Oh my gah!  How cool would it be to turn on the radio and hear my song being sung by a really great artist?  Pretty freaking cool.  For me, you know what would be cooler?  The check I'm gonna get from ASCAP about the same time next year.  Yea, I know...how sick of me to think about the MONEY when I should be thinking about the integrity of the song I composed that millions of people are hearing and how it is personally touching someone's life.

Look, I'm not trying to cheapen my artistry.  I am very passionate about what I do, who I write with and the songs I create.  But don't think for one second that I'm not thinking about how I can scratch out a living doing what I love.  See, I'm in this for the long haul.  I choose to make music my career, how about you?

I meet so many songwriters who are very passionate about the songs they write.  They  also passionately complain that the songs being cut in the market "suck" and they complain about how it is "so hard" to get their foot in the door and they complain about how no one will give them a shot. I find it very amusing.  See, if these songwriters had 1/2 of the passion for the business side of music (what it really takes to get your foot in the door) as they do for creating it, they'd complain less.  Wanna know why?  Because they'd be too damned busy building a career than building a big wall of negativity around them that only hampers their intentions of doing this full-time.

I know I sound like a skipping record, but I just can't say how incredibly important it is to work this like a business, because it is. You shouldbe doing SOMETHING every single day to advance your career. Here's a checklist to get you started:

Try to do atleast THREE things on the list everyday.

-Read a songwriting/music business article.
-Write a song/finish a song.
-Set up a co-writing appointment.
-Get out of the house and network.
-Get online and network.
-Read a music business book.
-Study how publishing works.
-Check out websites that contain music business and songwriting information.
 

Obviously, this is the shortlist, but you see where I am going here.

Write a hit!
Jimi