Songwriter's Goldmine!

Yup.....too good to be true.....

Option 1: START BUILDING YOUR ONLINE CATALOG OF SONGS TODAY and take advantage of our discounted rate of only $29.95 per song, per year (40% savings over our regular rate of $49). You'll AUTOMATICALLY receive the FREE song requests email and this will help you know what songs to add to your catalog and what songs in your SongScope catalog are being requested.

Not sure yet? Then, choose

Option 2: Choose the "Free Registration to SongScope" option in the registration form to start building your catalog later. You'll receive song request emails from music industry professionals and this will help you to know what songs you should list on SongScope. You can then choose to list or submit any of your songs later.

Click on the registration button below to get started with either option!



SongScopesm Listing prices
Special Limited Time Discounts! SongWriter Packages
SongWriter/Artist Promo Package
1-10 songs - $49 $29.95 each
More than 10 songs - email us

Receive Email Notifications - FREE
1 song + CD PromoPage $147 $39.90
5 songs + FREE CD PromoPage $245 $149.75
CLICK HERE for a demo of a CD PromoPage.

(Rates for Memberships and Song Listings are PER YEAR)



If You have to pay to have your music reviewed....well, that just seems like a rip-off to me...If your music is good enough, then it will sell itself...ya know? Of course no one can guarantee you anything with offers such as these.. There is only one exception to these pay sites that I can think of....Tonos....and not because of their opportunities....I am a member of Tonos for collaboration purposes...the A&R opps. are just a perk in my opinion...$30.00 a song.....man that could add up real fast.....and like I said....no guarantees....even if your music is commercial quality.....it does not mean it will be chosen.....ya know?
 
No one should have to pay someone else to review their music.
Your going up an alley that only leads to an end.

Music publishers are the one that matter. It's their job to listen to the tunes.

Ask any artist, music publisher, read it in any songwriters book, ect.

Save your cash for a new mic, preamp, etc.
 
Well, it is obvious that it is mostly musicians and techs in here, and not many marketing people.

Listen, by the time you print all your demos with marketing material, drive to different meetings to give them away, or mail them, then maybe you do a little shmoozing by taking someone out to lunch or sending them a little gift, or maybe you're even PAYING a manager to market you and your material, etc. etc. etc., you could very well be WAY beyond $30 per song. And we have not even talked about the money you might spend trying to even find the people you would send your stuff to.

I love the comment, "If your music is good enough, then it will sell itself..." And to whom will it get sold? Is a producer or label executive just going to show up at your door and say, "Sorry to bother you, but I was just driving by and I had a hunch that someone at this house might have some songs I should listen to. You see, I'm a music producer and...." Good luck!

We are all spending money marketing our material (unless you just do music and record it for fun, which is awesome if you want to be the only person that hears what you play; there is nothing wrong with that- have fun hanging out in your room by yourself with your 4-track, mic, and guitar). What is the reason a lot of us record our stuff? Why do we put demo packages together?

Why is it that musicians and techies are such terrible business people?

Musicians and Techies~ Go take a business class and quit sucking at business!!!!!!

I took a look at this site, and if they have the connections they claim to then I think it is a very worthwhile service. I do not see this as "paying someone to listen to your stuff". You are paying this company to put your music in front of the people you might want to have listen to it. They are merely the medium, or the marketers. If this service works then it could save all the costs mentioned above.

I am a newbie to HR and I am coming off as a jerk/bastard here, but this thread got me excited, because I am SO tired of watching my music friends and aquaintences just think so dumb about the business side of music. I am not pushing this song scope company. I don't care how you market your music- it's more the reactions that exist in this thread in relation to what this company is actually proposing that has moved me to reply.

Marketing is not free, my friends.
 
Dude,

I do market my music...

I have tracks reviewed by A&R reps every month...

I pitch to artist's specifically as well....but not blindly.
You have to know who is looking, most will not listen to unsolicited material.....you also have to know what they want...
What good is sending a great ballad if the artist/label needs uptempo stuff...

I also pay for a service for hosting of 80 megs of MP3 files..
also incorporated into this is a large membership base for collaboration opportunities.....

I also host music on 4-5 FREE music sites...
It should be more but, I am a beginner



I also understand the concept of establishing a fan base...
creating a proven track record of sales......
making yourself more of a viable product for a label..
proving yourself...before you sell yourself....


Let me ask you a question....
What would be the guarantee that your music would be heard at all at Soundscope by the right people??

There is none...that's why I would not use it.
Why don't ya sign up?
Come back to this thread after you get a great record deal....OK?
I would be happy for you ...truly.
It is always inspirational to others to hear of someone else's success...ya know?

