- ArtistshouseMusic -

MySpace Fundamentals: Guidelines for Building a Successful MySpace Page

mikeking — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 21:39:55 -0700

MySpace Fundamentals: Guidelines for Building a Successful MySpace PageOk, I’ll admit it. I am addicted to MySpace. I love it. I’m on MySpace everyday and can’t get enough of it. The more I use MySpace as a promotional tool and a way to communicate with fans, promoters, industry contacts, bands, etc.
I’ve found that many of the business ethics and concepts of professionalism that lead to success in the music business world are mirrored in the business relations of the online world. In respect to these ethics, here are some essential tips on how to build, design, and format your MySpace page correctly. I hope my insights will inspire new ideas and beneficial changes to your MySpace page.

Your Bread and Butter
Ignore all the cool site designs, flyers, links, and banners for a second. What is the most important thing on your page? The answer is your MUSIC!! The songs you post on MySpace are your page’s bread and butter. Your music will make fans or lose them. Just like the “real world,” you want to present your songs in the best form possible; so you should record professional demos of your songs and post them on your page. It’s hard to comprehend a catchy, well-written song through layers of static and a guitar amp that drowns out the vocals from your one-mic recording done in your basement. Posting high quality recordings on your page will put you above the thousands of bands on MySpace who have posted mediocre tracks. If you don't have the money to record professionally, record acoustic tracks with just a vocal accompanied by guitar or piano until you’ve saved enough money to produce better recordings. This allows your fans to get into your songs in their purest form and it keeps the recording process simple. Another tip to consider is the order of the songs you post. My suggestion is to post your best song first; just like the first song on your album, you want it to draw the listener in. Posting a variety of songs on your page is also a plus. Displaying a range in your music abilities will impress people as well. Maybe someone who doesn’t like your louder songs will fall in love with the ballad track and purchase your CD. One recent update to MySpace gives bands the ability to post five songs in their profile, instead of just four. MySpace has an advertising deal with Bodog Entertainment. All you have to do is go to http://www.myspace.com/bodog, add Bodog as your friend and a fifth song option will appear for upload on your ‘Manage Your Songs’ admin page. Check it out!

Shows, Shows, Shows!
After you’ve posted some quality recordings on MySpace, there are still endless ways to improve your page and inform your fans about your band. Two important items for your MySpace page are your upcoming shows and your contact information. MySpace provides an easy way to enter show information and displays your upcoming shows in a calendar list on your page. Include as much information as possible about your shows so your fans don’t have any questions. Be sure to fully research the details of your gigs and list the date, time, venue address, price, other acts, etc. One possible way to draw more fans to your show is to list whom you’re playing with on the same line as the venue name that appears on your calendar. For Example: “June 22nd – The Avalon w/ The White Stripes.” If you are playing with a local band that you know has a good draw – it would be beneficial to list this right on your calendar to attract more fans to the event. The more information you give your fans about your gigs, the more you decrease the chance of people not coming because they don't know how to get there, or how much it costs, or when you perform, and so on.

Where Can I Contact You?
Another important piece of information you’ll want to highlight on your MySpace page is your contact information. Just like promotional materials you send to people in the music business, you want your contact info on your MySpace page to be easy to find and easy to read. A club booker or label executive isn’t going to see your email address or phone number if its hiding down at the bottom of your page under your list of musical influences, so be sure to make it easy for visitors to find.
Along with your email, website, phone number, and other contact information that you post, you could list your individual band member’s personal MySpace pages, emails and screen names as well. Putting your screen name on your MySpace page is another easy way for a fan to contact you. Sometimes people prefer to talk directly over instant messenger about booking shows, merchandise questions, or just to say they like your music. Who knows, having an instant messenger conversation with a fan might inspire them to tell even more people about your music and how they can ‘talk to you online!’

