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FEED ME – GREAT SONGWRITING NEEDS CONSTANT INSPIRATION

7/26/2022

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​Do you feel like your melodies sound dated when you’re writing a new song? Are you in a songwriting rut? It happens to us all. We start rolling and write a bunch of songs we really love, and then one day we wake up and everything starts sounding the same. Every new idea we create seems familiar. And worse, those ideas may sound like melodies we heard years before! That’s the most horrible part. There had been times I wrote a brand new song and played it for my artists and they showed me the “original” version of that song. I was very sure I hadn’t copy, and when I was so frustrated of what is happening, a psychologist friend of mine told me that human brain tend to keep the audio in the memory for an unbelievable amount of time and no matter if we remember it or not, when we want to write, subconsciously we might write the melody that we don’t remember and we are not even aware of the fact that song ever existed or we ever had heard it. But it already is registered in our subconsciousness. 
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THE SONGWRITER’S BUSINESS PLAN

7/19/2022

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One of the things I discovered when I started mentoring songwriters is that very few of us have a plan for where we want to be in future and how we want to get there. That may be the curse of the creative mind – we get so lost in making stuff up that we lose sight of the business side of things that must be tended to as well. And it’s a big mistake for people who want to make a living in any aspect of creative industries. There is two words in “Music Business”. There is music and there is business and they both are equally important.

​None can work without the other one. In mentoring sessions, we often work on a customized plan for the specific person. But, in general, there are some steps I recommend for every songwriter who is trying to turn their songwriting passion into a business.
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WHAT MAKES A GREAT SONG A HIT SONG?

7/12/2022

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I can’t count the number of times I have had this question asked of me. Someone will play me a great song and express their confusion over the lack of interest they are getting from the industry when they play it for people. It’s anything strange in this industry to see that a great song doesn’t become a hit song. I am not going to brag about any of my own songs here, but I know countless unbelievably great songs written by people I know that they all – and sometimes myself included – were very sure that this song will become a massive hit and when it was recorded and released, we were just waiting to see it in top of the charts, and waiting, and waiting, and nothing was happening. After a few disappointing experiences like this, I started trying to find out why such great songs are not becoming hits. And after putting the pieces of puzzle together, I came to some conclusions that explain why not every great song will become a hit.
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THINGS THAT KEEP ME KEEPING ON AS A SONGWRITER

7/5/2022

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Failure is not failure. Most great people fail many times before they succeed. Just imagine the world if all those people whom we now know as successful had gave up in any of the first of hundreds of times that they failed. Imagine if Steve Jobs just gave up any of the times that his marketing ideas reached to a dead-end road. Can you imagine the world without Apple products? Imagine, if Dr Dre had given up on Eminem when the whole hip-hip industry at the moment had told Dre to leave alone the white boy because he is not good enough. Even when Eminem’s first album failed so bad, but instead Dre and Eminem just worked on their craft and they gave birth to the Rap God we know today. Can you imagine our current world without Eminem? Can you imagine the world without Bill Gates and Microsoft? Even let’s go one step further, can you imagine the world without the Thomas Edison and electricity? All these people had failed countless times but at the end of the day, they made an impact that changed the world, in some cases forever. 
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Just think about it, each of us – songwriters – might become one of those kind of big people in one point in our life but that definitely will not happen if we give up when we fail. It happens, learn the lesson and move on.

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THE OVERCONFIDENT SONGWRITER

6/28/2022

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​I was talking to a songwriter and he was telling about his story of when he walked into a certain PRO office like he owned the place, because he knew that his songs were better than anything they had in their catalogue. When he demanded a meeting on the spot, they escorted him out of the building. He was shocked. Then, he went across the street and tried that same plan out at another place with the same result. At the end of the story he claimed that someone else actually escorted him out of the whole city. While that part stretched believability, I’ve seen the first two routines in action several times.
Songwriter Dude, I’m sorry if you wind up hearing your story and seeing yourself here, but I have to say that your plan is a bad one. You don’t own this town. You don’t own your PRO. And, nobody here owes you anything. You didn’t build the town, or the PRO, or any of the artists involved, or in general you still hadn’t generated even a cent from your music for yourself or for anybody else. 
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I love your confidence though, but it is not going to get you anywhere in this industry. You may be a very talented songwriter. I am not here to judge that at this moment, but you have to understand where you fit into the big picture before you will ever be welcomed into the fold.

