OTHER PEOPLE’S OPINIONS – ARE THEY GOOD OR BAD FOR YOUR SONGWRITING?

I wrote with a writer who is actively looking for a publishing deal. He is a super talented young writer and while we were in the co-write, he was constantly expressing his frustration over how two publishers suggested changes on a song he wrote, and both gave exact opposite opinions on what his song needed. One said his chorus melody didn’t go anywhere and needed work. The next publisher, he played his song and loved the music and melody but thought his title was not strong enough. When I asked the young writer that what he thinks about his song and I wanted to know his personal opinion, “I like the song the way it is” he said to me in total frustration.
Since I mostly co-write songs, I’m a little more used to navigating the opinion waters. So, I offered my him my take on it. If my co-writers, publishers, a producer, or label person are all giving me feedback that my song is lacking somewhere then I’ve probably missed the mark on my song, and they are trying to come up with a reason. 

The specifics of what they personally don’t like about my song is not the bottom line, because these people are professionals and they understand how to keep their personal opinion out of the business matters. When they disagree with a song is because they look at the song from market’s point of view and not their personal views. The bottom line is my song is not getting them excited business wise and hitting the replay button. These folks really want to like my song, or anyone else’s song for that matter. Their jobs depend on them finding great songs and they don’t care where it comes from.
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Now when I have done my job right and if nothing goes wrong it usually goes something like this; My publisher is asking when he can get a copy of the demo. My co-writer's publisher can’t wait for the demo and is so pumped up about the song he is running over to a producer to play the simple work tape we did that morning when we wrote the song. The producer then wants to hold the song until he can play it next week for the artist. The bottom line – The song is motivating people that hear it in a good way. Even though I have a track record of getting songs onto records, I can tell you the second scenario here happens way less than the first. So, opinions are often considered as an important measuring stick. But I try to stay focused on the bottom line. If a publisher I trust suggest I make a change, I often try it and see if I like it better rather than just sticking to the mindset that “it’s my song and I know how it should go”. Sometimes I do and sometimes I don’t, but in most successful cases I cared about the other professional opinions and at the end of the day, everyone including myself were happy with the result. But it’s always my call. A singer once called and asked me to write an additional 3rd verse to a song of mine. After hearing her reasons, I wrote a 3rd verse with my co-writer and she recorded the song. I could have disagreed, but she was right with her observation. So, the bottom line is I listen to the feedbacks coming from professionals, but I remember the bottom line and it’s always a matter of what I feel is right after properly considering someone else’s opinion.

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.