OK, who REALLY wrote that song?

I stumbled upon an interesting article the other day. The fact remains, there are several well known and well respected artists out there who shove their name on a songwriters credit as a 'co-writer' but do nothing more than just sing on the track.

Now I'm not saying that these artists aren't 'true' artists because they don't write their own music (if that was the case, then we should automatically dismiss the likes of Whitney Houston and Elvis Presley) but what I hate is 'false credit'.

"How can someone look in the mirror and know they didn't do something and their name is on it? For money? For credit? It's a lie." - that was said by Diane Warren, who has written for artists such as Whitney Houston, Celine Dion and Mary J. Blige.

Check out the article below...
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Of all the names in music, Chantal Kreviazuk may be the least likely to appear in a headline. Though she recently released her own album, the songwriter usually stays behind the scenes to pen hits with artists such as Kelly Clarkson, Gwen Stefani and Avril Lavigne.

But earlier this month, Kreviazuk rocked the pop music world by suggesting that Lavigne was a collaborator in name only. Although she quickly retracted her comments and others defended Lavigne, the flap illuminated a long-standing fraud that has become more prevalent than ever: "singer-songwriters" who do much less songwriting than their publicists would have you believe.

"It's crazy!" exclaimed Grammy-winning songwriter Diane Warren, who has written for artists such as Whitney Houston, Celine Dion and Mary J. Blige. "How can someone look in the mirror and know they didn't do something and their name is on it? For money? For credit? It's a lie."

This being the music industry, money is of course a factor, since the writers of hit songs can earn more than the singer over the long term. But today's singers also press for writing credit because it gives them more of a cachet, presenting them as more of a "real artist" in comparison with a star who doesn't write a note.

"It's a practice that's been going on but now it's really prevalent in every situation," says songwriter Adonis Shropshire, who helped pen the hit "My Boo" for Alicia Keys and Usher, and has worked with Chris Brown, Ciara and others.

Shropshire says that many artists will only allow songwriters to work on an album in return for song credit, and "if they do write, they ask for more publishing than they honestly contributed ... it is the way it is."

The practice has been prevalent for decades. Elvis Presley's manager, Colonel Tom Parker, maneuvered to give the King songwriting credits on early hits like "Love Me Tender" even though he never wrote a word. James Brown was sued by an associate over song credits.

Lauryn Hill settled a lawsuit by a group that claimed she improperly took sole production and writing credit on her Grammy-winning album "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill." And Diddy seemed to acknowledge claims that he wasn't really writing his raps in the "Bad Boys for Life" song with the brushoff line: "Don't worry if I write rhymes, I write checks!"

Click here to read the rest of the article.

Source: CNN.COM

MySpace + Kunaki = Money

Once upon a time, record labels ruled the music industry. Getting an appointment with an A&R guy on any major record label was hard work. And when you DID finally meet with him, you better be damn sure that you're music and image is up to scratch - otherwise you can kiss any chance of a record deal goodbye.

That was the scenario.

Now, things have changed. Drastically.

Since the extreme diversification of music and the advent of the internet, it seems like record labels are now finding themselves desperately looking for the next big merger, rather than signing the next big artist.

In the meantime, artists and bands are looking towards a better way to make money from their music ...their songs ...their artistry ...and what some would consider, their life.

I want to tell you about a service that's available online, right now, that's making the process for distributing YOUR OWN music an absolute walk in the park. The company is called Kunaki - and here's where things get really interesting.

Picture this. You've set up a MySpace page and you have 3 of your songs on your page. You've made loads of 'friends' and even a bunch of 'fans'. You're getting feedback from people and you're constantly improving your music because of it. You have loads of songs, but you don't want to put them all on your MySpace page.

Would you say that out of the many hundreds (or even thousands) of people who visit your MySpace page, that perhaps just a couple of them would be interested to buy more of your music? Would you say that maybe a few of them would want to buy more songs from you? On a daily basis?

Well of course it's plausible. This is a definite possibility - and this is where Kunaki comes in.

Kunaki (despite the strange name) is a company that burns your own album on to a CD, packages the CD jewel case and ships it out to the chosen country. The great part about this is that they only charge you when somebody buys it.

And of course, you set the price of your album.

Let me show you an example.

Go here http://kunaki.com/Gallery.asp?cc=

Click on a 'detailed view' for any CD

Choose a country and click 'calculate shipping'


You can see a breakdown of how much they charge. For outside the USA it's normally $3.00 handling charge and $3.60 shipping/air mail fee. For inside the USA it's around $4.60 in total.