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HOW WE RAISE THE TIDE AS SONGWRITERS

6/21/2022

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In any music community I am a member I am always trying to remind everyone around me that we rise by lifting each other up. As some of us improve, the bar gets raised and others improve trying to reach for that bar. This is the healthiest way of competition inside a community that literally benefits everyone. In some ways, the music business is a cut-throat competition, with some similarities to the hunger games. Some people look at it as a “kill or be killed” proposition. This kind of behavior would create what I call dirty competition. These people try to destroy their competitors instead of trying to improve themselves and get better than the rest. If everyone just try to be better than the others rather than destroying the others, the whole team will get better and better and it’s great for everyone.

Playing “kill or get killed” kind of game stifles creativity and it creates crappy music. Our philosophy at Flipside is that if we lift each other up, better music starts to be created. ​
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5 ROOKIE MISTAKES SONGWRITERS MAKE

6/14/2022

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Act Like You Know! In the music business, your best bet is to try and ACT like you know what you are doing, even if you don’t. I don’t mean you should lie or bluff. But you want to come across to people like you know how things work in the big leagues even if you are just trying out for the farm team at the moment. The reason for this is that usually you only have one shot with each person in this industry and once they see you and feel you don’t know what is going on, that’s it. They will not remember your name or your face, or even worth, they will remember you as a person they don’t need around themselves.
Making these mistakes can tip people off that you DON’T know what you are doing, so don’t make these rookie mistakes:

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CHARACTERISTICS OF HIGHLY CREATIVE PEOPLE

6/7/2022

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A different breed. Over the past 15 years of writing and working with artists, producers, and co-writers; I’ve noticed certain traits in myself and others in the creative community. We are wired differently than the other 95% of the population. We are the creative types. I’m not trying to say I am different but what I’m saying is that there are certain things I absorbed while working with these people and maybe these behaviours grown in me too, because I started being in this create environment from tender age of 12.
 
When inspiration strikes, they forget everything else but their creative work. They tend to lose all track of time and even forget to eat. This is something very common that we are in studio and out of nowhere we realise it’s 3am and we still hadn’t eaten dinner and not planning to leave the studio any time soon until the project is wrapped. And interesting part is that everyone is perfectly happy with such arrangement!

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Press Release: xs - Summer Love

6/3/2022

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Pop singer-songwriter xs just dropped the perfect party banger this season, Summer Love on 3 Jun 2022.

Published by record label Flipside Productions, the sexy yet cheeky electro-pop song is written by xs and produced by Swedish producer BADCOMBINA. The song expresses xs’ desire to have a passionate summer romance.

​The upbeat track pays homage to the early 2010s nostalgia with influences from K-Pop. Its heavy bassline and infectious lyrics instantly make listeners want to hit the dance floor. Listeners also can’t resist singing along to the catchy hook “Gimme gimme gimme that summer love”.
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The lyrics come to life in the steamy music video. Shot at a beautiful villa in xs’ home country, Malaysia, the music video was directed by Chen Saw. It begins with xs hanging out with her friends at a pool party where she spots her love interest (played by model Hadi Karkout). The pair eventually lock eyes and it gets hot from there quick.

​The summer anthem has a highly contagious positive energy. “I want to inspire people to live, love and laugh when they listen to ‘Summer Love’” xs shares, “So gather your friends, go to the beach, throw a party, have some cocktails and just have lots of fun!
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QUICK WAYS TO LOSE A CO-WRITER, AND A FRIEND, AND A DATE!

5/31/2022

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As I mentioned a couple of times by now, co-writing is like dating in some levels. It also can be a bit similar to a friendship. There are unwritten rules and manners for both friendship and dating. It is not much different than co-writing. There are several quick ways to lose a co-writer, or a friend, or a date.
  
Show up with nothing. No ideas, no grooves. Zero. You’d be amazed how many times this happens. Who shows up for work unprepared to do anything? Would you show up on a date and tell your date that you don’t give a single damn about being there? Well, showing up unprepared on a co-write session basically is telling your co-writers that you don’t care about being in the room with them. No one who wants to be around for a while. Come in prepared with lots of ammo and give your best every day.

