Songwriting with Purpose Your complete guide from SoundCloud to Spotify
Prepared by: David Senf SongSure Project
1 Tackle 3 top songwriter challenges
Start taking the guess 1 2 3 work out of your music Audience Audience Focused creation, promotion and Triggers Engagement Time planning. The Likes How to How to How much Project is freely available consistently grow your time should “how to” guidance for write a song song plays, you spend musicians, songwriters, that triggers likes and on the tasks producers and the music audiences reach a that lead to industry. It’s based on to play and wider more plays deep, formal research like it audience and likes that is shared in plain language
2 Learn from your peers
Learn from leaders of song plays and likes how to… ü get more plays, likes and purchases ü how much time to invest and in what ü appeal more to your audience ü engage an audience better
3 About us
Our goal is to… ü analyze songs from the best to worst on SoundCloud / Spotify ü create actionable instructions for you ü reach out to creators on SoundCloud / Spotify to learn what works and doesn’t work ü freely share this content 4 Your success factors Your Success
Brand As a creator who wants Creator level Plan to be successful, this is a step-by-step guide to Your Art help you achieve your goals. It is not daunting Audience Write Practice Audience when taken one piece at engagement Record profile a time. Notice that a Mix Master focus on “audience” plays strongly in success. DADA Audience Start with an plan and targets triggers step forward
5 Don’t lose your art for the science
This guide material is based on research to help Make you be more successful. It doesn’t replace good art, your music. Keep being creative. Use this “how to” good to save time and be more focused. Know which way to turn next without all of art the guessing.
6 Know where you stand. “Know thyself” Level up.
Creator levels
7 Climb from the Plateau of Despair
Plateau of Despair Getting from 10 plays to 100 to 1000 to 10000 and up will rise and level off along the way. Keep pressing forward and learn Total Plays Maintaining how to escape the Plateau Momentum of Despair and when to cut your losses
Time
8 Break free from the like mush
You hope that every play will lead to a like or better yet a purchase. Usually for 10 plays you ? can expect 1 like. But so Mushy can all your competition. Middle Learn how to escape the “Mushy Middle” to earn more engagement from Likes your audience
9 Cross the Musical Chasm
Sometimes you just know it; this song is great! That song is, not! More often than not, ? though, there are subtle Mushy differences that advance Middle a song from the Mushy Middle to Leaders or from Beginners to the Likes Mushy Middle
10 Predicting action DailyPlays DailyPlays
Time Time
Typical unaided scenario Paid promotion, playing live where plays and shows, social media activity engagement peak and drive peaks to maximize 1st decline quickly year of life for a track 11 You are a package. Define it. Show it. Be consistent. “On brand!”
Brand
12 Craft your brand. Be consistent.
Audience Your music is invited in One word triggers Your to the living room, car, qualities office and bedroom of a listener. What does the music convey? And what Complete Long term does the overall package package of you convey? Similar to being on a date, how do you attract and keep your listener excited or Impress Images at least interested?
