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DISCIPLINES IS A KEY FOR SETTING YOURSELF UP TO SUCCEED

10/12/2021

One of the biggest lessons I have learned in my years in the music business is that nobody wants me to succeed as much as I do. My publisher, my co-writers and my song pluggers all want me to do well. They are heavily invested in my success. But, at the end of the day, I’m going to have to do most of the heavy lifting if I’m going to succeed. They will help but they will do what they can do, and that’s my job to do “my job”. If they were up to do what I am supposed to, they didn’t need to work with me from the first place. And to do my job, I need to have a very strong discipline coming from myself, because in this industry we don’t really have such thing as “boss” or someone who force us to do anything. Everything, including all success or failures come, are direct reflection and consequences of our own actions. The way I always explain it for my mentees is, “We need to have a military level of discipline, and there is no commander to force us. We have to have it from inside our own will power”. Here are a few things I try to do every day to keep myself moving in the right direction:

HOW TO PITCH YOUR SONGS WISELY OR DON’T BE THAT GUY

10/5/2021

One of the biggest mistakes I see rising songwriters make is pitching songs improperly. This can ruin everything. When you are pitching songs, there are some little unwritten rules about it that can help you a lot in getting the attention of the publisher, producer or the artist you are pitching to. And not following those rules will tell them you are unprofessional, and you will be in their blacklist – the last place you’d want to be. I want to give you some guidelines to help you pitch songs wisely and to not be that guy/girl that burns bridges by pitching the wrong way. Here are some things to consider when pitching.

Follow instructions carefully. If they said, “Don’t pitch any beach songs”, you are better off not pitching one, even if you think yours is great. Pay close attention to what they have already and don’t pitch that. If you don’t care about what they need, why do you think they need to care about what you are pitching? These people are some of the busiest people in the industry.

You cannot expect them to open your song and listen to it while it is irrelevant to what are searching for something else. This action will have no result other than you, shouting to them that you are unprofessional and basically asking them to put you in the blacklist and never to open your emails again.

BAD MUSIC AND SONGWRITING

9/21/2021

“I want more than anything to get one of my songs recorded by a major artist on the radio.”
“Today’s music sucks. The stuff artist is putting out is crap and it all sounds the same!!"

These are two sentences spoken by an aspiring songwriting during a coffee conversation.

The other day in a coffee house an aspiring songwriter behind me in line recognised me and offered to buy my cup of black coffee and wondered if he could talk to me about songwriting for a few minutes. I was early for a writing appointment, so I said, “Sure.” He was a great guy. I asked him what he wanted more than anything. He said with no hesitation, “I want to get one of my songs recorded by a major artist and make a living writing.” “Great goal,” I thought. I told him that I had been in the same place 12 years ago! The next thing out his mouth was a small rant about how music today “sucks.” “Nothing is good out there” and “the artists look good but can’t sing.” He went on to say he spends most of his time listening to classic music. “Hmmm…” I thought, “this is something I hear a lot in writing forums on the internet.” Later that day I pondered the morning conversation about “today’s music” and this writer’s attitude towards it.

IT’S IMPOSSIBLE: MORE SONGWRITING MYTH BUSTING

9/14/2021

I don’t know how many times each week I hear the words “It’s impossible” when people get rejected to hear what they don’t want to hear. The ridiculous part of it all is that the things they are saying are “impossible” are not impossible at all. It just needs them to understand there is no such thing as impossible in this industry and to understand how they can defeat anything that might sound impossible to lots of people.

“It’s impossible to get a song cut if you don’t live in Nashville, New York or LA.” False. I am living in Singapore and every once in a while, I get a cut on an artist on a major label. Even a lot of times I wrote with the artist or other writers in the other side of the world using the magical power of technology, via Skype or even emails. Some names that you wouldn’t believe if I tell you, sat down on Skype and we came up with ideas together and wrote the song during the call!