Behind The Music
In addition to this basic information, the supplemental content you can add to a MySpace page is literally endless. One piece of information most bands post is a biography. Your bio informs your visitors of your band’s story and can also document your achievements, for example, who you’ve recorded and performed with, past tours, etc. Along with a bio, press quotes from publications or popular music identities will attract attention to your group. This type of promotional content on your page has the ability to influence new fans to look further into your band and can also be beneficial if music industry professional check out your page.
MySpace also makes it easy to inform your fans about your latest news by posting blogs that appear as links right on your page. Blogs are an ideal place to present exciting upcoming events, lyrics to your songs, member journals, track listings, and more. Your fans also have the ability to comment on these blogs, which can fuel the buzz around your band to an even greater degree.

Click Here!
On the technical side, one of MySpace’s greatest assets is the ability for bands to host graphics, linking, and image/video posting on their pages. You can provide links to your website, mailing list, your online store, online music stores for your music, press stories, videos, ring tones, and the list goes on (for posting tips check out the Graphics section of this article below). Having these types of resources available on the same page as your music is a priceless opportunity to present your fans with ways to learn more about you, buy your CD or contact you, all in one place. Posting upcoming show flyers and pictures of your merchandise on your page is also a great idea. Many bands utilize promotional tools like online map programs that represent their fans from all over the world by location (see an example at http://www.frappr.com/). A similar program that is also becoming popular on band’s MySpace pages is Eventful’s “Demand” program (http://eventful.com/demand/learn). This program allows fans to demand that an act perform in their area. A band can create a demand box for their group, post it on their page, and their fans can add to it depending on their location. The program counts and displays the number of fans in each area that “demand” the artist. Neither Frappr’s mapping technology nor Eventful’s demanding program are essential components to your MySpace page, but if you have a growing number of fans across the country that message you saying they wish you’d play in their hometown, why not document it on your page for people to see? It certainly can be impressive if you have many people supporting you across the globe, especially to a music industry professional that may have an interest in your band.

It’s Always the Little Things!
Two final topics that are subtle but important characteristics of your MySpace page are your “headline” and your “Top 8”. Your MySpace “headline” is the short quote that appears next to your profile image at the top of your page. This quote can be edited in the “Edit Profile” admin page on your MySpace. Since this little blurb is right next to your picture, people visiting your page are bound to see it, making it an excellent place for advertising. This is a prime promotional spot and you have the ability to write anything you like, from song lyrics to your album title. But choosing to write something like “Buy Our EP on iTunes!” or “Request Our Songs on 101.7 FM” are great messages to relay to your fans if you are really pushing something like a new record or looking for a new drummer. You can even take a larger step and post this information right in your band name appearing in your profile. For Example: “The Strokes *Have 2 New Songs*” or “John Mayer is LOOKING FOR A NEW BASSIST.” Many people will see this information attached to your name –whether it be on your page, above your picture, in comments you’ve left, next to messages you’ve sent them in your inbox, or a friend’s Top 8’s.

Speaking of Top 8’s, another MySpace page feature is the Top Friends list that is displayed on all MySpace pages. For non-musical personal MySpace pages the Top Friends list serves as a way to post pictures of your closest friends. With a band/music MySpace page, a band can choose to represent a number of profile types on their top friends list: fan’s profiles, bands, clothing companies, record labels, venues, and more. If you are at a level where you are playing music with notable bands and recording at recognized studios, its a good idea to list these up and coming bands and studios in your top friends list. When you display this relationship on your page, anyone in touch with the music scene in your area can see that you’re recording at top of the line studios, playing with successful bands, performing at great venues, and making the right choices that lead to a successful career.
Ultimately, with all of these content, image, and linking ideas in mind, it is most important to keep your MySpace page looking professional. With all of these resources in your grasp it’s very easy to clutter your page with too much information and promotion. No one is going to want to scroll through your page if it is just a bunch of videos and advertisements. Keep your page organized and professional while still displaying your group’s important information and promotional resources. You may choose to design your page after your latest album’s artwork, or create a custom design to make your page stand apart from the default white MySpace background. Regardless of what you choose to put on your page, you’ll want the online representation of your band to be informative, user-friendly, and professional.

