JPF Home Page Forums General Messages Songwriter Message Forum Which artists are you pitching to - and why?

Hi JPF,

A lot of you must be frequently pitching songs to artists/ producers or publishers?

I guess a lot of us would love to know which artists you are pitching your songs to- and how you have selected that particular pitch?

I'll tell you first of one of mine:

Recently I have finished a song with a Same jojk as its main hook, and I will pitch this to a producer in northern Norway, who are working with Same artists (Listen to the genre on Frode Fjellheim's website - some of it is really great stuff: http://www.vuelie.no/en/ . The Same people is the indigenous people of scandinavia, living in the north. The 'Jojk' is much similar to the Indian chants in North America. Same people uses the Joik to tell each other stories, but without words - they don't talk about the mountain, they SING the mountain.

The main goal for me, is to have the song in the norwegian Eurovision Contest 2010. Well anyway, I'm really excited about this pitch, which I can't show to you because of the rules of the contest - I will if it does not succeed or if it succeed to enter the tv shows.

But I would love to hear about which country, pop, rock artists you think of when you write, and/or are approaching with your songs, and how you select those artists/ producers/ publishers?

Please share for all of us to learn?

Hi Magne:

I often think of a particular artist when I write a song but in many cases, the artist has retired or even worse, expired. My friend, Mike Hackworth and I just completed a song we thought would fit John Denver if he were alive. It's called "Requiem of the Stars" and you can find it at the link below.

Very early in our writing partnership, we did a song called, "Little Cheater" with none other than the "Killer" (Jerry Lee Lewis) in mind. He is pretty much retired. Sorry, it is not posted at the link.

I wrote a Country/Honkytonk song thinking of Mickey Gilley and called it, "Brown Bag Romance." I never pitched it to him because someone else put a hold on it. It is listed at the link below.

Financial success has eluded us with these songs but at least our reward has been to have created something.

I hope this is of some assistance to you. Knowing a performers' singing style is important if you intend to "pitch" songs to them... just be sure to find live artists... LOL!

Best,

Dave

http://www.showcaseyourmusic.com/DaveRice

Ha Dave, thats hilarious. Pitching to retired or dead artists! I wonder how many of those that's around?

Seams like a great way to honor tradition, though. You can't know where you're going before you realize where you've been :-)

Generally speaking if I know what an Artist sounds like and they are seeking songs and I have something that seems appropirate I will send it.

Question.....

I've heard that for the most part pitches to a&r folks go unlistened too.

Is that true with artists too or do they spend time listening to stuff they get in the mail?

The idea of pitching to dead artists is kind of attractive. At least you'd know why you were being rejected.

Joe

Hey Ray, Not too much many specifics there huh. You make this sound so easy, and sure I know its not rocket science..

but how do you actually analyze the market? Is it that simple that artists always go for the same trademark sound, or do you analyze their back catalogue for needs?

Do you have priveliged contacts to artists (the red line), or do you approach through producers/ a&r staff, or do the pitch sheets (Row Fax etc.), or take the Taxi.com?

Ed, I don't have a clue.
I know listening is really difficult and very few master the practice. To me it seams that the artists too often don't even listen to their own songs before releasing them .-)

Hey Joe, Well dead artists, and I would also consider pitching to those who have not yet become artists, and even people that is not in the music business.

There's big underexplored target groups there.. :-)

Hey Magne,
I suscribe to a Tip Sheet. Artists are named in the lists. If I haven't heard them before I see if they have a Web Site and songs they have recorded to listen to. Then I look over my Primary Pitch list, (Of My Songs). If I have something that fits I send a submission. I have a system already set up so my routine is pretty well set. the Tip Sheet is http://www.songwritersparade.com/ It has taken a few years to fine tune my system but it works.

Artists may go thru as many as 2000 songs for a new CD. Keep pitching.

I have a cd that I am working on that I am considering pitching to other musicians.
Generally what is favored from me has been more of a basic style that I started out with that has been done in one sitting without much thought put to it.
Energy and expression.
I am out to expand my horizons and make a legible cd that embodies that along with something more sophisticated without sounding stupid doing that.
But I get in to more modern rock then trad music and want to use trad influences more for coloring.
And I am pretty much set on what I want to do, do or die with it.
I know already about doing a certain type of music and doing it well enough to pitch it to those in the professional field with it that like that genre.
I want to make those set of songs that represent me in the post eighties rock category, but has more involved in it to catch the ears.

May not be what this site would like, but I have those certain set of songs I am striving for.
When I have gone to that point, then I can know of what might be taken to another level.
I did not come to this site, or the internet for that matter, to play down to my capacity.
I like working on what I am interested in that I have not tried or can do so well.

Getting takes and working on something in my own creative goals has been my main objective.
It has taken having a thick skin, but I am better able to physically do what I could not have before.
Bringing order to that has been my main objective instead of perfect prose.
But I have that cd that will best represent myself within the next few months.

Another informative topic!

I have a few people who pitch my songs for me and they usually let me know who's looking and what the artist is looking for.

Why Garth Brooks of course {for his upcoming "comeback" album}...Then I'll buy my own little Island off of Tahiti and retire..Then my alarm clock will go off, and I'll wake up from my dream...

Hey Ray,

Songwriters parade, 2000 songs! Thanks for sharing, great info, Ray..

Hi mattbanx,

Thanks for sharing your concerns. I guess that places you somewhere in the same boat as the rest of us.

Looking forward to hearing some of your stuff in the feedback sections.

