David Stark: Song placement

David Stark: Song placement

Getting name artists to cover your songs

The dream of every songwriter is to have a song placed with Tina Turner/Celine Dion/James Blunt or name artists of that stature. David Stark runs the tipsheet SongLink, which sends out numerous tips for major and upcoming performers every month. At MIDEM 2010, I asked him about what it takes to actually get a cut with a major artist these days.

Well, writing hits for major artists… if there was a formula, I’d be richer. Even someone like Diane Warren will write about 19 songs before writing the 20th that will do something. She is prolific and most successful writers have got the energy to write all the time, and they’re not precious about songs they know aren’t quite there. But it’s important that they keep writing. Co-writing has been the trick over the past 15 years. The amount of co-writing between songwriters, lyricists, artists, producers or whatever has gone ballistic. Publishers, producers and managers encourage putting talent together to come up with the goods. The thousands of co-writes compared to the number of singers out there means there are loads of songs that will never be heard. But writing them is part of the process.

Every songwriter has a quantity of songs that they consider good, but that are in a drawer somewhere. The reality is that most are unpresentable to the level of artist that can make a difference…

This is something we all have to deal with. At the major artist level, you have to be totally current in terms of production. Anything else is a waste of time for many people. It’s fashion, isn’t it? Styles change. I believe a good song is a good song. A demo done 5 or 10 years ago can be upgraded. You have to, really. Most of the songs being taken by these artists have been written in the past 6 months to a year. There are exceptions; people sometimes hold on to songs and remember them a few years later. But it’s an exception.

I still get letters from people asking where they can sell their lyrics to.

You can’t send lyrics on your own to publishers. On the other hand, there are always people looking for lyricists. You just have to network and find people to work with. The biggest weakness for songwriters is the lyrics. Time and time again I get sent stuff or sit on panels and we say to each other, “melody’s OK but the lyrics need reworking”. For some people, it’s a long slow process – if they get it right at all. Writing a commercial lyric that people will remember is a total art. Unfortunately, some kids don’t have the same quality control, maybe they don’t quite care in the same way we used to.

I’m reminded of the Abba songs…

Yes, brilliantly written, they respect the formula, use techniques and tricks such as internal rhymes. Do people now know what internal rhymes are? But instead you hear a lot of rhyming pattern changes. Some people don’t know what they’re doing and get away with murder. But the main thing is, lyrics are a weakness and people would benefit from co-writing.

Has songwriting changed over the past few years?

I think new production skills have made songwriting much lazier due to the ease of creating sounds. Things are often not as developed as they could be. If you’re talking about placing hit songs with name artists, at that top level they give as much attention to the lyrics as they do to the music. The classic songwriters know what they’re doing. It has to be spot on for Tina Turner, Celine Dion, Whitney Houston.

Let’s talk about writers’ favourite subject: money. Revenue has been halved in the business over the past ten years. Do you see an effect on writers?

For sure! Everyone is shit scared, basically. That’s the biggest problem: where is the money coming from? For publishers, getting the cover is only the start. They are looking at trying to generate as much revenue in as many mediums as possible: ad synchronisation, video games and all the new ways you find at MIDEM. The most important thing is to get a song on the radio, but YouTube and the other sites are increasingly important. I can see a time where you do a mini-video to sell the song. Why not?

What sort of publishing deals are going down?

These days, 70/30 in favour of the writer is the average. For smaller labels putting an album of outside material together, getting a share of the publishing is an important revenue issue. You have to check the company, and ensure they will be able to account to you properly. Some people send out rubbish contracts. Either way, you have to check with a lawyer to make sure you’re not being taken for a ride. But the days where you give up the publishing for the term of copyright are out the window.

You also write yourself…

…and I’m one of the worst in terms of promoting my stuff. I’ve been active recently on things that I hope to see come to fruition this year. I’m currently working on a silly novelty track.

What did I take away from the discussion? The fact that you need competitive demos that already sound like chart artists. Subscribing to a tipsheet like SongLink can put your work in the hands of the most important managers and A&Rs. But don’t forget that you are pitching against the likes of Diane Warren and top publishers, total professionals with a perfect understanding of the market. If you feel your music is almost there, find a co-writer and study the charts very closely. Prolific songwriters and publishers should visit SongLink for details. 

For song lyrics by Michael Leahy, visit song lyrics.

15 thoughts on “David Stark: Song placement

  1. I’ve been a Songlink subscriber in the past and have toyed with subscribing again. Never a truer word said about the production, presentation is everything which is a bit of a shame since it shows A&R in a bad light. They should be able to hear an acoustic version of a song and see the potential for production, alas those days are long gone.

    Co-writing is good but some songs I see with 8,9,10 writers I have trouble believing, the song would be pulled in so many ways it’d be ridiculous. I tend to think that these situations are more credits in with the deal, it’s actually been the case on a few of my cuts.

    Good interview, thanks.

  2. Kevin Osborne wrote:
    “They should be able to hear an acoustic version of a song and see the potential for production, alas those days are long gone,” –
    and this is pure true.
    When hearing to nowadays US TOP 100 or UK TOP 40…hm sometimes production only is presented and no more.
    And I’d like to say more: labels A&R policy kills music

  3. Alek, this reminds me of what someone once said about the stock market: “it’s like a woman; it might be wrong but it still has the last word”. 😉

    But to be honest, I don’t know if there is more or less good music in the charts than before. We often tend to blank out the rubbish of previous years and only remember the classics.

    Michael

  4. Thanks for reply, Michael, and I appreciate your humor, also I would add this:
    all big things of a past and present days have come from majors, do we like them or not, but as for future days big things I have doubts: if the labels will not find the weapon (laws, courts, software facilities, etc) against pirate internet downloads of music then crash of the music industry will come.
    PS. I’m on on behalf of labels in their struggle against pirates, cuz as songwriter
    I loose too.

  5. Howdy! This is my 1st comment here so I just wanted to give a quick shout out and say I really enjoy reading through your posts. Can you recommend any other blogs/websites/forums that go over the same subjects? Thank you!

  6. If you think you have a truly great song, it might be worth hooking up with a good arranger to see what can be done with it. A&R people are very sensitive to how a track sounds. They have to sell it to other people in the company, plus the artist’s management. It it requires too much explanation, they will pass.

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  8. Mr.David Stark,
    Will you please let me send you two songs.

    I would love for you to view my lyrics.I have

    been writing lyrics for twenty five years.I’m

    sure you would love them .Thank you very much.

  9. Ricky, I suggest you contact him via his site. But I doubt he has the time to review lyrics. Why don’t you find a co-writer (composer) to work with?

    M

  10. Some unknown songwriters have true hits .And enjoy writing for the love of it.
    May God Bless u.
    Ricky

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