Later,
Joe
 
You really don't need a full band and a perfectly recorded demo disk/tape for a publisher to listen to. You can sing acapella (spelling) on a cassette tape and if they like the song, that's all it takes. But you have to send out a lot and be consistant in your follow ups. Also, they are concerned with the song/lyrics/melody with songs from unknowns songwriters, not the arrangment or quality of the demo. More so than not, they will change a few things to suit the artist they feel can sell the song.

What make you think that the producer or record label is going to spend his/her time, or pay someone to listen to everyone's song on a website? Just because the website says so, doesn't mean your in contact with the person who has the final word. Your chances of getting your material heard is far better by going through the time proven channels. Sending your copyright songs by registered mail to the publishers

Your talking money. Ok, that's a popular topic.
Odds are you haven't had your material copyright yet.
Are you going to depend on posting your material on the internet and making that copyright symbol to ward off song thieves? If you do, lemme know. I'll rip your butt off and laugh all the way to the bank.
How do you know the people your dealing with are fair and honest? Do you understand the legal talk in the publishing and recording world? Odds are you don't. You'll need an attorney. Not any attorney. A specialist in the music publishing and recording industry, who will look out for you. Some of that money you just blew on a site so you post your songs could of went toward an attorney.

Publishing houses and record companies will listen for free. That's their business. They have people who's job that is.

As I said before, you shouldn't have to pay to get your song heard by people in the business. That's like taking your car to someone to see if there is something wrong with it, then taking it to the mechanic.

If you don't believe me, contact some publishers, ask for the details. They'll send 'em to you. Or go to their sites. See what they require.
Go to the library or Barns & Noble and finds some books about the Music Publishing Business. Most of the books are written by people in the Music Publishing Business.
Go to some BBSs where recording artists and Publishers hang out. Ask them.

I have. I've done my leg work. I'm still doing leg work. I don't have to pay anyone to listen to my stuff. You shouldn't either.
If you get a regection slip when you get your tape back. Cheer yourself. Someone in the business listened to you song, and you know it was someone who could of said, 'yeah, this is a good song.'
My regection slips come back with advice for changes to a verse, line, or the whole song. I've made my changes and send them back. This way, I'm dealing with 'them man/woman', not some medium who has set up shop on the internet to make some bucks by selling accounts.

As for spending money on marketing? That shouldn't be your worry if you really want to hit the big time. Before you worry about marketing, get your material heard, have producers and recording lables listening to your tunes. They have departments of more than qualified marketing people working for them, and you if they sign you. If someone wants your song, they'll do the marketing work for you. You wrote it, they'll do the rest. You need no "medium" to market your stuff.

Have you checked out the people from these places?
Do they have contacts with the people who make the decsions on what songs are accepted or not?
Or do these people in the recording busness just work there for a publisher, in the mail room?

Find out what your spending your money on before you toss it around just because some site's hype appeals to you.
Do some research. It'll pay off in the long run.

You do not have to pay for marketing, my friend.
Good luck.
 
Very good points you brought up Joro.

There are many, many avenues into the $s of the recording industry.
More than this website will host.
 
Hi Buffalo.

I have sent some stuff to Nashville.
Unlike Joro, I haven't pitched artists.
I aim at the music publishers. No particular reason. Habit I guess.

I'll pass a tip on to you I learned.

In one year, I'd probably sent out fifty to sixty demo cassettes to New York, Atlanta, Nashville, Chi town, Detroit, L.A. and Seattle a few years ago. The most I sent at one time. Nine cassettes were sent to a publisher in New York over a six month period. I'd get a note back with my regection slip thanking me.
The following year I sent two to this pubulisher and the note came back signed by someone else.

A few days later I got a phone call from the person who had been signing the notes. Karen.
She told me that she retired and was not longer for L&S Music but had some advice for me. She told me that the people who listen to the demos, don't even listen to them if they do not have a copyright.
Business is business, and part of the business is turning over the copyright to the publisher so he can copy your work. Without a copyright, the publisher does not know owns the lyics. If the music publisher, (and when I say music publisher, I'm refering to one of many hundreds of people who's job it is to listen to the demos) does happen to hear your song, the first thing he/she will do is search for a copyright. If they can't find one, they drop it in the return mail.
You can have a song copyrighted as part of an album, like ten or 16 songs under one copyright, for the cost of one. But the copy right search will not show individual song titles. If you have songs copyright under an album, specifiy the title and copyright number somewhere on the disk or lyrics sheet. The publishing house will appriceate that.