On the other hand, I know people living in the same town as those major artists, tried to work with them and still didn’t get a cut on. Yes, I agree it’s hard to work when you are living somewhere far away from the music centers, but it also is far from impossible.

ARE YOUR DOING THESE THINGS THAT IRRITATE PUBLISHERS?

9/7/2021

I see a number of common mistakes songwriters make that leave the smell of a burning bridge in the air as they leave a publisher’s office. As a publisher myself, there are certain things that songwriters – and at times, artists – do that it is telling me why I don’t want to work with them next time. If you really want to tick a publisher off, try these stunts.

Show up unannounced. That’s disrespectful and not business-like. Not only for the publishers, but in general in business world. And always remember, the publisher is the businessman of music industry. You wouldn’t do that with a lawyer or doctor or any other type of businessman. But, if you really want to irritate a publisher, show up unannounced, tell everyone loudly that you are the next big thing in songwriting and demand a meeting. You’ll be off on the right wrong foot.

ARE YOU A PROFESSIONAL OR AN AMATEUR SONGWRITER?

8/10/2021

Over a weekend someone tagged me in a Facebook thread that had over 500 comments debating heatedly over whether or not a lyricist was an actual “songwriter” or lyricist is just writing the words. Well, I can say it was probably one of the most stupid questions I’ve ever heard. And trust me I get tons of stupid questions on a daily basis but this one was to a whole another level.

All I can say is who cares? I don’t mean that in a harsh way. You see, I’ve had over 150 major artists record my songs on 15 million albums sold. 19 Billboard hits. And you know what? I’ve been on writing sessions where I contributed only lyrics. Other times sessions I did only the music. And often both music and lyric. Some days I play an instrument on the session and others I won’t. Sometimes I just do the arrangement and some other times I do the mixing for the team. I’ve even been on writing sessions that all I needed to do was to record them. Let’s go further, on tons of sessions, I am considered as the “quality control manager” and I just tell the writers to keep this and change that!

HOW DO WRITERS AND PUBLISHERS SPLIT ROYALTIES?

8/3/2021

I get lots of music business related questions on my inbox and this is a very common one. The business side of music is not as complicated as it seems. The contracts and “rules” can look pretty confusing and complicated but once you get it, it will be very easy. Just need to get that on click in your mind and suddenly it’s like the fog had gone away and you can see everything pretty clear. Here are the basics of Writer – Publisher deals and how money is split:

There are two shares of royalties for each writer when a song is created. Each writer has a writer’s share and a publisher’s share. So, if there are two writers on a song, there are four shares assigned to that song. Two writer’s shares and two publisher’s shares. The way those shares are divided depends on the contracts that the writers have entered into basically it’s going to both of them as a whole and depending on the type of agreement they have between themselves it can be divided. In Flipside’s case, we sign the writers to an exclusive publishing agreement.

FIND SONGWRITING COMMUNITY NOW!

7/20/2021

No matter what your definition of Songwriting Success is, one of the most overlooked aspect of a songwriter’s journey is the community. I run into many writers who are writing pretty good songs, but they are doing it in a vacuum. In reality, it’s nearly impossible to succeed as a songwriter or anything without a supportive community around you. Being a member of at least one songwriting community will help you a lot to share your songs with other fellow writers, get their feedback and grow yourself, as well as being updated about the behind the scene of the industry. Plus, having a wider network is always great for your business, and please don’t forget that songwriting is your business and the songs you write are your product to be sold. Here are some reasons it is important to find community as a songwriter.

Songwriters are a different breed. It’s often hard for spouses, friends and family members to understand why we think differently.

I DO MY SONGWRITING BEST – PUTTING AN END TO THE COMPARISON GAME

6/8/2021

There is a lot of comparison that goes on in the songwriting world. Artists pick this song over the other song. Someone decides that song is better than this song. Someone decides who is a better songwriter and even among 2 co-writers, there will be someone who wants to work with one of the two as a solo writer. We all tend to compare our songs to songs on the radio. Or we go to a writer’s night and compare our work to the work of others. When we hear something better than our music, we start thinking and analysing that song to see what element made it better than ours.