HTML What?
In order to maintain and update your page with links, flyers, text, and such, you will need to know some html coding basics. Fear not my friends, although computer coding may sound kind of scary, it really isn’t that complicated. There are a handful of free Websites that offer html basic how-to’s that can teach you a variety of linking and posting techniques. A great example of a free html site is: http://www.htmlcodetutorial.com.
Another graphic design tip is to make friends with someone who can create flyers and banners for your band. Maybe someone in your band will take this on so you can keep it within the band. The last thing you want is a MySpace page with great music decorated with lame banners and show flyers that people find unattractive. Either research resources or take it upon yourself to make attractive advertisements for your band. Many artists, especially those with record label backing, have teams of people working to design their MySpace pages and promo content. Make sure you can compete with these pages by learning the fundamentals of advertising – through Google searches, advice from friends, or whatever it takes.
One popular option for formatting your MySpace page is to use a free MySpace Page Generator. These are programs in which you enter information and then the generator formats your MySpace page with a certain background, font, font color, bordering colors, etc. Some artists choose to give their page a certain look to make their profile more unique. This is a great idea in my opinion as long as the page layout doesn’t interfere with the content on the page. You can find free MySpace Generators all over the web. Here is an example: http://www.mygen.co.uk/.
Remember, when designing your MySpace page, keep your page professional, informative, and organized. Best of luck!

Selling Your Music on MySpace

mikeking — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 21:26:41 -0700

Selling Your Music on MySpace

Article:

If you’ve spent time working on your band’s MySpace page, you know that the linking capabilities for your page are endless. With the explosion of the digital music revolution, many artists have discovered that these online linking opportunities provide excellent ways to promote the online stores that sell your music. If listeners come to your page, hear your songs, and have the option to click a banner and buy your music immediately, what more could you ask for? That purchase equals instant income for you, made possible by your MySpace page. My recommendation is to create eye-catching banners or advertisements that link to your online music resources (iTunes, Cdbaby.com, etc.) and make them very visible on your page.

Just recently, MySpace has decided to remove the middle man and started working with a company called Snocap to create a digital music download player that appears right on your page. The Snocap player/downloading device is becoming more and more popular with MySpace artists. It allows listeners to hear 30 seconds of the song and purchase it right from the MySpace page. Another benefit of the Snocap music player/downloading device is the ability to post the player anywhere – on your MySpace page, your website, your friend’s MySpace pages, etc. The thought behind this movable music store is simply genius and has the potential to provide limitless promotion and income for your band. For an unsigned artist, the Snocap service costs $30 per year; Snocap also takes a small percentage fee for each download and you are able to post up to 1,000 songs on your player. For more information on Snocap, check out this link: http://www.snocap.com/about/faq.

If your band is creating music that people truly enjoy and your MySpace is getting a lot of attention, linking to your online stores or hosting your own Snocap store are immensely beneficial resources to have on your MySpace page. These technologies are definitively revolutionizing the way music is sold online and should not be ignored.

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Promoting Your Music on MySpace: Making Friends and Getting Them to Your Shows

mikeking — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 21:00:30 -0700

Promoting Your Music on MySpace: Making Friends and Getting Them to Your ShowsWe All Need Friends
MySpace is designed as a networking site, and because of this, many resources exist on the site that allow you to search for people all over the world. When you first create your MySpace account, you should start by adding your friends - people that you know are already on MySpace. These people will tell their friends about your MySpace page and they will tell their friends, and so on. When you decide to start exposing your music to a larger online audience, you can approach this task using numerous techniques. The Browse and Search features found on the MySpace menu bar are ideal places for finding fans to befriend and expose to your music. For those unaware, gaining friends on MySpace is achieved by sending a person a “Friend Request” message. This message comes up on the user’s admin page and displays your picture and the option to accept or deny your request. The person you are befriending has the ability to click on your picture, view your profile, and decide whether they want to be your friend. Many people consider the number of friends a band has on MySpace to be directly related to their level of popularity and success. Because of this relationship, many bands put a lot of effort into adding friends to boost their friend count. In order to ensure that people you are befriending will actually enjoy your music, it’s best to target suitable audiences. MySpace’s “Browse” feature, also found on the menu bar, allows you to do an extremely detailed search for MySpace users based on information such as gender, age, relationship status, location, ethnicity, background, lifestyle, etc. As you can imagine, searching within these specific details can be very beneficial in reaching your target audience. MySpace’s “Search” feature, found right next to Browse on the menu bar, is a bit more limited in its search options but can still yield excellent results. The Search page allows you to find one specific person by searching for their name, display, or email address. This page also has a Classmate Finder, which allows you to search by people at a certain school and a Networking search, which allows you to search by people’s general interests. If you are looking to add friends from certain age groups, locations, interests, etc., these tools can be extremely helpful.