13 Have an agenda. Follow it. Have a destination. Get there. Plan
14 Create career longevity
Career success in the music industry is similar On Time Delivery to most fields when you boil it down to the You basics. We will focus only need mainly on improving 2 out of 3 competence, with Highly Competentfor success pointers for consistent J delivery. Easy To Work With
15 Planning for success
Start with a simple agenda that you follow each day. Outline how much time to spend on the many tasks you need to complete. Hour-by- hour it will get done. Have an overarching plan that guides your Typical Planned daily agenda approach approach
16 Direct your time for success
It is critical to direct your
M SF time effectively. Success factors set the SF Superstars and Leaders More time M M apart from the SF Hobbyists and Beginners. Time for M SF music will decrease at
Less time Less first but will need to return to be a Superstar Beginner Hobbyist Leader Superstar (e.g., both M and SF are M Music their full time jobs) SF Success Factors 17 Spend every minute effectively
Use this rough guide to set your weekly agenda. It assumes that your time invest increases as you progress
Plan Brand Creator Audience Audience DADA Audience Total level profile triggers targets engagement time Superstar 45mins 45mins 45mins 3hour 3hour 2.25hrs 19.5hrs 30hrs
Leader 30mins 1hour 30mins 2hour 3hrs 1hour 12hrs 20hrs
Hobbyist 30mins 30mins 15mins 45mins 2hrs 30mins 5.5hrs 10hrs
Beginner 15mins 15mins 15mins 15mins 2hrs 15mins 1.75hrs 5hrs
Top focus Medium focus Lower focus 18 It’s not about WHO anymore, but WHERE they are and WHAT they are doing. Audience profiles
19 Rethink your audience
Focus less on: Maybe the word § Age “audience” is not quite § Gender Focus more on: § Income ü Where is the listener (car, correct. You may have § Geographic office, home, club, bar) an audience (attentive, § Psychographic ü What is the listener doing (driving, working, relaxing, tapping toes) or maybe dancing, drinking) a person going about ü How does the listener their daily life is playing react to music (loyalty, your song, You can write maven, connector, passive) ü Which sources does the music that touches one listener learn from more than other, but do (Facebook, TV, radio, it proactively not by SoundCloud, streaming service) accident 20 Rethink your audience
Insiders 1% Target the right audience at the right Engagers 14% time. If you can convert a Bystander to a Listener Listeners or maybe to an Engager, 35% then you have done fantastic work understanding which Bystanders triggers are most 50% important
Audience Profiles 21 Rethink your audience
Insiders are the musicians and industry Insiders elite that you want to impress but are 1% a small portion of your target audience
Engagers 14% Engagers are enthusiastic about music who want to share their passion, but may not have the Insider skill level Listeners 35% Listeners enjoy music. They won’t leave a comment but they sure can help build your play count
Bystanders Bystanders are sometimes oblivious to 50% the music around them, but similar to all of us, a great song grabs them too Audience Profiles 22 Audience profiles
Insider Engager Listener Bystander Age, income, Any Any Any Any gender Where to target SoundCloud, Live FB, YouTube, Streaming Streaming shows, Engager/ SoundCloud, services, services, radio, Listener Bandcamp, Live YouTube, FB, Live YouTube, feedback shows, Reddit show Facebook Reason to target Influence Evangelizes Lifetime value Large audience Repeat plays Medium High Medium Low Cost to reach High Low High High Triggers All All Hook, S’stage, Hook, Lyric Lyric
Expects Competence Competence On brand On brand 23 Engage the right audience
Target audiences based Insider Engager Listener Bystander on where you are along your career evolution. Superstar Y Y Y Y You have limited time Leader Y Y Y NA and money so make Hobbyist Y Y NA NA every second and dollar count. Beginners should Beginner Y Y NA NA focus on Engagers. Whereas Superstars will Y Top focus Y Moderate focus attract Engagers with Y Low focus little effort, for example NA Not Applicable
24 Grab your audience. Trigger a response. Every track. Every time.
Audience Triggers
25 Finding your song’s Kill Zone
Listeners can like or skip your song at any point during playback. Learn when they typically like a song and how to craft Your Song a song to get likes before they skip to the next track. Also keep in mind the desire for repeat plays – your whole song is the kill zone at that point
26 Audience Triggers (in your music)
Hooks Make sure all Triggers are setup in every song. Learn from the work of Superstars and Leaders. Lyrics Structure Examine a range of timbres and time periods to get inspiration. And remember, it’s all about Musicianship Soundstage the audience. Trigger their response.