At the end of the day, I am going to be disappointed if I compare my work to Max Martin’s. He has had hundreds of songs cut and makes millions of dollars. Maybe I think my songs are just as good as his. Maybe some of them are better than some of his. None of that matters. All that really matters is that I do my best. If I’ve done that, then the rest is out of my hands.

REASONS A PUBLISHER WILL WANT A COPY OF YOUR SONG

6/1/2021

There are a number of things that could cause a publisher to request a copy of your song. Yes, it’s right. Sometimes the publishers might want your song instead of you trying so hard to convince them to listen to what you created. Knowing what those reasons are can up your chances of success. In my humble experience, these are the top five reasons publishers request to keep a copy of a song:

They already have a good connection that they think would like your song. The easier you make the publisher’s job, the better your chances. For instance, if you have a song that would be a great pitch for Demi Lovato, it would be a good idea to get her last couple of CDs and see which publishers show up more than once on her album. Then, do a little research and see who works at that publisher. Maybe you discover that “Little Lady Bug Music” shows up a lot and that Susan Smith works there. You met Susan at a songwriter event last year and got her card. So, you call Susan and ask to send her one song for Demi.

She’s already had success with Demi and by connecting the dots, you have given yourself a good chance at getting your song to Demi. Knowing who a publisher has had success with in the past can help you decide which publisher to approach and what to play them. Pitch smart and you have a better chance. Don’t work like a machine gun to shoot one thousand bullets and one might hit the target. Instead, be like the sniper. Take your time, check all affecting elements, and shoot one bullet at the right moment and hit the target

HOW TO CHANGE YOUR ODDS IN ANY CREATIVE BUSINESS

5/18/2021

From time to time, someone asks me “What are the odds of getting a cut?”. In my mind, what they are really asking is “Is this even worth trying?”. I’m going to suggest here that this is the wrong approach to dream chasing of any form. Let me put it to you this way. What are the odds that an Iranian guy with experience of being a rapper and producing hip-hop finds himself in Singapore, writing and producing more than 3,000 songs for more than 250 artists? Almost zero. Yet, here I am! What are the odds that a guy who grew up with no connections in the professional music business at all, figures it out, gets more than 400 songs recorded by internationally major artists, and writes 16 #1 songs? Not great odds. Yet, here I am. What are the odds that a rapper with no formal business training create a business that has grown from day 1 and has served more than 4,000 songwriters all over the world in just 5 years? Yet here , Flipside stands. That’s laughable.

Even let’s move one step further, what are the odds for a guy who couldn’t speak more than 20 English words to leave Iran, and next year get his first English song that he wrote, recorded, and then more than 1,000 English songs later, he starts writing books and blogs all in English? Yet, you are reading his blog right now. So, please don’t ever tell me that there is such a thing as “impossible”. I am a living proof of my claim, and I personally know people who proof it even stronger by the things they’ve got done!

The longer I live, the more I realize that it’s really not about the odds unless you are playing the lottery. In that case, there really are odds that are stacked against you. Those odds are measurable and accurate. They are based on math. They are real! In any creative endeavor, however, the odds are not so fixed. You can figure out ways to cut them way down. How do you do that?

REASONS TO SIGN AWAY YOUR PUBLISHING

5/11/2021

Over and over, during my songwriting career, I have been a part of debates over the issue of holding on to publishing vs signing away publishing. As a general rule, keeping your publishing would be preferable. After all, the publishing share is half of your share of the song. So, why would anyone sign away their publishing? Here are a few good reasons:

You need a monthly draw. In the beginning of my career, I needed a monthly income to survive. I traded my publishing for that monthly check. Looking back, it was the right choice. It got my foot in the door. I had an amazing mentor/publisher. And I got some cuts. I came out close to even on a 5-year deal that I considered “Songwriting School”. I learned the craft and I learned how the business worked. That was invaluable.