Finding Your Niche and Keeping It
There are many more inventive ways to search for and add friends on MySpace. These techniques include adding friends who listen to bands that sound like your group, friends who like local bands you play with, friends that are friends with a certain venue, etc. All of these resources will yield a variety of fans and aid you in exposing your music to groups of people that will be interested in your band.
When doing anything on MySpace, especially something like adding friends, always be professional and polite. There is no difference in the way you choose to communicate with a fan, band, or club owner in person compared to communicating over MySpace. Be thankful to the people who support your music, no matter who they are. If a person or friend requests you, don’t just accept the request, take that extra step and send them a comment or message saying thank you. I often try to take a look at the person’s profile and then leave a comment about their interests, in hopes of establishing a relationship with them and ensuring their support. When you are adding many friends at a time, consider sending each individual a message saying you hope they like your music and you’d be grateful if they took a few seconds to check it out. A lot of companies advertise on MySpace and send out billions of friend requests; sending a message along with your friend request can help avoid losing a potential fan that may ignore your request just like a friend request from a company looking for advertising. The main idea in adding friends is to be considerate and professional and always encourage communication. Establishing relationships with your fans can only help your career and get more and more people talking about you.

You’re Nothing Without Your Fans
Once you’ve added a considerable number of friends and you have a large group of dedicated supporters, there are several different ways to assemble your fans on MySpace. One way is to create a MySpace Group for your fans. The Group feature is found on the MySpace menu bar. Once a group dedicated to your band is created, your group page hosts a forum for your fans to talk about your band and the option of posting news bulletins on this page. Two other tools to get your fans together include creating a MySpace page for your Street Team and a Fan Club MySpace page for your band. Both of these pages increase your online presence and increase promotion and support for your band.

MySpace, I Love You.
One amazing promotional tool MySpace has created for your friends is the ability to add your song to their profile. On your MySpace player there is an “Add” button under each track. Users can click this button to add your song to their profile and your song will stream from their page with your band name, the song name, a link to your page, and an option for other users to add the song to their page. Users are only allowed one song for their page and the song plays immediately when their page loads. I can’t get over this feature. It makes me so happy to see fans who have one of my band’s songs in their profile. I know that all of their friends go to their profile and they all hear the song automatically; as a result our exposure spreads. If your fans begin putting your songs in their profiles, you are definitely doing something right. Be sure to thank them for their support. These types of opportunities should also motivate you to post quality recordings of your songs on line. No one wants a poorly recorded song playing on their personal profile.
Gaining and communicating with fans is a crucial part of the MySpace networking experience and there are certainly right and wrong ways to go about approaching new fans and friends. Always be sure to be professional and thoughtful in your efforts. One last important point is to make sure you have a quality “product” before you expose it to thousands of people on MySpace. Wait until you’re getting a good response from fans on a local level, then take your marketing campaign into cyberspace.

Informing Your Fans About Your Upcoming Shows
My favorite way to inform fans about an upcoming show is to post bulletins about the show and make the show flyer the default picture on our MySpace profile. A MySpace bulletin is a message you send to all your friends. I include the show flyer in the bulletin message along with text encouraging our fans to attend. When your friends log into their MySpace accounts, there is a list on the left hand side displaying all the recent bulletins posted by their friends. So, if you post a bulletin titled “Upcoming Shows!” or “We are coming to California!” – your fans that have an interest in these shows can click on the bulletin, read it, and reply back with questions and comments.
In addition, if you make a show flyer your default profile picture – that flyer will show up everywhere your name is posted. For example, everywhere you’ve left a comment, all of the Top Friends lists in which your band appears, all of the inbox’s you’ve left messages, and so on. This results in your flyer showing up in a lot of places making all of your friends as well as people who’ve never heard of you, aware of your upcoming show. This also serves as an inspiration to make eye-catching flyers that people will want to check out.

