JPF Home Page Forums General Messages General Message Forum Hey Brian, maybe we need another forum

A forum for composers, a place where writers can place their lyrics when looking for a composer. The lyric forums are for looking for critiques on the lyrics, a lot for a composer to go through, especially when they are not sure that the writer is looking for a composer for said lyrics.

Looks like that was the original purpose for the "Songwriter Message Forum":
Except I did have to look up and see what a "lyicist" was -- I found out it is a songwriter that can't spell.

kevin

LOL, Kevin. It's a lyricist who can't type. However, every time some poor newbie lyricist starts a thread looking for a composer, everybody tells the person to put it in the lyric forum.

However the description for the Lyric Forum doesn't say it is exclusively for critique.

Now that I think about it, we jump all over the people who post a finished lyric but aren't particularly looking for a critique.

Apparently a lot of us lyricists can't read either.

It could be a good idea to create a fixed forum for finished (e.g. critiqued and revised) lyrics needing music.

At the moment, any requests posted in the Songwriter Message Forum are quickly pushed off the page by posts on other topics.

Donna

Maybe it could just be relabeled "Collaboration Forum" ?

cheers, niteshift

Well the songwriters forum encompasses all topics, including that.

I thought about that too, but then Collaboration could include mixing, demo and players wanted etc and the same problem of the requests being pushed off the page would occur there too.

I think that composers browsing for lyrics to write to naturally gravitate to that forum, so they can anonymously shop for lyrics that interest them. Since many often use the hook as their title in the thread, the composer can easily "shop" for songs with interesting hooks. Often the lyricist mentions that they want collaborators.

As happens in the Songwriter forum, I fear too many people would name their threads, Lyricist seeking Composer or vice versa and often those posts go unread
or get very little participation. If I were a composer who wanted to collaborate, I would like to see the quality of the work before I started any kind of dialogue to avoid uncomfortable situations.

But that's just me and my opinion. If I were wrong, it wouldn't be the first time. Good thing I am not in charge of those kinds of decisions, lol.

I don't see any reason to not have a forum dedicated to "Finished Lyrics looking for composer" or "Music"

Or it could be "Finished Songs Looking Cowrite" since you can do an instrumental and ask for lyrics written to that.

Or make it a separate forum. Finished Music Looking for Lyrics"

It is pretty specific. Collaboration can mean a few things and we already have a "Networking" forum. That is supposed to be the "Say Hello To The World" forum.

And how many Music composers troll the lyric forums looking for lyrics? Or even how do they know to look there?

I agree with Bill. Why over complicate things? Most people don't need to be led by the hand. A simple PM to someone that you want to collab with will do. It works for me.

I am not opposed to trying anything. It would work out fine for those of us who have been here a while. Most of us like to stick the fork in it to see if it's done.

The newbies would bring in some complications. We would have a lot of them posting their "hit lyrics" there. And some people would post their whole catalogue.
There would be a lot of people who would bypass the critique process. From what I've seen, few people have posted lyrics that didn't need some editing of some kind first.

good idea

Why not have a Collaboration Forum where there is a list of names of people looking for cowriters. After their name they can put brief details of what type of music or genre they are writing with a link to their work and whether they are looking for a lyricist or composer. When they have found a cowriter they want to work with they can PM the forum moderator to have their name removed.
It simplifies finding who is available and willing.
Some people are too shy or modest to PM individuals and quite often these individuals would love to collab if approached. There are folks who must get pestered with too many offers to accept. This would at least make intentions known and possibly open doors for partnerships that would not normally happen.

Another option might be just to include something in your signature, like

...seeking 'blank music' collaborators who can 'blank' Pls PM me...

Excellent idea, Everett! I hope it happens! Have a good week!
-Dave

Guys,

We're already suffering, I fear, from Forum Bloat. That's too many forums and not enough people using them regularly. It used to be the Lyric forums filled up every day. That's why we added extras.

As for forum descriptions, few ever read those. Don't believe me? That typo has been there for 9 years and this is the first time anyone ever pointed it out.

Brian

I don't think we need more boards, we need less! Less boards make the forum as a whole easier to navigate - specially when you are, say, on an iPhone.

I'd be in favor of having one Collaboration board (for those seeking collaborations of any kind) over the separate Songwriters and Musician boards we have now. Similarly, the Industry and Mentor boards host broadly the same types of conversation - why not merge them.

Less boards also means less confusion about where to post and that, in turn, means fewer threads that are ignored for being in the wrong spot.

Less is more, I say!

Why not simply add an Acronym or two..at the Lyrics Feedback Boards: "LFC 50-50" would mean "Looking for Composer on a 50-50 basis." If you had 2 Lyricists already/wanted "Equal-Sharing" it'd be "LFC 33 1/3"...& so-on.

