WITCI Research Portfolio: Joe Manson
In this research portfolio I will be exploring my chosen area of the creative industries, which is the profession of a songwriter. I will be taking a look into the paths that people may take to become a songwriter, what it takes to achieve success as a songwriter but also how the definition of ‘success’ might vary between different people in this profession. There are essentially two types of professional songwriters. One type is people who write songs for themselves or a band they are a part of, to create revenue by recording and releasing music under their own name and also performing it. The other type are people who write songs for others, there are a wide range of job titles that come from this side including: ghost writer, lyricist, film and TV composer, corporate jingle writer or musical theatre writer. It’s clear that the term ‘Songwriter’ is very broad and with different jobs as one, there come different definitions of success and different challenges. I will attempt to take all this into account as I lay out my understanding of what it means to be a professional songwriter.
In terms of entry points to the profession, and whether or not there are certain qualifications or experiences that are required, it depends on the individual and what kind of songwriter they want to be. If someone really wants to become a songwriter who writes for other artists and does commission work, someone who doesn’t want to perform songs themself, then nowadays going to university to get a degree in songwriting is probably their best option. In this instance, having a degree would help with getting a job writing for artists, besides becoming a skilled writer, you also gain good industry connections which can create a good foothold for landing your first job. However, it is not obligatory to go about it this way, of course a lot of writers for artists, especially in the past, have not gone to university because the truth is that the idea of the songwriting degree is still a fairly new invention. Therefore, I believe that someone aiming to be a writer for others should make the most of this opportunity as a leg up to a career because the music industry is more competitive than ever before. Menger (1999) explains how it is common for unemployment and employment to rise simultaneously within the artistic labor market as more and more individuals are entering artistic professions, therefore constantly increasing competition.
In order to pursue a career as the type of songwriter who writes for themself, it can be a very different story. It is more common for someone with this goal in mind to not go to university to study songwriting than someone specifically aiming to write for others. However, it is also perfectly valid to go for a degree because it is a great way to make connections and give you opportunities and facilities you wouldn’t have previously had available, specifically for performing and recording your own music. I think that once again it comes down to the individual. How proactive are they at creating performance opportunities for themselves? How effective is their self-promotion? How successful are they at gaining new skills and knowledge to aid themself? If the answers to these questions are that they are very good at these aspects of starting out as a songwriter, then perhaps they do not need the degree and the additional opportunities and connections.
In terms of what knowledge, skills and personal attributes are required for success in this profession, optimism, assertiveness, basic production skills, creativity, life experience and proficient level at the instrument of your choice are all essential nowadays to stand out. In the digital age there is a saturation of new music being made and released all the time online and in the real world, you need optimism to keep putting yourself out there despite maybe getting ignored and rejected. Assertiveness is also essential because no one is going to promote yourself for you, in order for a songwriter to progress their career, they must be constantly expanding their portfolio of songs, their network of connections and gig opportunities. As written by Scott (2012), those wishing to work in the creative industries must “invent their own career, build a portfolio; and establish their name before a monetary reward follows”. Being a self-employed member of any of the creative industries means that you need a certain level of proactiveness, it is the nature of any artistic profession. This brings me on to the need for a proficient level of skill at production and your instrument. Having these two skills is important to give yourself an edge over the competition, because if you can play and record your songs by yourself you can start to build a portfolio of material early on and it gives you something to show potential employers. Having these two abilities also helps you easily bring what you imagine in your head the song sounds like into the real world. Creativity and life experience are important for a singer-songwriter because to write captivating lyrics you need something interesting to sing about. Bob Dylan (2004), in his autobiography wrote: “You want to write songs that are larger than life. You want to say something about the strange things that have happened to you”. This compulsion to write about what he had seen was certainly a contributing factor to how Bob Dylan wrote some of the most seminal songs of the late 20th century. That is why I believe you need life experience, but also a certain amount creativity to bring great songs into existence.