Note: You can check out the prices at their site and email them if you have to. My numbers may not be 100% acurate - but they are roughly correct.

So here's how the process goes:

1) You get some songs together and put up a MySpace page. Present 3 'teaser' songs on MySpace. You spend some time making as many friends on MySpace and basically promoting the heck out of it. If you want to know more about promoting on MySpace you can try this ebook. It may help you.

After you've gained some presence, you want to let people buy your music! There are two options for this... but for now I'm going though Kunaki which handles your CD as a physical product. As I said, they package, burn and ship out your album for how much you want to sell it for. Example, $5.00. So the buyer will pay around $7-11 depending on if they live in the USA or not.

Even $11 is pretty good for an album of 15 songs ;-)

2) Go to Kunaki and go through their procedure. You may need to download some free software (they provide) to design your album cover and CD design.

You design it, and they print it. And it's all professional - we're not talking 'sticky labels' here, we're talking about images burnt on the actual CD and high quality inlay cards. It's proper.

You will also upload your songs one-by-one to their site so that they can then burn it on CD.

3) Then you put the link and your newly designed album front cover picture on your MySpace page. Monitor it... see if anybody buys your stuff.

4) When you make sales, Kunaki will send you a check every month - deducting their own fee's first.


There you have it :-) With this process in place, any songwriter, musician or singer can make money in the music industry.... and potentially, lots of it.


~Shamir

Have You Ever Wanted To Become a Better Singer?

Have you ever wanted to become a better singer? ....Or have you ever wanted to know how to sing?

When I started to write songs, I knew that the only way I was going to get my songs across to my audience the RIGHT way, was to sing them myself. But like anything else, I knew that if I had bad vocal technique (which, lets face it, most of us do) then in the long run I would damage my vocal chords for good - and that would be a disaster.

Are you in this boat? Wanting to sing your own songs, but worried hat bad vocal technique might one day creep up on you and ruin your voice box completely?

I've received countless emails asking me about vocal improvement, and while I can't physically vocal coach you (unless you're in London and can afford £25 a lesson) I can recommend you to a great course - that I've reviewed personally.

It's called 'Singorama'.

http://www.songwritingtipsonline.com/singorama.htm

In a nutshell, Singorama is a DREAM for anyone who is looking to improving as a singer - or even for those who are just starting out to sing. It take you though the nuts and bolts of singing *the right way*.

You'll work on crucial elements like:

* Pitch control
* Breathing
* Resonators (ie. using head voice or chest voice)
* Vocal Power

The package is especially unique because of the way it's presented. It comes with all three elements - audio, pictures and text - and this gives you the full vocal learning experience

But that's not even the best part.

The BEST part is, they actually GIVE you a free software that records your voice (on your computer) and you can check out instantly if you've got good 'pitching' or 'tuning'.

If you haven't, then you can sing along with their scales (which are already in the software) and the virtual keyboard on-screen will tell you instantly if you're going wrong - and then you can quickly correct yourself to the correct pitching of the notes.

And this is just one of the *many* excellent softwares they give you with the Singorama package. It's a truly awesome package.

Everything that is included in the package is all carefully thought out and put together to totally maximise your chance of singing success. You'll know exactly what I mean when you see it for yourself.

And this is NOT hype. I've seen and reviewed this package myself. I can say with confidence that you will not be disappointed.

Check it out, it's worth it.

http://www.songwritingtipsonline.com/singorama.htm

Talk soon,

Shamir

A good song is a good song...

In the Songwriting Secrets Interview I did, we talked about how 'a good song is a good song' no matter which way you cut it. What I mean by that is, we all love songs - and we all hate songs.

But do you recognize the genius of the songs that you hate?

There are some songs out there which I don't particularly like, BUT, I know that they are GOOD songs. I know they have a good melodically structure, and nice chord progression and some captivating lyrics.

A good way to gauge what is a good song is... can it be sung or played in another style or format successfully? Can it come across as magical as the original - although you may not like the actual genre in question?

I have picked a Bob Dylan song in this example. I've found 4 different versions of the same song, and I'm sure there bucket loads more. But I think everyone here has done a good job - but more importantly, the song itself is a good one.

The song almost lends itself across the board of different musical styles.

It's truly amazing. Check these out...

Bob Dylan...



Stevie Wonder...



Katie Melua...



Sam Cooke...



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