ARE YOU PITCHING YOUR SONGS WITH A MACHINE FUN OR A RIFLE?

In one of our Staff Writer Crash Courses I was teaching; we had a number of songwriters concerned because they could only submit one song for consideration for the week’s assignment. The prevailing attitude was that “more shots equals a better chance of something great happening”. I want to dispel that myth and to explain why pitching your songs with a machine gun is not the best way to hit your mark.
 
Not too long ago, one of my pluggers sent out an e-mail to all of our writers asking us to send him only one song pitch idea for a big shot singer. Well, I had the singer's first single ever, so I thought to myself “I’ve got tons of songs that would work for him”. I proudly sent my plugger a list of 8-10 smash hits that I thought he would kill. In my head, they were all pretty good shots. And, I thought the plugger could pick his favorite (or two or 5) to play for him. Immediately, I got a reply that said “I’m about to walk out the door to go to this meeting and I don’t have time to listen to 10 songs from every writer. 

I was counting on you to give me your best one and only that, not a list. If you can’t do your job, I can’t do mine”. That’s the no-nonsense world I live in. And, worst of all, he was right. I took out a machine gun and tried to hit anything that was moving in the vicinity of the pitch request. In doing so, I irritated the guy trying to pitch my song and I almost lost the chance at even having one of my songs played for that singer. What I should have done instead was pick up a rifle and aim for the bullseye instead of just hoping to hit the target somehow with my machine gun.

If I had spent my time trying to find that one perfect song instead of trying to find everything that might work, I would have had a better chance. I have learned that pitching one great song communicates that I feel like I know what the artist wants and that my song is the one. Pitching a bunch of songs often communicates that I don’t really know what the heck to send, so I’m slinging everything I’ve got in hopes of getting lucky. That approach turns people off and isn’t likely to lead to hitting the bullseye even if you hit the target.

If an artist or publisher is telling you they want a “career” song, they need a monster hit. You nor I, have tons of those. I’ve demoed over 6,000 songs and I’m not sure I have anything yet that is on par with songs requested in specific occasions.

So, I don’t need to worry about slinging 5 songs at that kind of opportunity. I need to find or write the very best shot I have and pitch that one. If it’s as good as I think it is, then they will call and ask for more. If not, I still have work to do. Step away from the machine gun and aim for the bullseye.

Author

Hangi Tavakoli is our in-house established and professional music producer with more than 17 years of experience in songwriting, music production, mix and mastering. He has produced more than 3,000 and written more than 4,800 published songs to-date, including some major hits in international scale.