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.