WAYS TO MAKE YOUR SONGWRITING MORE COMMERCIAL INSTANTLY

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. 

Make your chorus bigger. The chorus is heart of your song. Everything in the song is happening just to serve the chorus. Every verse – and the bridge, if you have any – are there to prepare your listener for the chorus. After all the waiting, they shouldn’t be disappointed with what they hear. A big chorus that leaps out of the speakers is going to have a better shot than one that limps out of the speakers every time. People want choruses that get a crowd going. Make it big and memorable.
 
Take out red flags. Basically, writing a song is pretty much similar to writing the speech for a politician. You write something and a celebrity would say it out loud as if they mean it. And you don’t want to write a speech similar to Trump's speeches. Do you? If your song includes something that might offend people, you have to count the cost. Is it worth losing a cut to have your political views in your song? If not, then take out red flags that might be offensive. Certain topics are kind of off limits and depending on the culture of your audience, it’s best to think twice before writing about any of those red flags.
 
Take out cliché’s and say things in a fresh way. Read more listen more. Practice to look at events around you differently. In anything happening, there definitely is some angle that nobody really pays attention too. Find that angle and look at it from that particular point of view. If you get the hang of it, it will be so easy to find it in any given topic. Lyrics that sound worn out and old is not going to have a very good chance. Make your lyrics fresh and exciting. There is a thin line between “different” and “weird”. Be different but be careful not to shoot yourself in the weird zone. Shoot for people hearing your lyrics and saying “Why didn’t I think of that?”
 
Make your melody unforgettable. A melody that gets stuck in your head all day is worth a million dollars. There is no substitute. Make your melody undeniable. It can be a great vocal melody for your chorus or for your first line or it can even be a very memorable guitar riff or something. Whatever you do, do it the way that people find themselves singing it in to their “shampoo bottle microphone” in the shower. Once you get in their head to that point, to perform your music for their imaginary audience at their “shower concerts” means you already made it.
 
Use repetition. When you have the opportunity, repeat in a catchy way. Repetition should be the chorus which is great if you keep emphasising on it, specially on the part of it which is the title of your song. As an average, in a commercial song, the title of the song is being repeated on the chorus for at least 7 times. When you keep repeating the chorus means there will be lesser time for other words in other parts of the song and lesser words means it will b easier for you listener to remember what you just said.  When they remember it, they can sing along and they can perform it in their “shower concerts” and bam, you got your song stuck in their head. The first time you play that song live, people can sing along with the 2nd chorus. It’s so simple and repetitive that it draws people in to sing along.

Author

Hangi Tavakoli is our in-house established and professional music producer with 20 years of experience in songwriting, music production, mix and mastering. He has written and produced more than 5,000 published songs to-date, including some major hits in international scale.