"Makes you wonder how songs are ever picked. Do publishers listen to what they like, or do they have a check list of things it must have...isnt the whole purpose to like the song?"

One of the things most people don't understand about publishers, is they actually do both. Publishers usually have a catelogue of songs of all kinds, subject matters, various stages of recordings, etc. ready to go. They also often have staff writers and friends who are submitting songs on a daily basis. So there is no end to the amount of songs. They never have to look anywhere. It all comes to them.

They do have songs, writers and artists they like, but they also know what is going on with trends, what artists are coming up ,what artists are about to be dropped, what producers are out there, what they will listen to, what the don't listen to. Yes, there are check lists. There are "behind the scenes" conversations, inside information talked about on golf courses, at parties, etc. They often know of new and upcoming artists, months or years before the general public even knows who they are. The inner circles are very tight. The actual decision makers are usually friends and competitors. So there is lot of "street" or "buzz" information going on.

There are also TRENDS. These will pop up sometimes by songs or artiists, going viral, that no one ever even saw. Some thing comes out of nowhere and becomes the "NEXT BIG THING." Suddenly everyone is looking for songs, other artists that are just like that. It breeds jokes like:

"WHO IS GARTH BROOKS? (TAYLOR SWIFT, KEITH URBAN, LADY GA GA.....insert famous artist here)
"GET ME SOMEONE LIKE GARTH BROOKS."
"FIND ME THE NEXT GARTH BROOKS."
"WHO IS GARTH BROOKS?"

The truth is NO ONE KNOWS WHAT IS GOING TO BE A HIT. They spend literaly millions of dollars on songs, artists, projects, etc. taht DON'T WORK, to get to the one's that DO WORK. If they KNEW what was going to work and be a hit, they would ONLY DO THAT. Same with television pilots, movies in different stages of development, Internet productions, that go no where, etc. A LOT of stuff out there. Not much reasonates with the public.

And yes, they have plenty of things they believe in. Songs they like. Artists they believe in. Much that they put their MONEY in as well as their belief. HAve you ever seen an artist, heard a song, seen a television show, movie, or internet sensation, and you wonder, "HOW IN GOD'S NAME DID THAT EVER GET UP THERE?"
and EVERYBODY AROUND YOU RAVES ABOUT IT? And you JUST DON'T GET IT?
Or, conversely, have you ever heard a song, seen an artist, a television show, movie, Internet sensation that you go "THAT IS THE MOST AMAZING THING I'VE EVER SEEN!!!" And Yet NOBODY ELSE SEEMS TO GET IT? They dissapear overnight, and become answers to trivia questions.

That's the deal. All of this is relative and based upon reasonating with the GENERAL AUDIENCE. It's a crap shoot. But yes, they have songs they like, they believe in and put money into and they have things that they may not believe in as much but fits the peramaters of the people they are playing the songs for. Another aspect to keep in mind, is that now, more times than not, the ARTIST and the WRITER are the same, and the publishers are presenting both as artist pitches to labels. So that is another part of the process.

MAB

Last edited by Marc Barnette; 02/17/21 11:36 AM.