Since then I've been copyrighting my stuff and the replies I get have changed. Instead of a thank you for sending the demos in, I get a thank you and sometimes a tip on how to change a certian part of a song, or an idea or something. I know more people listen to my demos now due to their replies to me.

Don't be fooled by these sites that post the copyright sign on them, stating ownership of the song, ect. It sounds good, but if you write a real nice song and post it on one of these sites to be heard and someone else likes it, copys it, records it and copyrights it, you've just lost it.
A court of law will not recognise you as the owner of your song because you mail your song to yourself in a registered letter, nor will they recognize you as the owner of it because it's posted on a website.
The law recognizes the copyright office copyright ownership # given to each copyright.
It's the only way to go. It will avoid legal problems down the road if someone else claims your uncopyrighted music.
If you make the effort to copyright a song, or group of songs, it's like $30 per copyright. That's cheap as apposed to attorney fees, court costs, time and misery in a court battle over a song with no owner. Once you have the copyright in your poscession, with that number on it, your set to sell your song to the highest bidder.
 
Once again,
BG makes good points.

Here is a site with a list of Publishers Bob, just be careful....
If they want money from you, then run, do not walk away.....
A publisher has to believe in the stregnth of your music,
Not try and get a few bucks from the artist just so that they can shelve your music for 2 years....ya know?
 
Thanks Badgas- good advice. I have pitched in NY and LA (back in the singer/songwriter days) to some of the majors, and pretty much know the ropes as far as copyright. I've got about 10-12 songs protected already. My question was more specific to pitching in Nashville, per se. Such as, have you gotten any cuts there? If so, how did it go down? Have you done any of the showcases, like the Bluebird?

Hey Joro -
Thanks for the listing- added it to my favorites. I would have the same questions for you as for BG. Are you a member of the Nashville Songwriters Assoc? Any cuts? Tips? CONTACTS??!!
Funny how this thread started over this Taxi clone!

"I pitch to artist's specifically as well....but not blindly.
You have to know who is looking, most will not listen to unsolicited material.....you also have to know what they want...
What good is sending a great ballad if the artist/label needs uptempo stuff... " - Joro

How are you targetting these people? Trade mags? Tip sheets?
Any info would be greatly appreciated. Also, are you cutting your own demos? I'm doing rough demos and then having them professionally done in town. I love recording, but want this material to be radio-ready before I pitch it.

Thanks again.

Bob
 
Hi Bob,
Well, I work with a couple of other guys....collaborationg on-line.
We each bring a little something to the mix...contact and talent wise. I am the new guy...
I can't tell ya how to pitch to an artist....you need to have an "in"....ya know what I mean?
It is a question of who ya know...networking helps.

Still, even with an "in"...there are no guarantees....
The "in" lets ya know what they are looking for and when....
It helps writing wise as well....you can target the performers style.
The same goes for any "advertised opportunity"...
You know who it's for so, that's the way you write and record.

All demos are self-made...
The guys I hooked up with are phenomenally talented.
It helps to have that kid of firepower and flexibility...
Plus, they are real nice guys...friends....ya know?

Good luck Bob, I wish I could be of more help but, I can't...
Joe
 
Thanks for all the input! Very cool. BTW- I don't know if its coincidence or not, but I read a little blurb about songscope.com just last week in the Wall Street Journal as one of the top ways to increase visibility to your songs. Sorry- I do not recall the date, but it was last week.

Happy writing!
-c
 
Cool...

I tried to look up the article in the WSJ...but,
The Wall Street Journal wanted $60.00 before I could see it on the net...subscription required....
Everybody wants something....ya know?


It would be great if someone could get a deal through them though..........
I just know that it will not be me.;)
Joe
 
The Wall Street Journal "article" could have purely been a political in. Maybe not....

I wouldn't do it. There are many other options.

My favorite Nashville pitch story? Some bastard used my return envelope to solicit his recording studio, and stuffed it so that I owed the postman postage!

Bodhisan
 
Those assholes!

Hey, I'm a dedicated christian, so you know when i use the word asshole, it takes alot of corruption to get it out of me and those web pages asking you to pay money for them to listen to your songs is pretty corrupt. It's a big fat skam if you ask me. If you're a seroius songwriter move to nashville, or la or new york and meet the right people or better yet, find a hot smokin band out there and ask them if they would like to use some of your songs. Chances are, if you're songs are really good, they'll be an easy sell. If you're medocre in writing and melody making, keep at it till you get better, but if you're half hearted into it, just drop the ball and forget it man. There's so many songs out there and lobbyists out there , it's pathetic.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top