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Have you ever stopped to consider how universally present music really is? Can you think of a place that music isn’t found? Music is just about everywhere. It comes preinstalled in your car. It’s in elevators. It’s in the doctors office, the mall, the gas station and the health food store. You hear music at the beach, the football game, the hockey game, the game store. Yes, music is on video games, it’s on TV, it’s heard at the play and even at the playground. Heck you don’t even need a music player to have music, all you have to do is sing!

You can take music with you wherever you go. To the office, to bed, to your drivers ed class and even to church (although I bet they already have music there, waiting for you). Can you watch TV while you water ski? Not likely but you can listen to music. Can you read a book while you drive a car? I don’t recommend reading and driving but you can have the tunes playing while you cruise. Can you talk on your phone while you have a tooth pulled? Nope, but you can listen to music. Music has been called “ The universal language” You can go to any country in the world and enjoy music even if you don’t understand the language.

What does all this have to do with you? You’re a musician aren’t you? You write songs don’t you? Think about this .... the next time you hear music out in public it’s a good bet that someone got paid to compose and perform that music. That’s right, people get paid for writing music. It’s amazing that people get paid for doing something they love to do! Do you get paid for writing music? Isn’t it time you got paid for writing music or performing? Maybe you already have some recordings you made, sitting in a box somewhere. How many people have heard them? Why are they just sitting in a box? Are the songs too dated? If your songs aren’t current did you know they might still be used in movies? Maybe your recordings aren’t that great of quality. Could you use them as a demo so you can license the songs to someone else to perform?
 
Writing songs for other artists is a HUGE market. I bet you’d be shocked at how many songs, performed by famous artist, weren’t even written by them.
Maybe you’ve got music but no lyrics. Can you imagine how many poets are out there with shoe boxes full of poems that no one has ever read? Poems that would just happen to fit your song perfectly! Many, many great songs are co-written with a partner. Team up.

People often wonder why there is so much bad music on the radio. One reason you hear so much bad music on the radio is because the record company didn’t have anything better to put out! The record company didn’t hear your music because you didn’t submit it to them. So maybe a record company did hear your music but rejected it. What are you going to do? Give up? Rewrite your song, write a new song or submit your current stuff to someone else. Keep at it. Hone it. Refine it. Perfect it.

Here’s a tip : when asking someone for their opinion of your song don’t tell them you wrote it. You’ll get a much more honest answer. Of course your mom and you buddies are going to say “ oh that’s a wonderful song” . But again I say, tell them a friend of yours wrote it or its a new local band. Don’t you dare get mad if they tell you the song stinks! The whole idea is to get honest feedback.

The next time you hear music in public, where ever you are, maybe it will be one of your songs. Wouldn’t it be neat to walk into the local hair salon and your song is playing on the radio? Then you’ll be able to say you speak the universal language of music.