licensing their music and hopefully will join this thread with their perspective and ideas on how they are doing it.

Edit: the hosting sites that sell for you... Soundclick, reverbnation, and others..... Bwahahaha.... I've sold a few songs that way but they have minimum dispersion levels so until you accumulate a certain amount of money, normally about $25, they are not going to pay you.