Hey Gregory,

Well are'nt you lucky.. I'd wish to have those kind of contacts, but that'll never happen from Denmark. Closest I get is reading about guys like you :-)

Hi Bob,

Well Garth sounds like top notch to me. Do you know more in particular, what kind of songs Garth is looking for? He seams to be sort of a country chameleon :-)

Pitching to a dead artist? I've pitched to a dying artist before and didn't know it until he expired the day we'd set up a meeting... 800 miles from home. Several people in the business had worked months to set up the meeting with this gentleman, and no one had said anything about his deteriorating health prior to the date. In fact, he had been advertising in a trade publication that he was opening his own publishing company and looking for talent. Heard he died on the radio when I was almost to his place in Montana. Shrugged my shoulders, turned around and drove eight hundred miles home. Resolved never to pitch a song to a dead, dying or otherwise unhealthy artist in the future.

i keep adding to my catalog with new writes that are hopefully things that are current enough in content to be considered for a cut. a well targeted pitch i believe is foremost in importance...i.e.- i'm not going to submit my new pop-rock song to George Strait- if i'm submitting for a George Strait cut i'm going to closely check the lyrical content against his cuts, the tempo and feel of the choice to pitch...like wise for Faith Hill, Martina McBride, etc. There are artists i choose to pass on submitting to because i don't have anything appropriate to pitch. If the ones i submit are always on target and well crafted i believe it builds my credibility as a writer. Each artist has things they will and will not do, it is our job as writers to know what these things are and pitch appropriately. I often see a listing which says uptempos only, no ballads...i'm not pitching a ballad to that one, but some people insist on pitching a ballad anyway...write great, be well, good luck with your pitching...moker

For those in original bands, we pitch songs to each other!

Who else would do one's mostly own style?

John, i've been in that position many times, here's the last rock cd, i wrote and sang all of them ... http://cdbaby.com/cd/mokerjarrett
there were dozens of others to weed through to decide which to go studio with...i am the only writer in the group this time though so, i've spun off on writing alot of country lately...we still do alot of those songs from the rock record live though... wish i had guys like you to write with locally, i miss the face to face collaboration, most of mine is net based these days...
cheers, be well...moker

Doc that was a funny story, in the backmirror that is..

Moker, it occurs to me that this thread should'nt be about what to to but instead about how to interpret artists backcatalogue, and peoples opinions on what kind of songs they need - one genre at the time, starting with country..

Will somebody go along on this, or is it too close to the moneymaking heart of business do you think?

Magne,
most listings will have either a description of the needs for the project or a contact name, e-mail, phone...once you know what they are after, the research into the artists parameters are not too hard to find. Their discography and lyrical content of their hits is a couple of clicks away. Today's country artists are more than meets the eye in savvy. Many of them now co-write a great majority of their songs. They have been set up to write with great writers in their circle by their publishers. It makes for more slices of the pie for everyone. That means fewer cut spots open for submittal on their upcoming recording projects, with more writers competing for them. Writing current is the best way i have figured out to be prepared to pitch. I know the sound of music in that market today. I know from studying what the great writers musical style is. The artists themselves create their own will and will not do list, they take on a style that predicts for us what content is acceptable. Lyric is the first thing that will kill a great songs chance. A lyric pitched to an artist who has already had a hit with a similar topic, or a subject matter that they won't do will disqualify a song right away...there are just too many great songs for the number of cuts available that's why it's so tough. I make an attempt to pitch well...i'm sure i don't have near as much info. as the well connected Nashville writers do, i know i don't. The artist, producer, and publisher are often the only 3 who know exactly what is needed for the final 2 or 3 cuts on a project. Contrary to popular belief, they are always open ears for a hit song. They know that is a golden moment when they hear a song that just compels you to listen intently. Example...i had my daughter listen to Brad Paisley's "Waitin' on a Woman" thismorning for the first time, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvKgnkIN8C8 within the first verse she was hooked, she listened to the whole thing and was singing with the hook by the 2nd time...she's just about to turn 9, that's a hit...hits have strange stories sometimes, if you believe in a song don't ever give up on it...this song was first recorded in 2005, then rerecorded in 2007 and released as a single in 2008, it became a #1 hit just recently, Paisley didn't write it, it was written by Don Sampson and Wynn Varble. Writing for this market is a tough thing, as i
suppose doing it well is for many or even all...I know a hit writer who had been in Nashville struggling for 2 or 3 years, had started a family, and basically given up and left town and gone back west to attend medical school...within 2 months of packing up and leaving he got 2 major cuts and ended up moving back to Nashville...he wrote a song a couple years back that generated over a million dollars as the writers share for the one song...don't know if this helps, if you enjoy it, it's always worth it, success is just the icing on the cake. be well...moker

Hey thanks for sharing Moker,

I got a lifetime. How about that? Just gave up a career doing social science at the university. Well, not for fulltime songwriting, but for a more quiet job, where I can work with the music aside. Could'nt do that at the university, it was way too demanding.

Actually today, the two business'es a very much alike (science and music is just as commercial), and with a master of arts background I've teached writing for years to students. It's a solid basis to build a semicareer in music on, and now I just need to eat my own cake, so to speak.

But no education can teach you good taste, vivid imagination, how to get that guitar solo just right, and how to crack the maket codes. All that's needed for that is a persistant person that can listen and make friendly relations.

Bus different as we are, we have different opinions about what to pitch to whom, and the reasons behind the choices - and that's what I'm really interested in hearing more about..