I am a self published songwriter. I own 100% of the songs that I write by myself. The name of my publishing company is McCarter Music Publishing.(I think that is the name I chose.) It might be McCarter Publishing. I might need to look that up. The day that I signed up I had to pick a name and I choked under pressure. I had never thought of naming my publishing company so I get zero points for orginality.
What are the advantages of self publishing? The biggest advantage is I'm the boss. I also love my boss, sometimes. Other times he can be a real jerk. If I worked for a Nashville music publisher I would have deadlines to meet and I would be confined on what types of songs I could write. Usually, a songwriter with a publishing deal would need to write an acceptable song a month or twelve songs a year. My goal is to write one new song a month. I have been doing this for years. It is great to create your own deadlines and have expectations to meet. It gives me a sense of accomplishment when I achieve my goals.
So what would be acceptable? That is the magic question. It would need to fit the country music category. This would be the country music that is now being played on the radio or the latest and greatest version of country music coming down the pipe. The songs would need to be about universal ideas. In the country world this would be love, heartbreak, makeup songs, breakup songs, drinking, and partying songs.
There have been lots of songs written about these items. What makes it hard is coming up with new and fresh ideas to say the same old thing. Like saying I love you without every saying I love you in the song. Maybe I would say, you are the moonlight shining on the dresser drawer mirror. The sunshine streaming throught the window that l wake up to.
I have the freedom to write whatever I want. I might write a gospel song, a blues song, and instrumental or a folk song. At the present,, I am trying to write songs that could work on radio without too many do's and don't attached to them. The last song I wrote was a song called Good Good Goodbye. It is a song about my saying goodbye to my Mom for the last time. If I was working for a publisher this would probably not be an acceptable song. It would probably be too personal.
Have you ever heard the song Elephant by Jason Isbell? It is an example of a moving song that would not be on country radio but has been a big hit for him. Sometimes I think that is what is missing on the current country music. It doesn't make you feel anything. Music should make us feel something. Happy, sad, wanting to dance, or singing along.
Well, I better go. My boss told me I need to be writing songs instead of blogging on the computer. I love my boss, sometimes.