Building Your Song Catalog...start building yours Today!
As a songwriter, your main activity should be writing songs. Sure that sounds obvious, but there are so many activities that can distract you that sometimes actually writing songs gets the short end of the time allotment. After all, there are forums where you exchange information on songwriting techniques and business information, instruments to practice, new computer programs to learn, maybe gigs, and amid all that it is kind of nice to have a life as well. But in the end, it is songwriting that you are there for. And the product you create is your catalog.
The nature of your catalog depends entirely on you–your taste and skills. But there are some components that you should address. First are the various versions of songs that you should be creating. As we’ve discussed, if you are selling through libraries, then you are creating the “broadcast quality” recordings, whether you pay to have them done, or do them yourself. But consider the multiple uses of a song with video. Your song might be a theme song for a drama. Fine, but often, because the music is partly responsible for setting the mood, filmmakers like to have instrumental versions of the song to use elsewhere, subtly recapturing that mood. That means you need to have instrumental versions ready, and preferably in the library already. Some libraries will link the various versions of a song together. To increase the marketing possibilities, if the lyrics are right, consider having both male and female vocals. The storyline of a movie or television show can suggest a preference for one or the other. (Having both versions is also useful when pitching songs to artists.) If the song contains an instrumental hook, then short instrumental version could be useful. Consider 30 second, 45 second and 60 second cues from the recording.
If you work in a home studio, then you can do all these with fairly little effort. If you use an outside studio, it is good to think of them in advance. If you have to go back and ask for different versions, life can get expensive.
Once you have the song in its various forms, you need to do some paperwork. Being able to pitch a song correctly, or even loading information for a library database, requires more information than you might think of at first. It is a good idea to collect the information while it is fresh so that you don’t spend time trying to recall if that bass note was played by a tuba or a trombone.
Naturally, you are going to need the title and the duration of the song (and each version). You will need to determine its genre. Unfortunately, this can get tricky because different libraries use different choices. Some are rather broad (country, jazz, rock) whereas others will have terms you’ve never even heard of (“Jamaican techno salsa”). But you need to get your brain around a ballpark genre. Or maybe you work in only one area, like dance.
You will need to note information on the vocals: What language? Male or female (or duet)? You will need specific notes on the instrumentation. Although sometimes “rock band” is enough, sometimes the fact that the lead is a synth or a crumhorn makes a difference. Is that metallic ding from a set of bells or kalimba? It can matter if you suddenly see a call for rock music that feature crumhorn and kalimba. And such strange things do come up.
You will need to know the tempo of the song. Some libraries want to know the range, but some want the precise beats per minute. You will usually need to specify moods that the song conveys using word lists that go on forever. You will also, very importantly, need to say who the song sounds like. Is it a tune that could have been on a Beatles’ record? Or Stones? Coldplay gets a lot of requests lately. Often supervisors search on that first, so give it careful thought, even if you aren’t actually thinking in terms of your tunes as replacement songs.
My suggestion is that you create a form that contains all this information and fill it out when the song is recorded. Marketing your work is tough enough without having to generate all the information on the spot. And if you do nonexclusive deals with multiple libraries it will save you a lot of time in the long run. Then you can also note on the form which libraries are marketing the song for you and where you pitch it. Stick them in a loose leaf binder and its there when you want it again.
At the end of the day it's all about your CATALOG! Make sure u remember that and work on building yours!
