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Sunday Edition


31
May
2005
The Songwriter - Jun05


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Did you ever turn on your radio and hear a Southern Gospel song that was just awful? I have. Have you ever wondered how a song like that gets on the radio? I have.

Since moving to Nashville 14 years ago, I have learned a little bit about how this happens.
As a songwriter, I know the frustration of rejection when pitching songs. As a former member of the Speer Family, I know the frustration of trying to find great songs for your next recording. As a former Homeland Records employee, I know the frustration of trying to find the hit songs for the label's artists. Being the husband of a former radio promoter for Zion and Sonlite Records, I know a little bit about the frustration of picking the right radio single for an artists, when there is not really a great one on the CD to choose.

I have been around long enough now to have seen some singing careers rise from obscurity, ride the wave of popularity for a short time and disappear back into obscurity again.
I have seen artists get discovered by a major record label, and given a recording contract. The recording company will search for the best songs available and find their new artist a "HIT." The record company will find a song that would usually be on hold for an already established, well known artist. The new artist records it and their records begin to sell. Concerts begin to draw larger crowds at better venues. The artist then begins to make a little money, and learn a little bit about the music business. That's when they realize that a good percentage of each of their album sales are going to songwriters and publishers. Now that the artist has some popularity, the head begins to swell a bit. These artists that have never signed a publishing contract in their life now decide to start their own publishing companies. They begin looking for their own songs to publish and record, because they can make publishing money of their CD sales then.

A really odd thing happens at this point. Suddenly every other song by every established songwriter in the industry, is just not quite as appealing and the songs they have in their own publishing company. Thus, they start turning down great songs by great writers from major record and publishing companies, and the artist starts recording songs from their own publishing catalogue. These songs are usually written by new, unknown, or under developed writers, because most of the seasoned writers are already under contract to a major publishing company.

The Cathedrals recorded for Homeland Records while I was working there. In the three years I worked for that record company, they never once recorded a Homeland owned copyright from our staff of well known writers. They filled their albums with their own copyrights and Public Domain material. This was a major issue with the record company. Homeland wanted them to record the best songs that were available.

But people already loved the Cathedrals. The vice president of the label told me that the Cathedrals could open up the yellow pages and sing it, and the fans would still want to buy it, because it was the Cathedrals. Their albums still sold very well. And once an artist has reached that level of popularity, most record companies will back off, as Homeland did, and let them record whatever they want to. George and Glen would find a couple of great Dianne Wilkinson songs for each record. Dianne, one of Southern Gospel's best writers, had not yet signed with a major publishing company, and she was giving the publishing to whichever artist recorded her song. Her songs were always good enough to be on the record. Many of them became radio singles. Those were also the songs the Cathedrals would sing on stage. But the rest of the album was often filled with what we would call "filler tunes" and PD songs. You would seldom, if ever, hear those songs in concert. This way of choosing material worked for the Cathedrals.

But unfortunately, not every Artist can pull this off like they did. Many times Artist owned copyrights all sound alike. You can't tell the good ones from the bad ones. If the Artist is popular enough and still selling well, then the record company will let them record whatever they choose. Recording companies want to keep their big selling groups happy. But that's when what should have been a filler tune, starts showing up on the radio.

Some artist take this even a step further. They sometimes decide that they can write songs just as well as they sing, even if they've never written one before. It's amazing what a swelled up head can convince you is true. These artists not only want to publish their own songs, they want to write them also. Now I'm not talking about artists that rose to popularity by recording their own songs, like Gerald Crabb, or Jeff Steele. These artist became popular because of the songs they write and sing. But even these two great songrwiting/artists leave the publishing duties to their own record label.

Most artist that decide they can do it all, usually begin to find out that they can't. Their popularity begins to fade a bit. You may see them leave the recording company that brought them their first real success. As sales begin to slip, and radio single begin to not rise as high on the charts, they usually start looking for someone to blame. And the blame has to rest on themselves.

Another reason bad songs make it onto radio, is too many people in positions of influence in the industry, just don't know the difference between a good song and a mediocre one. It is amazing how many non performing industry leaders have no education in music. Yet they are in a position to make final dicisions on what songs a recording company will spend the money to produce, record, and market to the public.

A truly great artist, producer, or recording executive, should know the value of a great song.

So if you hear a bad song on the radio, it is usually because of one of these things.
1 The Artist published it.
2 The Artist decided to try their hand at writing it themselves.
3 The record company doesn't know the difference.
4 Your listening to a really bad station.
5 All of the above.

Until next time, keep on writing!

Daryl Williams
http://www.darylwilliamstrio.net

Reader Comments

That's telling it like it is, brother. I would only add one thing.... someone at the radio station doesn't know a hit from a mediocre song either. Somehow we have to raise the standard. I honestly believe that if radio stations QUIT playing the bad tunes, it would force the record companies and artists to be more diligent in releasing only the hits and no fillers.


Commented by Andy Haynes On 06/01/2005
Some well known artists seem to release filler songs to radio as well. I wish radio would not be so quick to jump on a song just because a big name group puts it out. I could name a couple that really weren't good songs, but I will refrain.


Commented by On 06/01/2005
Daryl,
A big hearty AMEN. An artist who can write a great song is a rarity, in my opinion. You can't really blame them for trying their hand at writing, though. There's creative and financial incentive and pressure to produce original material. I know some artists who like to write their own songs to personally express themselves. So who's going to argue with the artist who is recording bad or mediocre songs and selling well? The record company's happy, the artist's happy, the fans are happy, etc. I've always been impressed with groups with an outstanding writer who look outside the camp for songs. That's an interesting twist. Anyway, enjoyed the article. Keep nailing it on the head!