DO YOU WANT TO BE A SUCCESSFUL PUBLISHED SONGWRITER?

5/4/2021

Today, I was sharing my songwriting journey with a group of high school students. I’ve never really told my story in quite this much detail and to such a young audience or matter of fact, to anyone out of my very small close circle, but in the course of trying to convey my story, I discovered a couple of things about myself. I told them about growing up in Tehran and how I had to leave Iran, because I almost got executed and almost lost my life, simply because of writing music which was questioning certain things about the government, and about the intimidation I felt in regard to the music business because of the huge number of people I encountered that were trying and failing to make their dreams come true.

Even though I had dreamed as a child of being one of the people whose names were on the liner notes as having written the songs, I was scared senseless, so much so that I wouldn’t even try.

I went to college and got a degree in Industrial Engineering, but I never gave up my music dream and eventually at age of 20 I ended up studying the degree course again in major of Music Production (instead of studying Master of Industrial Engineering).

DID HE STEAL MY SONG?

4/13/2021

A couple of year ago, I was searching for song titles by reading through quotes on the internet. I found what I thought was an amazing quote. It said something like “How can you be old and wise if you were never young and crazy”. The next day, I threw that title out and my co-writer and I wrote an great song. As soon as we could, we demoed it and started pitching it around town. Six months later, I turn on the radio one day to hear “And here’s Frankie Ballard’s new single – ‘Young And Crazy'”. I knew right away that it had to be the same idea. Sure enough, it was – which killed my chances at getting my song cut – for a long time at least. Recently, I had just written a song with an artist that he loved. The day he turned it in, his label said, “You know that’s the title of Kenny Chesney’s next single, don’t you?” Game over for my great song.

Did anyone steal my titles? Did I steal theirs? The truth is, you can’t copyright a title. The bigger truth is that I got those ideas from someone else anyway.

QUALITIES OF A BAD SONGWRITING CO-WRITER

4/6/2021

Bad co-writers! One of the hardest species in this industry to deal with. A songwriting session can be one of the best things happening in a professional songwriter’s life. Everyone are supposed to enjoy it to be able to be themselves and let the creativity to flow. But it takes only one bad co-writer to ruin it for everybody in the room! Through the years, I have collected a list of qualities that make someone a bad co-writer. If you want to succeed as a co-writer, don’t be this guy, or girl.

Comes to the writing session unprepared. I don’t know how many times I have heard a co-writer say, “I’ve been writing a lot and I’ve got nothing today”. If you don’t have anything, do everybody a favor and cancel the appointment. Better to give your co-writer a snow day than to waste their time. Have ideas, a feel, a guitar lick, a groove, a good catch phrase for the song, at least a title! Something, or don’t come at all. Cancelling the appointment is bad but it’s still better than showing up and making the session unpleasant.

ADD NEW SKILLS TO YOUR SONGWRITER’S TOOLBOX LIKE A PROFESSIONAL WRITER

3/2/2021

Songwriters, like any craftsmen, rely on skill. But skill is often limited by the quality of tools in our toolbox. Here are 4 steps to get you on the path to constantly adding new tools to your toolbox.

Practice Active Listening. When we’re listening to music, it’s important to go beyond the “I like this” or “I hate that” Passive Listening. The next time you hear a song that catches your interest, ask yourself more specific questions like: Do I like this unique phrasing the singer is using? What rhyme scheme is being used? Does it work? Do I like this song because of the production, or is it a great song? Passive Listening promotes opinions rather than knowledge. Active Listening gets you inspired and develops your skills! This same method works for producers too. When listening to a song (especially electronic music) it would be good to think about what kind of synthesizer set up created this sound or what happened in the mixing that this song is so clear or even mistakes had been done that this song sounds like this!