You’re Invited!
MySpace also offers a built-in event announcement creator. If you go to Events in the MySpace Menu bar you can click on Create An Event. This feature enables you to fill out all the information about your upcoming show and then send the invite to all of your friends. This is a great way to contact friends who may not pay attention to bulletins or maybe some folks you haven’t spoken with in awhile.

Tour Promotion Tips
I have also developed techniques for getting the word out about shows while touring or playing a specific college date. While on tour, bands may be traveling to states they’ve never even been to before. Luckily, due to the diversified number of people on MySpace, they may already have fans in that state! There are many ways to access these fans including: using the Browse feature on MySpace to search and message people by their location and age, message friends of the venue where you’re playing (assuming the venue has a MySpace page), message the friends of local bands on the show, etc. Any one of these tools will put you in contact with people in the area you’ll be playing and these new relationships will give you a greater chance of having a bigger crowd in a state you’ve never played before - that is an incredible advantage.

College Shows = $$$
Many bands play college shows because a lot of colleges have a budget for events such as concerts. Depending on the budget and the popularity of the band, an artist can make a decent amount of money from a college show compared to a Tuesday night at a local venue. With the use of the MySpace Search feature, you can search for current students at a certain college and let them know all about your upcoming show. The student body at many colleges can be very supportive of campus events. Thus, MySpace messaging college students is an excellent way to spread the word about an upcoming performance at their school.

Oh My God! We’re Opening Up for Aerosmith!
One last recommendation regards playing on the same bill as a very popular band. If a band is super popular, they’re going to have a MySpace. One way you can contact kids attending this show and convince them to show up earlier for your set is to monitor the comments that the popular band you are playing with has on their page. If your band is from New Jersey and you see a person who comments on the popular band’s page saying, “can’t wait to see you in Jersey!” you can then send a message to this person asking them to check out your music and consider coming to the show on the early side to check out your band as well. If a touring band is popular enough, they’ll receive a lot of comments like this and you’ll be able to contact a number of potential fans for your group’s show.

As you can see, there are many ways to inform the MySpace community about your upcoming shows. One thing to keep in mind is to start sending messages well before the show date. Some people don’t check their MySpace accounts every day and people often have plans ahead of time for evening activities. In order to ensure you have a good chance of reaching people before your show date, start promoting your upcoming shows several weeks in advance. This time frame should give people enough time to read your message, check out your songs, and plan to come to your show.

What should I know about MySpace?

mikeking — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 19:49:08 -0700

Answer

If you are musician in this day and age, you need to know about MySpace.com. MySpace is a social networking site that has done wonders for online music marketing and promotion for both independent artists and record labels. With the increasing popularity of online music distributors, merchandising stores, and digital music resources, having an online presence on MySpace is an essential and absolutely FREE way of exposing your music to millions.

In order to get started, I have created a friendly list of MySpace DO’s and DONT’s to assist you in your music marketing efforts on MySpace. If you are reading this and don’t have a MySpace account, sign up today! Let’s be friends!

DO’s

Make your MySpace URL (www.myspace.com/yournamehere) something that makes sense, preferably your band name. If your band name is already taken – add words to the end like: /saywhenmusic, /saywhenband, /saywhenrock.
Link your MySpace address to emails, mention it at shows, put it on flyers, handouts, etc. – GET IT OUT THERE!
Make sure your MySpace page is professional and organized in all aspects.
Communicate with your fans as much as possible – always keep the communication going.
Always respect the people you encounter and talk to on MySpace and maintain good business ethics.
Post some photos (live or promo) in your pictures section. Cool shots can get people talking. If you haven’t posted a show flyer up as your default picture, a photo works just as well to attract people to your page.
Update your MySpace page on a regular basis. Post bulletins about your latest shows and news frequently. Keep fans coming back to your page!
Check out the features and promo tools other successful bands have on their pages to stay current on the hottest tools.
When you’re promoting a new banner or show flyer on your page – create an html code box that allows your fans to copy and post the same flyer on their page – SPREAD THE WORD!