Commented by On 06/01/2005
I agree with most of you article DW. It's so gratifying for me to see you all grown up!

It may have seen like we were populating our albums with fillers, but I can assure you this was never the case. (on purpose)

We did run our own publishing company a tradition for the Cats since the Haskell Cooley days. Since you were still in California at the time, let me tell you something you may not be aware of. Homelands' publighing company never impressed George and Glen. They knew what they liked and if Kirk, Mark or myself were able find a few Dianne Songs, maybe one from this kid from California, the list goes on...they were happy. And we did sing most of them in concert. Usually the ones that George canned were the formulaic "sounds like everyone else" songs that the "major" publishers on the row and at the record company were pitching to us.

Don't get me wrong, I agree with much of your post. It's especially bad today, many writers and groups are hurting themselves with every pitch. But since I was intimately involvded with the Cathedrals, I thought I would shed a little light for you.

Call me and you can buy me lunch as we figure out the best way to pitch "Alabama Hosanna".

Love to all...esp. Karen and the kids.

RB


Commented by Roger Bennett On 06/03/2005
If we did away with the whole idea of publishing companies and have all writers own the publishing rights of their own songs, these artists would not have the incentive to start their own publishing company and then produce the bad songs. Furthermore, for artists and record companies to own the publishing rights to the songs they record and sing, unless they actually wrote them, appears to me to be an attempt by the these folks to make more money from the song than they deserve, and is a shame. These types of activities discourages many good songwriters from even entering the industry, thus depriving us of some good songs. Don Francisco (the writer of the song "He's Alive") has a good article on this subject at http://www.rockymountainministries.org/musicministry.html. It is interesting reading.


Commented by Keith Prater On 06/03/2005
You are exactly correct DW. There are too many filler songs on most CDs. The Cats knew what they were doing. Some powerful radio stations in our area are playing anything but quality songs most of the time. Wake up FM stations. We have CD changers and can click you off.
Keep writing powerful material DW. We love it.


Commented by On 06/04/2005
Keith, you do not realize how difficult it is to push a song. A good publisher who is also a good song pusher is worth every penny that they get. If songwriters want to publish their own songs and have no way of getting those songs into the hands of upper tier artists, then the possiblity of getting it recorded drastically plummets. The publisher is the one responsible for getting out quality demos that artists will listen to. there is no shame in what the publishers are doing. Most songwriters want to so just that, write songs, and the often lack the ability or desire to push those songs. You actually have it backwards. Not being able to get their songs out to artists is what keeps good songwriters discouraged. The advice in the article you mentioned is not good advice at all. It also tells you to buy your own studio equipment and do yor own recording as well as forming your own label. Now if you want a ministry that is made up of poor songs, poor recordings and poor distribution, then follow his advice.


Commented by On 06/05/2005
Dear Daryll,

Great article as always. just wanted to weigh in. The first few songs I ever had published professionally was by a big publisher in Nashville (name withheld). They did a good job promoting the songs that I wrote, but as far as pushing them to artisit on their labels they didn't really do what they commited to me to do. They were not also not very good at keeping their royaltie payments current. That is when a bolt of lightning hit me. If I am writing the songs...and pitching the songs ... then maybe ... just maybe I ought to look at publishing myself. Their are
a good number of honest publishers in our business and a group of not so good publishers. If they establish an honest rapport with the writers, they would get more songs by more top notch writers of quality in their catalogs. That is my story and I am stickin' with it. Not everyone is called to publish, but I still feel that our songs are a stewardship and we ought to be accountable for what we have been given. Till next time friend. Blessings to you all.

Sincerely,
In Christ.
Steven Cheney


Commented by On 06/05/2005
It's true that these artists with the swelled up heads are probably getting in over their heads. It's also probably true that a truly independent and caring music publisher can help a songwriter tremendously. But there are a couple of statements in Daryl's article that just gets to me when I hear of these things (not because Daryl said them).

He said the Dianne Wilkinson "was giving the publishing to whichever artist recorded her song." If the Cathedrals, or any other artist, were already interested in recording her song, what value was it to Dianne to sign publishing over to them? It just seems to me that the songwriter in this situation is basically giving the artist half the mechanical and performance royalties without them really doing anything more in return.

Daryl also said that these offending artists would start their own publishing companies "because they can make publishing money of their CD sales then." I just don't understand why artists and record companies try so hard to deprive the songwriter of their due and why songwriters let it happen. You might say that the song will never be heard unless one of these artist or record company publishing companies own the rights. You may be right. But, it's my opinion that it is better to have nothing achieved honestly than some bones tossed to me while I am being robbed.

I am not bitter and I have not been rejected by any publishers. I just have honest concerns about how songwriters are treated -- not just in SG, but in the music industry as a whole. I believe that if we want great songs played on the radio, the artists and record companies should treat the songwriter (even those who are not signed) with the same respect and deference they would give Jesus if he had written the song. Perhaps then more talented songwriters would make more effort to get into the game rather than leaving it to the insiders and to those who do not know any better. (By the way, the all-time number one song in all of Christian music -- SG, too -- Rise Again, was written self-published and sung by the artist who sang it to number 1.)


Commented by Keith Prater On 06/07/2005
Yes! What is this one that's playing on the radio now? Everybody's Gonna Have a Terrible Time Down There - I think that's the name. As far as I can see, this has no redeeming virtue.


Commented by On 06/07/2005
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