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TIPS TO HELP SONGWRITERS GET BETTER SONG CRITIQUES

5/24/2022

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​sometimes, people get frustrated with the kind of feedback they get on their songs, but when we dig into the issue, we discover that they really didn’t give the feedback giver much to go on. Here are some tips to help you get accurate, helpful feedback on your songs. The kind of feedback you can count on, and use them to grow your work.
 
Don’t submit finished demos if you can help it. It’s hard to give people feedback on a finished product. If you’ve already spent $800 on the demo, it breaks my heart to tell you that your second verse is ALL messed up. I’m probably going to go easier on you, because I don’t want to crush you and make you feel like you wasted your money. I’d much rather give you feedback on a work tape or a work in progress. Then, I feel like we can fix everything that needs fixing before you spend your money. Unless you send me the finished product and tell me that you don’t have problem redoing it. Then I’d know you have enough money to waste and I don’t need to feel guilty about being honest,
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THINGS I WISH MY AMATEUR SONGWRITING SELF HAD KNOWN

5/3/2022

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I started writing songs when I was 11 years old. They were predictably bad, but heartfelt. Many were dedicated to girls in the neighborhood that I wished would notice me. If I could go back and talk to that little old guy, I would tell him, “Hey buddy, being a real songwriter is hard and stressful. It will take way longer than you think it will to succeed. But it will be the best job you can ever imagine”.

If I could go back and mentor my teenager songwriting self, I could help him avoid a lot of the unpleasant moments and tons of disappointments he experienced and help him succeed much faster. That exactly is what I am doing with the writers I am mentoring now, and it is one of the main reasons I am writing this blog.

​I had done mistakes, you read these, and don’t repeat my mistakes!
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HOW DO I SUBMIT A SONG AS A SONGWRITER?

4/26/2022

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Based on the emails and messages I get from young writers; it seems to be a lot of confusion out there over the question “How do I submit a song?”. The truth of the matter is that there is no one way to “submit” a song. When you simplify the “song submission” idea, there are basically three categories of song submissions that a songwriter should educate themselves about and work on them. I’ll cover each of those here.
 
Educational submissions. These are “safe” ways to submit a song that you aren’t sure about because the person you are submitting the song to knows that you are just trying to learn. You aren’t going to burn a bridge if the song isn’t there. Usually there are websites by professionals that you can submit your songs to them and take their feedback and in some cases if your song have good potential maybe they invite you for full time or project basis collaboration.
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WHAT KEEPS YOU GOING?

4/19/2022

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For some reason, people often ask me what keeps me going? How do I stay motivated to write when I get so few songs cut in relation to the number of songs I write? I have come to believe that motivation is an internal force, not an external one. I don’t believe in “motivation”, at its core. Or some kind I can say that I don’t believe the motivation comes from any outside factors. I’m not more motivated to write if I get more cuts. I’m motivated to write by some internal force that will not be denied. There is a part of me that IS going to succeed no matter what. The part of me that write at least one new song every day, regardless of how many cuts I get. I just keep writing for matter of writing and when I write, every time I just try to write the best song I’ve ever written, and I don’t think of what to do with it next. When I think this way, I have nothing to be worried about and I can write with no stress nor any pressure.
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SONGWRITING IS ALL ABOUT COMMUNICATION

4/12/2022

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Communication vs. rules. I had a songwriting session with someone recently who was very frustrated with trying so hard in the business and getting no signs of success. He had read a book by a leading songwriting teacher and had tried to apply all of the songwriting “rules” that the book taught. The end result was that he felt he was writing worse and worse songs the more he tried to follow the rules. I told him a story about going for playing snooker as a teenager. Neither I nor my friends were good snooker players, but one friend was getting strike after strike. Being the competitive people, we were, my other friends and I kept trying to mess him up. Nothing was working. Finally, I said “I need to learn to play like you do! How do you concentrate your breathing while aiming before you hit the ball?” The next time he was up, he counted the time for his breathing and guess what happened? He messed up. When he started trying to break down what he was doing, it messed him up.
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LEARNING TO THINK LIKE BLAKE SHELTON

