How does a songwriter get a song discovered?
Have you heard the story of how the song “Old Man In the Shanty” made its way into the hands of Lonesome River Band and became their first hit? It’s an interesting study in support of today’s blog!
During the late 1970s, a young Tim Austin was running the merch table for the Bluegrass Cardinals when he overheard songwriter Buck Green pitch “Old Man In the Shanty” to Cardinals founder David Parmley. David requested a copy of the song from Buck, but somehow Buck forgot to send it and a few years passed without anyone cutting the song.
When Tim Austin founded Lonesome River Band in 1982, he contacted Buck Green and requested “Old Man In the Shanty,” which made it onto one of the early LRB albums. It was also later covered by The Chapmans. It’s a great song that almost wasn’t recorded simply because the songwriter forgot to “close the deal” after a successful pitch. Had Tim Austin been busy selling merch and missed overhearing the pitch, who knows if the song would’ve ever been cut?
Have you ever thought about how statistically unlikely it is for ANY song to get into the right hands at the right time? Bluegrass artists are more accessible than most, yet this accessibility also significantly divides their attention. If a songwriter is fortunate to get their undivided attention for a song pitch, the artist may not be currently looking for material – or that particular song may not be what they’re seeking for their current project.
Here are some songwriting tips
All these factors – timing, style, accessibility, quality of the pitch – must work together perfectly to result in a songwriter’s song being accepted by an artist – and this is AFTER the writer and artist personally connect; additional obstacles arise for new songwriters contacting an artist via email or social media without an established relationship to support the contact.
Sometimes, it feels a little “miraculous” when a writer actually gets a cut!
And what about up-and-coming artists?
Until they have established some hitmaking potential and gotten significant airplay, writers may not even know to pitch to them. Both parties are operating in the dark and missing genuine opportunities.
It’s time to make this process more transparent and equitable by bringing artists to the songwriters instead of vice-versa. Established songwriters experience life this way; it’s time for talented but as-yet-unknown writers to enjoy this advantage, too.
BuyDemoTracks brings songwriters and artists together
By utilizing the services of BuyDemoTracks.com, writers can make their demos available to artists with whom they have yet to establish a personal connection. Artists seeking new songs can conduct searches with particular parameters to find those meeting their immediate needs.
Much of the “random good fortune” is removed from the process. It’s a win-win!
If this process results in a newly established personal connection between a writer and an artist, all the better, it is a mechanism to enable those connections rather than a replacement for them.
Writers should find BuyDemoTracks.com creates opportunities that wouldn’t otherwise exist – WITHOUT depending on a future artist working the merch table and overhearing your pitch to another artist.
Keep writing!
Jim Grubbs