DONT’s

Don’t start a band and immediately start messaging and adding people on MySpace – write songs, play shows, and build a local following first, then expand online from there.
Returning people’s messages and handling friendly requests is critically important – if you have bad PR skills, people will be less likely to work with you and support you.
Don't litter your page with low quality banners. If you are going to advertise your band and want people to take you seriously, post professional-looking, online ads.
Don’t crowd your MySpace page with too many links, video windows, show flyers, wordy text, etc. - you don't want to overload your viewer or they may avoid your page.
Don’t post poor quality recordings – it won’t help. Post high-quality, simple acoustic recordings.
Don’t badger people about listening to your band – when messaging people, be considerate and respectful and don’t overdo it. If your band is talented, people will come to you and you won’t have to beg people to listen.
Don’t message active bands or promoters repeatedly about getting on shows, if they say no the first time and you don’t get a good vibe, stop. Develop a friendship with the person first by offering, for example, to help promote their shows, and then see if you can work out a show in exchange for your group.

Date

Editor

Mike King

Video Links

Video Links:
Ted Cohen of EMI on MySpace.com
MySpace Music Promotion
Accessing Expansive Internet Fan Bases

Songwriting 101: Make Your Songs Commercially Viable

mikeking — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 08:22:16 -0800

Songwriting 101: Make Your Songs Commercially Viable It is a well-known fact that the music business is very competitive. It is an industry comprised of thousands of artists working relentlessly every day to get their music to as many people as possible - striving for that big break that will take them to the top. As a struggling songwriter in this ever-evolving business, one must consider the fact that every artist in the game most likely has an arsenal of songs they are marketing and each artist is creating new material daily.
When you sit down and think about it, that's a lot of songs. The music industry is bursting with countless melodies, lyrics, and hooks all competing for the coveted spotlight. So the question is – what is it about the songs that DO make it to the top? What is so special about those hits you hear playing in every car stereo, mall, restaurant, and record store that make thousands of people want to turn up their radio, go out, and buy that particular artist’s CD? The answer to that question is sometimes hard to determine. Sometimes songs become very popular for completely different reasons. In most cases, the songs that expand artists’ fan bases and turn their groups into a household name usually follow a general formula and share certain characteristics when compared to other hit songs.
In my songwriting experience, I have developed a number of tools that have helped me fine-tune my songwriting. Below, I have listed four important topics to help you improve your writing and make your songs more memorable and commercially accessible.

1. The Chorus Section & ‘The Hook’

I believe that most songwriting professionals and music producers will agree that ultimately the chorus is the most important section of any pop song. The chorus of your song should be the part that everyone sings along with; the chorus is the part that really drives your message home. When people ask about a song and don’t know the name, people will say, “Sing me the chorus.” In most cases, the song is easily identified afterward. Bottom line – you want the chorus of your song to be the strongest part of your whole song. With this in mind, I usually begin writing a song by writing the chorus first. It helps me get the main idea across and establish the key of the song. From there, I build my verses and bridge around the main chorus concept. Beginning to write from a verse is all right too. However, without a chorus idea in mind, it is often easy to lose focus of what your song is truly about.
When composing the melody for the chorus, it is best to keep your listeners in mind. This is the section you want everyone to sing. You don't want to cram in too many words or use a million notes making your melody harder to sing and easier to forget. Keep things simple. The simpler your chorus is, the more people will be able to sing along. Your chorus will appeal to both the mother driving her child to school and her ten year old listening in the backseat.
Special emphasis should also be placed on ‘the hook’ of your song. Often times, the hook means the song title’s placement in your chorus. Some songs will just repeat the hook or song title throughout the whole chorus such as Bruce Springsteen’s, “Born In the USA.” Some choruses begin with the hook. This can be seen in Neil Young’s, “Only Love Can Break Your Heart.” One of the most popular places for a hook or title is at the end of the chorus. Using this hook placement, your title will be the last thing the listener hears during the chorus section. Since most songs end with the chorus, the title will also be the last thing the listener hears when the song ends. A contemporary example of this type of chorus can be found in The Killer’s, “Mr. Brightside.”
It can be argued whether the title or the hook chorus placement is the best. Either way, you want your title to stick out in your song. This can be achieved using a catchy melody or by musical arrangement ideas. For instance, having a certain guitar line under your title or the whole band stop while your title hangs there could cause your hook to stand out. If you begin writing by building a strong chorus, you have already established your main idea and you can now draw inspiration from that idea for the other sections of your song.

2. Lyrics

In my opinion, lyrics equal 50% of a song’s worth. If you’ve got great music and bad lyrics, you don’t have a great song. In popular music, it is evident that lyrics don’t need to be amazing and extremely meaningful in order for a song to be successful. However, if you can write compelling music and pair it with clever or significant lyrics, your song will be ten times stronger. In addition, for the common listener, words will often have a greater effect than a musical event or gesture. If you can secure a strong connection with your listener through your lyrics, they will be hooked.
When writing your lyrics, it is always important to keep your listener in mind. Do your lyrics make sense from start to end? Are all your lyrics in the same tense - past or present? What is your song about? Is it a story? Does it describe a certain event or feeling? Is the meaning evident? If you worked hard on creating an amazing chorus, you don't want to lose your listener during your verses by not staying focused lyrically on your message or story. The majority of people do not have huge attention spans when it comes to music. Therefore, someone might lose patience waiting for your hooky chorus to come back around and change the radio station during your verse. One way to make sure you remain focused in your lyric writing is to map out your song’s lyrical progression before you actually start writing. Take a piece of paper and write out the general idea you’re going to speak about or describe in verse 1, your chorus, verse 2, your bridge, etc. This way, when you start writing, you can reference back to your map and stay focused on what you want to say for each section. This will create a clear outline for the listener and allow it to progress from start to finish through the song.
Another more subtle consideration for lyric writing is point of view. By experimenting with the point of view in your lyrics, you can take your song to a completely different level and connect with your listener in a different way. For example, say the first line of your first verse is something like, “She was the best thing that ever happened to me, she’s all I think about.” This lyric could easily be changed to, “YOU are the best thing that ever happened to me, YOU are all I think about.” With this change, the listener is much more likely to relate to the ‘you’ in the song instead of the ‘she’. Using the word ‘she’ confines the song’s meaning to a woman, but using ‘you’ allows the listener to insert any person to whom they want that lyric to relate. Moreover, the use of ‘I’ instead of ‘you’ is oftentimes even stronger. Compare the line, “You said you were leaving, and then you shut the door” to “I said I was leaving, and then I shut the door.” If your listener is singing along, they are most likely to identify more with singing ‘I’ instead of ‘you.’
Although these lyrical details are subtle, they can make all the difference in your song. Overall, the most important thing is that your lyrics make sense and your listener can relate to what you’re saying. Many people use lyrics and music to express and reflect emotions in their own lives. If you can create lyrics that will connect with someone instantly, it can do wonders for your career. That person will keep listening to your song, they’ll tell their friends about you, they’ll buy your CD, and they will definitely want to see you live and feel that emotion in a live performance.