27 Audience Triggers: Hooks
Hooks Hooks are critical and must be present in all categories. Consider: • Melodic Lyrics Structure • Lyrical • Rhythmic/syncopation • Effect • Instrument/ performance
Musicianship Soundstage
Repetition and transforms on each hook to be tested. Delta within track and against corpus 28 Audience Triggers: Structure
Hooks Structure is linked to genre and important for building momentum towards engagement. Lyrics Structure Consider: • Timbre (instrumentation, texture) • Song form / sections • Length sections (bars, % of song) Musicianship Soundstage • BPM / BPM changes • Vocal. % of track
29 Audience Triggers: Soundstage
Hooks Soundstage can’t be overlooked. Consider: • Stereo width / MS • Depth. amount reverb/etc • Audio effects. types, Lyrics Structure dry/wet, # used • Frequency range, average frequency and average frequency distribution • EQ, popular frequencies • Dynamic range, RMS, Musicianship Soundstage average amplitude and average amplitude distribution
30 Audience Triggers: Musicianship
Hooks Musicianship isn’t virtuosity. Consider: • % deviation from beat • % completion of note value • Melodic counterpoint. % of Lyrics Structure track using multiple melodies • Harmonic intervals. Average and max • Chord complexity. Chord progression and % 7th, 9th, major, minor, etc Musicianship Soundstage • Vocalist demographics, peak and average range
31 Audience Triggers: Lyrics
Hooks Lyrics make or break a track. Consider: • Words per beat (measure of desired complexity/simplicity) • Diction grade level Lyrics Structure • Rhyme schemes • Lyrical beat alignment / % off beat / (metric for rhythmic complexity) • Word count (music vs. words) • Unique word count (measure Musicianship Soundstage of complexity/ simplicity) • SEO optimized (title, rest of lyric frequency /position)
32 Genre is dead
Don’t get trapped in a genre. The timbre is critical and so to is using fashionable instrumentation. But mix and match elements of all styles. At no other time has music ever been a melting pot of genres. Innovate by ‘borrowing’ from across the ages and styles
33 Simplicity. Complexity. Simplicity.
Some audiences want Complex brain more complexity, while others want more Do Dit BEEP-da-BOP Da Da simplicity. All audiences want both at some point. Make sure to Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump! include complexity alongside simplicity to please the upper and Simple brain the lower brain (actual brain scans show this sort of split)
34 Success isn’t magic. Set a target. Every day counts.
DADA targets
35 Be target oriented for success
set a reasonable target to Make sure these four Determine achieve by a specific date simple DADA rules are a part of your plan at least write it down, tell friends, once a week. Success Announce make it real by declaring it doesn’t materialize out of the blue. Get ahead track and measure progress, Diagnose diagnose problems of your peers in the music industry by being change tactics as required, target oriented Adapt but stick to the overall plan
36 Find them. Talk to them. Walk with them.
Audience engagement
37 Your Engagement Funnel
Easier Audience Size Decide where to focus your time by choosing Repeat Plays whether to have a smaller highly engaged Likes audience (e.g., less focus Follows on the top of the funnel) or a large audience Comments / Shares (potentially less loyal). Purchases It’s easy to get a big Harder audience, it’s far more difficult (but lucrative) to get good engagement
38 Know where to focus
High Don’t fall into the trap of I suck, but I rock and correlating “music I can get everyone quality” with success. likes knows it! “Quality” is too narrow and not helpful a concept, often I suck and I I don’t associated with great deserve no suck, but instrument playing. You
Audience Engagement attention no likes? must learn what is actually getting engagement – which Low Music Quality High audience triggers
39 Engagement and Triggers, do both
High Escaping the “Mushy Middle” means working consistently on Audience Engagement and Audience Triggers. To become a Leader, follow the Plan everyday. Build your
Audience Engagement career one hour at a time, one day time. All you need is persistence Low Audience Triggers High
40 Stay focused
Let nothing distract you from your plan. An ambulance driver thinks of nothing else but the task at hand. Superstars Audience Engagement are super focused. Bring purpose to your drive by keeping your audience at the center of your sightlines
Audience Triggers
41 SongSure.com (a Cyverity Research project)
Prepared by: David Senf https://www.linkedin.com/in/dsenf/ Contact
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