If seeking a Co-Writer on lyrics,"LFL"...(Might get more Song "Starts" Launched...as a result.

Could simply post 'em in the Title Block for Maximum Results...

Eg: "Yesterday"..(LFC 50-50)

WOULD be a Boost to have a "PUBLISHERS & ARTISTS LOOKING-FOR" Board..to assist the Writers HERE getting the Finished Products Out THERE...

K-O-S, of course...& Back to Breakfast!
Big Hugs,
Stan

Stan.

I'd have no idea what that meant so someone coming in from the outside for the first time (or in my case thousands of times) wouldn't have a clue. As for the 50-50 basis, frankly I'd never allow someone to request something else. 50/50 is appropriate for cowriting situations. Anything else is either a scam or someone in power taking advantage of someone who isn't. Yuck!

Right now the board doesn't allow for boards to be merged. (Yeah.. it's a shortcoming). I don't think even the new version does it.

The Chapter Boards is what makes it all look overwhelming. We are planning a big push to reactivate a lot of dormant chapters and aggressively open new ones starting this fall. We also want to increase International chapters. And we want to work on recruiting more members to actually USE the message boards. Only about 1000 of the 18K use it regularly and of course 32K of our members aren't even registered here.

Brian

What's a finished lyric?





I hate to break the news, but there aren't many composers looking for finished lyrics...probably a lot more wishing someone would write lyrics for their finished music.

One way to find out as an experiment would be to post a THREAD in the lyrics forum, in which people post finished lyrics in search of a composer, and keep conversation to a minimum. The first post could encourage interested collaborators to PM each other rather than clog the thread with a lot of public overtures and negotiations.

Brian, you're assuming Every Co-write is Among Just TWO People..but it's Not Always-The-Case. So..it's beneficial to establish the "Shares" in-advance. As for the Acronyms, there are only TWO I had in-mind..LFC and LFL. Shouldn't take TOO-long to figure 'em out..if used often-enough (& maybe Explained IN the Preface to a Poster's Lyric..or Melody?)

As for the "Seeking" Board Idea, so-far, we only-occasionally..& by-chance..get "The Word" via Writer Tom Yeager or Moker Jarret that SOMEONE's Looking for Material in NashCity..etc. (& I'll add Nightshift, too..on Movie Cuts.) You'd increase Member "Views" perhaps Considerably with a serious "Tip-Sheet"...

Back to my Cheerios...Big Guy-Hug,
Stan

I think it's a good idea to have a list of people looking for collabs and what they are interested in, what styles they are writing in, etc. that way there wouldn't be confusion with too many composers writing their music to the same lyric as they will get in touch with the lyricist and have an opportunity to have one to one collaboration if that's what they are looking for. It also will give the lyricist a chance to ask the composer to send some demos/links/MP3s and decide whether it's what they like or not like although the lyrics often lead to a unique music based on the feel the lyric has. one of my collaborators with who I later wrote 18 songs, initially posted her ad in a Songwriting Magazine and after I've sent her my email, asked me many questions, established whether I was the right collaborator for her, asked me to send my music and after that she sent me her first lyric. We have been collaborators for 3 years now and we are also friends although we have never met. Anyway, there are many ways to find collaborators and this is just one of them which is helpful because it saves the problem if a composer is sending a message that he/she wants to collaborate and a lyricist is not interested. If there is a list of the lyricists looking for composers and composers looking for lyricists and each of them states what they are interested in, it makes things simpler. A lyricist can state whether he/she is looking for a professional demo, particular style, etc. A composer might look for a lyricist who is singing/playing/recording and that would give an opportunity for a composer to find a good collaborator. Well, just my opinion.
Nadia

OR why don't we just put that information in our profiles or in our signatures? That could be done right now with no changes made to the site.

Perhaps that could be added as an optional field to be filled in the profile form.

Since it would be a field, then it could probably be made to show up in the information that appears with our names and avatars at the side of our posts. That way people who are open to collaboration could be seen at a glance.

How about that, Brian. Could that be done?

Well, would everyone open so many profiles to find out who is looking for collaborators when there are so many members here? Is it not easier just to have a list of people interested in collaborations?

I have no way to change the software to add to the profile. There's going to be blogs added to this software in the near future. It's supposed to happen in version 8.0 which they are working on right now. That might open some possibilities.

Brian

Check out my avatar. You can combine a pict file with a text box file and then save it as a jpg, ping, or gif. and then upload it.

This is Jean Bullock. (My secret identity) Please check out this post about letting others know we want to collaborate.


http://www.jpfolks.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=733904