DON’T FALL FOR THESE URBAN SONGWRITING MYTHS

I can write only 10 songs and have several hits in the bunch. Songwriting is a craft that takes years to develop. No painter paints a masterpiece within his first ten pieces of art. Most people have to write hundreds of songs before they write a hit.
 
I can move to LA or New York for a year and get my songwriting career going and then I’ll move back home. Most people I know spent 5-7 years trying to write full time in a music centre before they succeeded. It’s not going to happen in a year.

If my co-writer signs a single song publishing deal, I have to sign it as well. False. Your publishing is completely separate from your co-writer’s publishing. You can each sign them to separate publishers or one of you can sign and the other can keep their publishing. It’s up to each individual to decide what is best for their publishing share.
 
I have to write with an artist to get a cut. False. I have over 100 cuts. Fewer than 10 are with the artist. Out of 6 #1 songs, only one was with the artist. It can be done. You just have to write better songs than the artist is able to write.
 
I can stay home and just mail songs in when I get a great one. Nope. Nobody does that. You have to build relationships. You don’t have to MOVE to a music centre, but you do have to put in time the correct society. Imagine saying that you are going to start a restaurant in a far away city, but you are never going to go there. That doesn’t work. You would go there, search for the best location, hire a great chef and manager, get things rocking and THEN maybe you’d go back home. Any business you start is going to require time on the ground getting it going.
 
Getting one big hit makes it easy to get more cuts. I wish! I still have to provide a great song every time. They don’t care what I did before, it’s all about the song I’ve got in my hand at the moment. A big hit can open up more doors, but it won’t get you more cuts unless you have other big hits to back it up.
 
Don’t get side tracked by believing these myths. Keep working hard and making each song better than the last. That’s the secret to success! 

Author

​Hangi Tavakoli is our in-house established and professional music producer with more than 15 years of experience in music production, mix and mastering, recording engineering, live sound designing/engineering, lyrics writing and music arrangement. He has produced more than 800 and written more than 2000 published songs to-date, including some major hits in international scale.Write something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview.