Many years ago, as a young man in his early twenties, while still learning my trade - I worked in the copyright department of a large music publishing monopoly - probably the largest in the world. Part of my job was to process all the newly arrived signed publishing contracts. Each week, hundreds of these documents arrived from all over the world, not least exclusive signings, specific assignments, publishing administration, collection deals, sub publishing and so on.
In processing the contracts I soon became curious as to those song writers who seemed to consistently make "pots of money" from those who made modest amounts, to those who made little to nothing. At twenty years old - I was knowledgeable about copyright, and very naïve about marketing.
I was intrigued by how these super creators of music and lyrics seemed to attract huge royalty streams like endless rivers of money. Nor was my fascination diminished by how some of the most successful of them appeared to be the quietest and unassuming of individuals whenever I met them. In my twenty year old mind I wondered what was their secret? All they had to do - I reasoned, was to keep cranking out songs - and like the touch of Midas, all their songs generated money like gold!
A few years later, I began to consider that 85% of the success in launching any song was down to the promotional and marketing muscle of the combined a&r and marketing departments of the music publishing and record labels promoting the product. There is truth in this - but I also realized something else: A lot of these "quiet unassuming" song writers were not so quiet and unassuming when it came to promoting their own songs. Many of the top earners simply sidestepped the process of having their new songs evaluated by a&r departments - at least in the early stages, until they had taken care of a few things first. They reasoned, the music publisher, faced with having to provide all the work in giving the song life such as securing a cover, or getting it released, would offer extremely tough terms, (not without some justification if you're a music publisher). And so, instead of taking "cold songs" to music publishers, these somewhat inventive individuals would first create "a platform" to give the song life, however modestly, by getting a local band to cover it, or perform on radio - sometimes television, or by securing some other form of commercial exploitation, before approaching a music publisher. Many became so good at launching their own songs - when they finally negotiated a deal with a music publisher - it was done on extremely favourable terms.
In my experience, the most successful songwriters, are those who have become masters in marketing their own product.