4/5/2022

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Songwriters, do you think like an artist? One of the tricks to getting cuts with major artists like Blake Shelton is learning to think like they do. It’s not really all that hard, but it does take some time and effort which if you ask me, it totally worth it to spend that time, energy and effort to learn to think like some of the greatest writers and build your career’s foundation. In essence, songwriters are mini speech writers. We are trying to put words in the mouths of celebrities, and they will sing them out loud for the world. If you were trying to write a speech for a major political candidate, you would try to get to know that candidate as well as you possibly could. You want your words to sound very natural coming out of their mouths because literally the whole world is listening to it – essentially, these words must sound so natural, pure and relevant that sound like they wrote it themselves. To pull that off, I try to read a lot of interviews with artists I want to aim to pitch songs to. 
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THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF MUSIC PUBLISHING DEALS FOR SONGWRITERS AND ARTISTS

3/29/2022

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Of course, any full-time writer prefers to have a proper deal with a publisher and knows their music career is going somewhere. As a general approach, there are two common types of deals that publishers make with writers, but you don’t have to limit yourself to those two options if you can think outside the box.  Here are the two common types of deals plus some ideas for creative options.
 
Staff Writer. In this kind of deal, the writes exclusively for one publisher. Basically, the name is self-explaining. The writer will be the staff of the publisher company and mostly writes on demand when the publisher has an opportunity for the writer and can pitch the song to some artists or producers. Also, the writer will be writing the songs and when they have something, they can provide it to the publisher and if publisher finds it interesting will push and pitch it for the writer. 
One important note about this kind of deal is that there is a quota of songs per year that must be written by the writer and accepted by the publisher. ​
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WHAT REALLY MAKES A SONG A HIT?

3/22/2022

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People often ask me if I KNOW that I’ve written a hit song when I finish it. The answer to that is a resounding “NO”. I generally know when I finish a song whether it is great or just good or it just simply have to get more time spent on it. Beyond that, so much goes into making a song a hit that is out of my control. So, all I can do is try to write a great song every day and then get it into the right hands. After that, it’s up to other forces to make it a hit.
 
In my experience, here is what makes a song a hit:
 
The songwriter writes a song that is catchy, compelling and commercial. That means the song is well crafted, it connects to a broad audience and it causes action on the part of the listener. It may make them cry, laugh, dance, tap their feet, or go purchase the song. In any case, it causes them to react. It also has to be commercial in the sense that an artist would want to sing it and an audience would want to hear it.

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USING LOOPS FOR CREATING THE #1 SONG

3/15/2022

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One great tool every songwriter has at their disposal today are drum loops. Whether you have a computer handy or a smart phone, there are amazing apps for beats that were not available even a few short years ago. Loops are a quick way to add energy and style to your new music creation but there are some pitfalls to be mindful of and avoid. Even as a professional producer, I sometimes use these loops if I want to quickly write down some ideas, and not to spend any time on any other part of the song else than just writing the lead. The biggest reason I use a drum loop is that it sets a mood. Whether I want to write an R&B groove ballad or an up-tempo heavy metal song, that instant drum beat, and sound takes me to that place where that song can begin. 
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THINGS MUSIC PUBLISHERS LOOK FOR IN A SONGWRITER

3/8/2022

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​Music Publishers seem to be the “holy grail” for songwriters trying to get that first cut. Somehow, many people have the idea that if they could just “get a publisher,” all of their problems would be solved, and the cuts would start rolling in. While having a great publisher can be very beneficial, “getting a publisher” isn’t the most important piece of the success equation by any means. And, notice that I said having a GREAT publisher can be very beneficial. Having a bad or just mediocre publisher is often worse than not having one at all. So, proceed with caution and do a lot of background checking before agreeing to work with any publisher on an exclusive basis. Having said all of that, and as a publisher myself, here are a few things that publishers are looking for in a writer. Working at becoming all of these things before you meet with a publisher is going to increase your chances of that publisher wanting a working relationship with you.
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THE TRUTH ABOUT PITCHING SONGS