HOW TO WEATHER THE UPS AND DOWNS OF THE MUSIC BUSINESS

2/23/2021

“The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There’s also a negative side.” ~Hunter S. Thompson

There is no doubt that the music business is tough. But so is the “Medical” business, the “law” business, the “teaching business”, etc. You get the picture. Things are tough all over. But the music business is full of things that look promising and fall through, things that are “guaranteed” and don’t happen – on and on it goes. By this point I have shared some of my disappointments. Holds that were all but a “sure thing” and didn’t happen. Singles that were promised on Sam Smith and never came to be.

The list is long and sad. And these are maybe less than 5 percent of the disappointments. But important is if you are going through these disappointments, you don’t give up and just use these rejections or unfortunate indicants as lessons and start again, stronger. So, how do you stick with it when the “downs” start to pile up? I learned the hard way that you have to have a plan. The plan I came up with was this.

LEARN TO SPEAK MUSIC BUSINESS

2/16/2021

Lots of songwriters I know just want to become better writers for their own pleasure not for being in the business – and that’s awesome! Another significant group in I know are trying to write commercially and to break into the music business – which is even more awesome. If that’s your goal, you need to learn to speak the music business language, or you’ll wind up looking like you don’t know what’s going on when you encounter people already in the business. Every industry has its own terms and words might have different meaning than their original meanings. Here are some proper uses of music business words.
HOLD. A hold is a request by an artist or a representative of an artist to give them first right of refusal on a song. If Katy Perry puts your song on hold, it means that she’s asking you not to give it to anyone else before she decides for sure whether or not it will make her record. It is some sort of saying that they had “shortlisted” your song and probably a couple of other songs and now they are debating which song have to get the final move.

Record labels, producers, managers and artists themselves put songs on hold. Publishers do not. If someone tells you that your song is “on hold” and it’s not one of the groups listed above, they are blowing smoke and hyping you up.

CO-WRITING ETIQUETTE

2/2/2021

Recently, we’ve had several people write to me concerning issues with co-writers. So, I thought I’d remind everyone of a few co-writing etiquette “Do’s and Don’ts”. Co-writing a song with someone enters you into a business relationship with them. Once that song is done, the two (or three, or five) of you have created a legal entity that will live on for 75 years after the last one of you passes away. That’s a big commitment. Because it is a big deal and it is important to know how to properly behave in regard to that little song baby that you create. It is seriously required to be taken highly seriously! Here are some things to keep in mind.

Ideas thrown out in a co-write are not for you to write on your own later. You pick one to write that day in the room and the other ideas “belong” to the person who brought them in. Taking the ideas you didn’t use that day is uncool and unethical.

Come up with your own ideas and respect the ideas of your co-writers. Unless if something is your idea and you are the one coming up with it and it is not being used in the co-write session, then later you can work on it alone or with another co-writer but if the other person comes up with it, it is not yours, no matter what.

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

12/22/2020

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.

BLOW THEM AWAY WITH YOUR SONGWRITING

12/15/2020

I often run into people who are doing all the wrong things in their pursuit of success with their music. Most of the time, the thing they need to be doing is improving their songs. That’s often the one thing they aren’t doing, and they’re usually wondering why this whole songwriting business is not working for them. They are meeting with publishers and people at PRO’s (ASCAP, BMI, COMPASS, SESAC, etc). They are trying to get co-writes with big writers. They play shows, hoping to get noticed. Basically, they are doing anything they should be doing according to the “textbook” but the problem is that their songs aren’t just good enough. No publisher or PRO rep can help you if you don’t have songs that are great. Not good. Great.

If you get that writing appointment with a big writer and you aren’t up to writing at his or her level, you probably won’t get another appointment. So, I often find myself reminding people that the “secret” to success is to write undeniably great songs.

