There are a few writers who are interested in creating songs for the very love of creating, and not interested in the financial or immortal powers of the music business. But this is just a handful, not the majority. A number of songwriters have accomplished exactly what they set out to do.

The first step in songwriting success is to decide that you HAVE to be a success and you will give the public EXACTLY what it wants. Unless your songs sell, you don't make money. And if you don't give the public exactly what it will buy you aren't going to have songs that sell.

Talent is important. You have to be able to create what the public wants, and then give ot to the public in the form that will be bought. Once you take the first successful step with a song, it brings you into membership with BMI or ASCAP. You need this groundwork for future royalties. As you create, as you sell, your importance to a clearance society such as ASCAP or BMI increases and this is important income.

You need to give songwriting as much time as you can. You need to know the people in the business who listen to songs and buy them. Trips to music centers just to meet these people and have a correspondence acquaintanceship with them is important. There are many writers who do sell their songs by mail; there are greater numbers who make it a full-time job and stay "with it" at all times. You have to capitalize on your song success -- by getting in with the song publishers, recorders and artists. They have to know you, and what to expect from you. Contacts can be made and are made by mail.

Not all writers can write the rock 'n' roll style, or the country-western style, or any other particular style currently popular. A songwriter must be like a salesman; no matter what the product to be sold, he must be able to talk it up, build it up, sell it. A songwriter must learn to tear apart the songs that are selling, to see what makes them tick; he must be able to learn the technique of the successful song, and use it himself. The publisher wants a song that will sell -- not a song that will elevate the taste of the public -- or possible start a new trend IF the song catches on. A publisher is concerned with current successes, bills to pay, an office to maintain. He wants a songwriter to give him a song that will sell immediately.

A number of songwriters own their own music publishing houses. They gain income as writers AND as publishers. Some writers have their own recording companies -- again a means of getting income from various sources. It also provides a means of getting one's songs on records and heard by the public.

Some writers are publishers, recorders, and managers of artist talent. It gives them a wide range of income possibilities -- all excellent. One of the quickest ways of becoming financially successful today is by managing a singer who has caught the fancy of the public. This leads to high-figure recording contracts, personal appearances, TV shows, fan clubs, even merchandise carrying the name of the singer. Tom T. Hall is in a unique position in that he is one of the highest paid country singers today and his most important successes have been with his own songs. A songwriter today has to be a clever businessman. It is no longer a question of writing a song and taking it to a publisher, then going back to his room and writing another song.

The modern songwriter is a businessman with a product to sell, just as a salesman who sells advertising, or cars, or toothpaste. The song is a commodity, and the songwriter uses many ways of getting his song on the selling market. The recording industry has opened up a new source of exposure, and with it, the artists. So there are numerous business arrangements to make with artists and the companies. The artistic side of songwriting is a thing of the past. A successful songwriter has to keep writing songs that will sell. He must get them on records as the most obvious method of getting his songs to the public. As these songs increase in popular sales his rating improves and he gains a greater yearly income from a clearance agency. More than ever it is necessary that he has songs recorded, and singers singing his songs.

This leads to the foreign song market, where American songs are almost as popular as they are in the United States. Records are important sellers all over the globe -- Europe, Africa, the Far East -- in hideway spots all over the world. Through his publisher, and through his membership in a clearance society, the songwriter will collect on these international earnings. They become an important part of his income. Once the songwriter is known, and has a few hits "under his belt" he strikes out as an independent, working with many publishers, and making the best "deals" he can where he can.

"Cut-ins" are still used by a number of the smaller publishers. A new writer gets his song accepted, published, and recorded because he relinquishes half of his song to someone who will see to it that his song is recorded. Many artists sing songs that are published by their own music publishing companies. So the writer works out a "deal" where the publisher and the artist are properly "cut in" on the song. From a business point of view, the writer is interested in getting ahead. His investment in the business is not only the song he has created, but the cost of getting his songs on the way to sales and success. "Cutting in" and giving up a part of his song -- at the start of his career -- can be considered a "sales expense" chalked up to "business education." Many writers co-write with well-known writers not because the better-known writers have better ideas -- but because they have contracts to get songs heard, published, and recorded. The new writer is "buying" this ability.

The music business is an angle business. A songwriter must forget many pre-conceived notions of an artistic business. His attitude must be one of self-promotion, of business "deals" of getting ahead with songs that the public wants. As long as a writer comes up with what the public will buy, and he has access to the sources that buy songs, he will get his material heard and bought by the public. The cash register is the motivating power that determines success or failure. Not whether a song will last an eternity, whether it is a "good song" -- but whether it sold records, some sheet music, and boosted the writer's rating in an ASCAP or BMI.

Songwriting is a business. It must be treated as a business. Sales must be made and deals consummated that will inrease business. There can be mergers, changes in business connections -- always moving with the time, moving with the pulse of the public. Money in songwriting comes basically from the cash register ringing up. The songwriter is the one who has to motivate that ring-up. If his songs appeal to song-buyers, there will be a lot of purchases. From this comes royalties, performance royalty checks, money to go into the publishing and recording business, money to expand into all phases of the entertainment field.Songwriting is the financial springboard. It brings current financial returns, an annuity for old age, and the money to open up new outlets. Songwriting is strictly a business -- and money will be made by songwriting businessmen -- especially those who have their eye on the public's pulse -- and the cash register.