3/1/2022

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One of the biggest areas in which I see songwriters being scammed is in the area of pitching songs. There are untold numbers of services that will gladly take your money to “pitch your song”. There are two big reasons that this arena is full of sharks. One is that you have no way of knowing if they ever really pitch your song. And the other problem is that you want a cut so bad you’ll believe anyone who says they love your song. Guess who loves your songs most, other than you and your mom? Scammers. Why? Because they know they can get you to fork over some dollars for that song, even if it doesn’t have a chance of getting cut. Even if they have no real connection to the artist at hand. Even if they have never gotten a song recorded. Even if the artist isn’t looking for songs. All they have to do is tell you that they love your song and your wallet falls open. So, how do you keep the wallet safe and avoid wasting your money? By understanding how the business works. And by doing some homework. Here are some important things to know about pitching songs.
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WAYS TO MAKE YOUR SONGWRITING MORE COMMERCIAL INSTANTLY

2/22/2022

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Write a better first line. The first line is literally the very first thing one would hear when they are listening to your song. So, it is the super important how you want to start your “conversation” with your listener – from the listeners to the artists and label people – and convince them to sit through and keep listening and waiting for your hook and punch line to come up. It’s all about the first line, specially when professionals are listening. With the very first line of your music they hear, they already start judging your song and for sure you don’t want them to stop listening. Because if the first line is too weak, there’s a good chance they might stop listening. Interesting first lines grab the listener and make them want to hear more. They can be the difference in an artist or A&R person listening all the way through or passing on your song right away. And they can be different through the listeners when the song gets recorded. 
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THE SONGWRITER’S SINGLE SONG CONTRACT – A CAUTIONARY TALE

2/15/2022

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When I was first starting on my commercial songwriting journey, I was dying for someone – anyone – to like my songs. One day I got the call that a publisher was interested in one of my songs. Not just any publisher. It was actually a very well-known publisher. Not one of the big majors, but almost everyone would know the name of the publisher if I threw it out there. I was elated! I was so elated, that I nearly just signed the single-song contract without having a lawyer check it out, or matter of fact, almost without looking at it at all. After all, this was a real publisher. They wouldn’t give me a bad contract, because who am I that they try to rip me off, right? Fortunately, I decided to take it to an entertainment lawyer just in case there was an issue with it. Turns out, there was an issue. Not a little issue. A deal breaker issue. In the contract, it stated that the publisher (who was already getting 100% of my publishing in the deal) would get 50% of my writer’s share if they changed “one note of my arrangement”. 
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WHAT IS A STAFF SONGWRITER?

2/8/2022

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There are many misconceptions of what it means to be a “staff songwriter.” So, I thought I’d make an attempt at clearing that up. In layman’s terms, a staff writer has signed an exclusive agreement assigning a publisher some portion of every song they write during the term of the agreement.  So, if a songwriter signs a “5 Year Deal” for a straight (100%) publishing deal, the publisher will own 100% of the publishing on every song the writer writes during those 5 years. However, a “5 Year Deal” is almost always actually a one-year deal with 4 extra options that the publisher can exercise.

That means that the writer gets to write for the publisher for one year. At the end of the year, the publisher may or may not pick up that option. If they do pick it up, then the writer hangs around for another year. The same thing happens another 3 times. The publisher decides yearly to keep the writer or let them go. The writer generally does not have the option to leave until all 5 years are up. 

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WHO CAN STOP YOU FROM WRITING SONGS?

2/1/2022

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I think that’s a valid question for every songwriter to ask themselves from time to time. We all had been there, thinking about it and we all will come back to thinking about it. On occasion, I hear songwriters say things like “It’s not really worth writing a song if I can’t get a publisher to listen.” Or “Why bother writing another song no one will ever hear?” Or even “It’s so hard to get on the Billboard Charts or make money with music these days”. When I hear those comments, I challenge the writers to examine their motivation for writing. So, I’ll ask you the same questions I ask them. Maybe they will cause you to think about your own motivation. Would you keep writing if you knew you’d never make a dollar with your music? Is your motivation solely based on money, or would you keep writing for other reasons even if it never paid off? Could lack of publisher interest make you give up? Do you really want to give them that much power? Does the size of the potential audience for your music factor into your decision to write? 
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