Improving Your Odds
By Kim Copeland


Imagine that you walk into a casino and see two roulette wheels which both offer the same tremendous payoff.  The only difference in the two is the odds.  At the first wheel, the odds of you beating the house are 3,000,000,000 to 1. At the second table, the odds of you winning are 100 to 1.  Either way, you lay down your money, the wheel spins and you take your chances; all or nothing.  Which wheel would you want to play?

I talk to songwriters everyday who bet their songwriting careers, all or nothing, on one song, one artist connection, or one 'inside pitch'.  They tell me, "If I could just get this one song cut, I'd have it made!".  While I don't deny the existence of "one hit wonders", I do question a songwriter's desire to become one.  I challenge these writers (and you) to change their way of thinking about the music business and their participation in it.  Songwriting is not a lottery.  That is the daydream.  To become successful, you must deal with the reality and put some work behind the dream.

There are two ways to improve your odds at having a successful songwriting career. 

  1. Keep improving on your talent.
  2. Don't go away!

Keep improving!  If you have written one "killer song" that you just know is waiting to become a number one smash, then you are capable of writing more of the same.  Do it!  One great song (and a hundred mediocre ones) does not a songwriter make. Most very successful songwriters only write about one "killer" song every hundred times they sit down to write.  This knowledge can discourage you, or it can encourage you to write faster, so that you get to the special songs sooner, and more often.

Don't sit back after you finish one great song and wait for the world to discover it.  The more of those you have in your catalog, the better your odds for a writing deal, cuts, and longevity in the songwriting business.  Write regularly.  Get feedback on your writing so that you are writing better songs and not just the same song over and over.  Build a good catalog of great songs so that when one of them does get noticed, you have more to back it up.

Also, (I know I say this often, but it cannot be overstated) look for ways to constantly be improving your crafting and networking skills.  If you live near other writers and you are not listening to them, talking to them, and sharing knowledge about the craft and business, you are cheating yourself out of one of the best learning tools available to you.  If you are not attending songwriting workshops and networking events, you are missing opportunities to improve your odds of success.  Do not underestimate the power of participation!
Don't go away!  The music business waits for no one.  Out of sight, out of mind.  If a publisher shows interest in your songs and offers to listen to more, it is your responsibility to continue to bring them quality songs.  This is how you develop a relationship with them.  If you stop bringing them songs or play them the lesser songs in your catalog, rather than only those that you know are better than the last ones they heard, they will lose interest and move on to other writers who take it more seriously. 

If you are continually writing better songs, but go away easily, the chances of anyone hearing your songs that could make something happen for  them are slim. 

If you never go away, but likewise never improve, the industry will lose interest in you and doors will not be open to you when and if you do decide to learn your craft.

The best advice I've ever gotten out of anyone in this town came from Pat Rolfe (ASCAP) about ten years ago when she told me "You must be present to win.  When you don't know what else to do….just show up!"  It has served me well.  However, experience has taught me that it is even more important to show up with something more than you had the last time.