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The CLIMB Show by Brent Baxter, Team SWPro on December 30, 2022
Songwriter, how much does your song's title matter? Can a title sink your song's chances of being a hit before it even gets heard? Here's the truth. Listen up if you want to get your songs heard- and if you want them to win!
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TRANSCRIPT:
Thanks, Ozzy. Today on three minutes and the truth, I want to talk about the truth about song titles and the importance of having an interesting song title. See, if you're an unknown songwriter, it is even more important for you to have an interesting song title than it is for established, hit songwriters to have interesting song titles.
It's all about getting your song heard. Getting somebody to listen so they can even say yes or no to it. Yes, you can write a great song with a cliche or boring title. I've seen Hit Songwriters take titles that look pretty mundane, pretty boring, pretty cliche and do amazing things with them. Thing is... you're not in that position. Right?
So what happens is a&r people, producers, artists, they have more songs coming at them than they have time to listen to. That's just the nature of the beast. More songwriters are trying to get more songs cut than artists and producers even have time to listen to.
So what happens is, something's got to move that song to the front of the line. Sometimes it's because the song comes from a trusted source. Maybe a known, hit publisher sends the song in. Those go to the front of the line. Maybe the song was sent in or co-written by a hit writer with a great track record. That song goes to the front of the line. The title of the song may be kind of boring, but if Ashley Gorley wrote it, I can't wait to see what he did with it. Because he's proven that time and time again, that he is a hit songwriter. If he's sending it, it's probably a worthy song.
If you're not one of those people, if it's not YOUR name that's going to get the song bumped up to the listening stack, then what's going to do for you? Hopefully, it's going to be your title, because that's about all you have left is that title in the subject line of your email.
And if it's more interesting and more compelling, if it makes a listener want to hear what it is, then that might hopefully be enough to move it into the stack of songs that get listened to. A great title gets people interested, right?
I remember when I heard ABOUT the house that built me. I was like, Oh, that's a great title. I wish I thought of that. And I wanted to see what they did with it. Even before I knew who wrote it. I wanted to know what they did with it. That's called Winning before you're spinning. We already want to love the song because we think the title is so cool. But if you have a boring mundane title, and I don't know you from Adam, I don't know who wrote it. I'm expecting it to be a boring, mundane song and the song has to overcome my bad 1st impression.
And that's the truth about song titles. I'm Brent Baxter.
This has been three minutes and the truth.
God bless,
Brent
PS- Thanks for stopping by Songwriting Pro! I appreciate it. As a matter of fact, I want to give you a special little something just for your visit. Actually, it's a BIG something - over an hour of free interviews with hit-making songwriters and producers! This look into the Songwriting Pro Member Area is full of tips to help you succeed at the art, craft and business of songwriting. You can gain access to all this good stuff at SongwritingPro.com/preview.
Who is Brent Baxter?
Brent is an award-winning songwriter with songs recorded by Alan Jackson (the top 5 Country hit "Monday Morning Church"), Randy Travis, Lady A, Joe Nichols, Ray Stevens, Steve Cropper, Andy Griggs, Buddy Jewell, Lonestar, Gord Bamford (the #1 hit and CCMA Single Of The Year "When Your Lips Are So Close"), The Sound (the #1 hit and Dove-nominated Southern Gospel Song Of The Year "Can I Get A Witness"), Wilburn & Wilburn (#1 hit "Hallelujah Homecoming"), The LeFevre Quartet and more!