3. Song Form and Contrasting Sections

One of the defining features of popular music is that musical ideas and sections are repetitive. Although the lyrics can often change from section to section, musical ideas for verses and choruses almost always return in all pop songs. People like hearing familiar things. When a section repeats, the listener can identify with the music since it’s already familiar. It allows them to feel settled inside a song and understand what’s going on. Although this effect is mostly subconscious, it is certainly true. When you hear a song that keeps changing and has crazy sections that don’t make sense together, you feel lost. Unless that is how you want to feel, you probably are going to have a negative reaction to this arrangement. In pop music it can certainly be to your advantage to experiment with traditional pop song forms. However, keeping things structured and easily recognizable is also important and will ensure that your listener can follow along. If your listener knows when the verse is over, they can be ready to sing along with the chorus that belts out your message and gets stuck in their head.
With this attention to song form and changing sections in mind, another aspect that can enhance your songwriting by incredible degrees is the use of dynamics and contrast between your sections. There are multitudes of ways to create contrast in your songs. Utilizing this tool is often something that will set you apart from your peers. If you want to make your booming chorus really stand out, bring down your verses and make them quiet. Therefore, when the chorus hits, it will raise the intensity of your song. Or say your chorus speaks about a very sensitive matter. Maybe your verses will be a bit louder and your chorus bare and fragile in order to reflect the lyric. Contrasts such as these will help map out your song form, while changing sections will further your listeners feeling of security and boost their interest in your song.
Another great way to create contrast in your songs and build or diminish intensity is the use of changing rhythms. Let’s say you wrote a chorus where you hold these big long notes over the whole section. You could create a nice contrast in your verses by having a lot of descriptive words saying them in shorter phrases. Then, when your long note chorus hits, the listener will really feel that difference. Harmonically you can implement these rhythmic variations between sections by experimenting with harmonic rhythm in your chord progressions. For example, you could ride through your verses vamping on one chord or changing between two chords real slow, and then when the chorus hits, you can throw in a lot of chord changes to create a nice contrast. Furthermore, if you want to build intensity leading up to your chorus or lose intensity and slow things down with your bridge, you can achieve this by increasing or decreasing the rhythm of your melody, your harmony, or both.
These types of contrasts, both dynamically and musically, can really do wonders for a song. Experimenting with contrast in your songs will allow your lyrical ideas and melodic hooks to really stand out in their particular sections. Ultimately, your song will be much more organized and memorable.

4. Melodic and Rhythmic Hooks

One last tip that serves as an additional way to make your songs both memorable and identifiable is adding melodic or rhythmic hooks into your compositions. When you insert little motifs into your writing, your listener will get that little musical idea stuck in their head and want to listen to your song again. Also, if someone was scanning through the radio and they heard your hooky melodic guitar line, they would automatically know what song it was and they would stop and listen. Little musical hooks are an excellent way to make your song distinguishable and recognizable among the many other songs that people hear from day to day.
Currently, many rap songs use this tool and stick in little samples or guitar riffs that cycle throughout the song and get stuck in the listener’s head. Coldplay is one contemporary rock band that is especially great at implementing this tool to make their songs memorable and easy to identify. Their hit song, “In My Place,” features a simple guitar lick that repeats becoming a major theme for the song. Their hit song, “Clocks,” starts off with a rhythmic piano arpeggio that drives the whole song and easily gets stuck in your head.
Fundamentally, just having a good beat behind your song is a very subtle way to get people moving to your music. People like feeling safe inside the time and groove of a song. If you are struggling when writing a song, try adding a drum beat behind your progression and see where it takes your writing. You may just find a great groove to support your melody and lyrics.
Overall, adding hooky musical ideas or cool grooves to your songs is a tool that will give your writing an advantage over many other songs being marketed today. If you’ve got a strong song that stands pretty well on its own, one of these tips might be just what you need to unify and enhance the song’s message to achieve an even greater degree.
After years of writing hit songs, many artists have the ability to write and record in a variety of styles and structures. Furthermore, their fans enjoy it because they have a history with that artist and appreciate their musical experiments. As an up and coming songwriter in today’s music industry, it is best to make your songs as commercially acceptable and radio-friendly as possible. In addition, songs that are well structured and have an easily accessible and relatable message are usually the best songs to be featured in movies and television. It is my hope that these tips and tools I’ve discussed will influence your writing and make you think about your songwriting approach from a few new angles.

For more information on similar topics and additional songwriting advice, check out these books that have helped me along the way: Writing Better Lyrics by Pat Pattison and Songwriter’s Workshop: Harmony & Melody by Jimmy Kachulis.

- ArtistshouseMusic -

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