You know the feeling you get when you are listening to the radio and all of the sudden, a song comes on that is way better than the previous song? It stands out because it is just flat out better. If you have songs that are undeniably great, it won’t take many meetings or shows for you to garner some interest. If you aren’t getting that interest yet, then just take a deep breath and invest your time and energy into writing better songs.

THE SONGWRITER’S PITCH TO PUBLISHER CHECKLIST

12/4/2020

Before you even agree to the meeting, ask yourself – “Are my songs really ready for recording and for going to the radio? Are they my songs going to compete with everything this publisher hears every day?” If you can’t honestly answer that question, then you don’t need to take the meeting. I will be just a waste of time for yourself and more importantly for the publisher. I said more importantly because when you waste their time, they will put you in their “waste of time” list and next times when you actually might have something to offer, they will refuse to meet you because, well, why should they? The last time the spent time to meet you, they got their time wasted. I have heard songs pitched to me – as publisher – that were so bad that an artist would never cut them in a million years. Get lots of good feedback on your songs from the people you already trust that they don’t hesitate to tell you if your song is bad, and you know for sure they will tell you the truth. I refer to those people around me as “safe people” that I know no matter what, tell will tell me the truth.

Safe people are people that aren’t going to hold it against you if you play them a bad song and they most probably will tell you what they think is wrong with your song and even they might give you some suggestions to make your song better. You can consider their opinion, work on your craft and then show it to them again and see what they will tell you. Publishers are not safe people. They usually give you one chance and it is best for you to use your that one chance wisely.

WHY YOU’RE NOT GETTING SONGS CUT?

11/24/2020

Looking at the songwriters whom I am mentoring, and the messages and emails I receive all the time, I can say as an average, the biggest question most aspiring songwriters have is “Why am I not getting songs recorded by major artists?”
This is a very hard question to answer because there are many factors affecting your process in getting a song, but in my experience, there are several primary reasons people don’t experience the success they want with their songs. Here they are:

Your songs aren’t good enough yet. Well, I always had been saying “write better songs”. That doesn’t mean your songs aren’t good enough, but it means you can write better songs that what your written until this point. Today, you should write a song better than what you wrote yesterday, and tomorrow you should write something better than the song you wrote today. In more than 90% of the cases I’ve encountered, this is the problem.

DON’T BLOW YOUR SONGWRITING CHANCE

11/17/2020

If you get a chance to write with a producer, an artist or a writer bigger or more experienced than you, there are some key questions you can ask that will give you a better shot at getting a cut on their record. Those opportunities are valuable, so be sure to ask these questions before you start writing!

What’s been going on with you? I always start there for two reasons. I truly am interested in what’s happening with their career. And it helps me know what to write when I hear the answer to that question. Often, they will say something that sparks a song idea. When I’m mentoring younger writers I always encourage them to go out there and talk to people. Ask them questions, learn about them, understand them. Each person is filled with thousands of interesting stories and as writer who have a voice in the society, it’s our job to be their voice and say their stories. That being said, who could be better than your co-writer? When you get the ideas from your co-writer and working on it together with them, during the process they can contribute more too because they feel close to the story.

WHAT SONGWRITERS SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THE MUSIC BUSINESS?

11/13/2020

One of the biggest factors that keeps songwriters from succeeding in the music business is that they overlook the fact that it’s a business. Understanding the fact that “music business” is made from two words of “music” and “business” and they are equally important. Unfortunately, most of young musicians I know just care about the music part and they mostly complain that they can’t make enough money to make a living! If you are from this group, you should know the most important and the simplest reason you are not making enough money is that you are too focused on the music side and forgotten about the business part. On the other hand, there is another group of musicians that they are focusing way too much on the business side and they forgot that they need to be a good musician or a good songwriter to have fresh and constantly produced material to do business with. They just write a couple of songs and then they focus so much on selling those few songs! That’s not how it works. You must focus on both side of the music business at the same time and understand that these two, together, can bring success to you.

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