Songwriters' Job Description and Necessary Skills?

Question by James:

Becoming a songwriter is my dream. But I'm not sure what a songwriter job involves exactly. What do songwriters do besides writing songs? What education or skills do you need to become a songwriter?


Answer:

About what songwriters do:

Songwriting is quite complex.

First of all, you have to write many songs :)

Besides writing songs, songwriters need to make demos. Because people who decide if they'd like to record your song will need to hear it in a form that is almost as good quality and finished as the ones you hear on the radio.

Songwriters should also learn how to market themselves and shop around with their songs to increase the chance that someone will record them. So they need to network a lot.

Songwriters often co-write, too, because usually songs written by more than one person end up being better.

They should also deal with the business side and some of them have their own publishing company, so there can be some paperwork involved.

Another task is to copyright your songs before you make them public. Again, paperwork. But you can do it online too.

Songwriters also need to keep up to date with the trends (depending on what genre they write in) because most people don't want to hear 80's sounding songs on the radio today :)


About education:

You don't need formal education but some songwriters have a degree in Music and related fields. But I guess most of them don't. Songwriting is not just about being familiar with theory but rather practicing and experimenting a lot.

There are some skills songwriters need (if they don't have them all, they collaborate with other songwriters who complement their skills):


• Songwriting skills (write catchy lyrics, write music, put music and words together, know a lot about song structure, chords, verses, choruses, hooks)
• Record music (usually in a home studio)
• Knowledge of how the music business and publishing works
• Legal knowledge about songwriting, copyright, collaboration, publishing, etc.
• Play at least one instrument (usually guitar or piano)
• Be able to sing (not essential but if you can, you can save money when making demos)
• Music theory
• Good hearing (yes, you CAN develop your ears)
• Analyze current hits to see what works