A typical day of work for a songwriter can be extremely varied. There are the obvious tasks that would occupy especially a singer-songwriter’s time; practicing for gigs, performing at gigs, piecing together new original songs, collaborating with other artists and recording original music at a studio or with a home recording setup. However, for a writer who solely writes for others, their time is mainly dominated by writing with either other songwriters, or the artist or band themselves. In an interview with Dan Stone (a Grammy-nominated Nashville writer) by Skaggs (2018), he explains how “in the 80s and 90s, and even the early 2000s, four days out of five, I would write with other professional writers”, but nowadays “it is more like three days out of five, I’d write with an artist or band”. So that is quite an interesting insight into the day in the life of a writer, it shows that perhaps the commercial artists who sing these songs written for them are attempting to take a larger role in the writing rooms than before. But of course, a lot has changed in the daily routine of everyone in the creative industries since the introduction of the internet. On the one hand there is the more mundane aspect of online administrative tasks such as checking E-mails, filling out invoices, networking and planning events and collaborations with other people. And of the other, there is the pressure nowadays to constantly promote yourself through social media as a ‘content creator’, and this takes up a lot of time in the working day as well, for a singer-songwriter in particular. This is because the main marketing and promotional aspects of the profession are centered around the creation of social media content. Apps such as TikTok, Instagram and YouTube are extremely important assets for a self-employed songwriter to utilize. “With the audience reach that social media provides, emerging musicians can decide their fate by directly reaching out to their target audience, bypassing major music labels and middlemen” (Cole, 2019). Almost all of the new music that we encounter day to day is from social media platforms. But although the internet is brilliant for emerging musicians for the number of new listeners you can reach it is also very much a double-edged sword because the average potential new listener has so many other emerging musicians on their feed before and after you appear, that they are likely to instantly forget you. One marketing strategy which a singer-songwriter can use to stand out from the crowd is creating a music video or some sort of visual piece that goes hand in hand with a song.
Some intellectual and personal challenges presented by the profession could include the potential financially unstable lifestyle of working as a freelance musician. “The permanently employed musicians can plan their finances and live closer to their place of work, while the freelancers have an uncertain income and must be prepared to travel or live elsewhere if anyone calls about a gig” (Lundin, 2022). This challenge can be quite daunting, but it can be dealt with by making sure you’re getting all the royalties you’re due for tracks that you’ve appeared on and by being assertive and proactive when it comes to finding gigs.
A challenge that specifically songwriters who write for artists face is the burn out that they sometimes experience. In Skaggs (2018), the author interviewed Jack Fraser, another critically acclaimed commercial songwriter; “I don’t want to write with people that I can’t stand their music anymore that’s not… like that’s soul crushing after a while”. That can be difficult for a professional songwriter, when it’s your main source of income, but you can’t stand the music you’re creating – you have to push through and finish the job, like you would outside of the creative industries. Writer’s block is another challenge commonly associated with songwriters. And whether you believe it is self-inflicted or not, it is very much a real thing for a lot of people and especially a challenge for singer-songwriters when they have albums they are contractually obliged to complete but nothing is coming. In a 2023 interview with Rolling Stone UK, rapper and great lyricist Benjamin Coyle-Larner said that Benjamin Zephaniah’s advice to him for getting over writer’s block was “if you’re not feeling it on the day go do something else, if he can’t write a poem, he’ll start writing a book and if he still can’t write the book, then he starts writing a film.”
There can be monetary issues within the profession that can be challenging to deal with. The most prevalent example of one of these issues is the streaming model that the average listener heavily relies upon nowadays, and how it is unfair for the artists in terms of the payment they receive for their music. It is something that has been accepted by everyone now as the industry’s new reality, just the way things work now, but in the 2010s many artists spoke out about the streaming model. In an interview with Björk, she said: “This streaming thing just does not feel right. I don’t know why, but it just seems insane. To work on something for two or three years and then just, ‘oh, here it is for free.’ It’s not about the money; it’s about respect.” (Kreps, 2015). This is an important issue for all recording musicians, especially for emerging artists. This is because tracks on Spotify need to have had at least 1000 streams in the past year in order to start generating revenue, and then once this has been reached Spotify takes 30% of all the royalties, which are already just pennies. This system is obviously quite an issue for someone trying to earn a living by being a full-time songwriter, compared to the age of physical sales.
Bibliography
Menger, P.M. (1999) Artistic Labor Markets and Careers. Annual Reviews. (Accessed 19/12/24)
https://www.annualreviews.org/content/journals/10.1146/annurev.soc.25.1.541
Scott, M. (2012) Cultural Entrepreneurs, Cultural Entrepreneurship. Flinders University. (Accessed 16/12/24)
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0304422X12000198
Dylan, B. (2004) Chronicles Volume 1, Page 51. Simon&Schuster Inc. [Book]
Skaggs, R. (2018) A Multi-Level Analysis of Songwriter Career Strategies. Vanderbilt University. (Accessed 4/11/25)
https://ir.vanderbilt.edu/items/d4b20e45-6142-437d-8349-fd101bc15e97
Cole, S. (2019) The Impact of Technology and Social Media and the Music Industry. Econsultancy.
https://econsultancy.com/the-impact-of-technology-and-social-media-on-the-music-industry
Lundin, A.N. (2022) Dealing with Ambiguous Freelance Musician Careers. Taylor&Francis. (Accessed 7/5/25)
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09548963.2022.2075715
Coyle-Larner, B. (2023) https://youtu.be/HTzR-tx1yhY?si=7AHgmdbNruj8w287 (Accessed 5/1/25) [Video]
Kreps, D. (2015) Björk keeping ‘Vulnicura’ off Spotify: ‘It just seems insane’. Rolling Stone. (Accessed 5/1/25)
