Songwriter

The job of a Songwriter is pretty self-explanatory: you write songs. Songwriters can write songs for individual Musicians, record companies or advertising agencies—it all depends on where they want to use their talent. Here’s what those different industries look like:

Being a Songwriter for a Musician can either mean that you create the songs for a pre-selected group or Recording Artist, or that you write lyrics and music for whoever will buy them.

When you work for a record company, you’re part of a factory—your job is to write for a selected group or Artist. Think of Britney Spears: once she became famous her record company hired Songwriters to keep writing her number one hits.

Advertising gets even more money driven, since anything you create is used to sell something.

Regardless of where you work, however, the process of creating a song is the same. You’ll need to understand the reason behind the song and the feeling you want to convey. For example you’ll bring a different state of mind for selling t-shirts than if you’re writing a love song. Once you figure out what song you want to write, you get to work on the lyrics and music.

Knowing how to play an instrument is key at this stage, since this will usually be what you play around on while you’re creating a song. It’s also important because after you’re done writing you’ll need to sell your work by performing it for someone interested in buying, be it an Executive Music Producer or individual Artist.