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Author | Li Qinyu Editor | Fan Zhihui

Recently, MIDiA released a groundbreaking report centered on songwriters for the first time - "The Songwriter's Stage: A New Chapter in a New Era" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report"), which deeply analyzes the income status, needs and practical challenges faced by 309 songwriters.

Dr. Luke, a well-known American songwriter and producer, once pointed out:“The success of a musician lies not only in creating pleasant melodies, but also in finding ways to connect with the audience.”However, for songwriters, how to maximize their commercial value has become an increasingly serious problem.

What's harder than writing a good song?

In the current era of multicultural music and diverse audience aesthetics, creators can draw inspiration from life, social networks, film and television works, and even games anytime and anywhere. With the popularization of production tools and the continuous advancement of AI technology, it is becoming easier and easier for creators to write a song that is above the "public aesthetic passing line."

But the real challenge lies in how to stand out from the crowd and gain the attention and economic returns it deserves.

The report shows that only 29% of creators set improving their creative ability as their annual goal, and only 20% set creating hit songs as their annual goal. In contrast, obtaining more synchronization licenses for works and finding new sources of income accounted for 31% of the goals, and building a fan base on social media accounted for 23%.

The data shows that more songwriters are focusing on seeking collaboration opportunities and increasing their social media influence, that is,Most of their needs are related to money.

The report also shows thatAbout 40% of songwriters earn less than $1,000 a year.About 20% of songwriters earn between US$1,000 and US$10,000 per year, and only 10% of creators earn between US$10,000 and US$30,000 per year.

In such an environment, many songwriters have gradually deviated from their original intentions of creation. In order to pursue traffic, they are willing to sacrifice the artistic quality of their works. They even no longer care about the basic principles of creation such as rhyme, melody, and meaning, and completely abandon their creative bottom line.

For example, music platforms are flooded with all kinds of amazing songs, which grab market share by using homophones and attracting attention, making it difficult for truly high-quality works to stand out and diluting the quality of the entire content pool.

With Spotify introducing subscription bundles, it is expected that royalties paid to songwriters will be further reduced in the future, which will undoubtedly exacerbate the survival difficulties of creators. Since streaming royalties are not enough to support daily living expenses, songwriters may need to take on other jobs to make a living, making it impossible for them to focus on creation.

Most songwriters not only have to invest a lot of time in creating songs, but also need to find partners to record and produce songs, and spend time understanding complex copyright knowledge. Even if the works are successfully released, it is not easy to get attention on streaming platforms filled with countless tracks.

The report shows that 67% of respondents said that streaming income is not enough to meet basic living needs, and 40% are worried that their works will be drowned. 23% of creators have difficulty finding partners and do not have enough time to create, and 22% lack copyright knowledge.

It can be seen that for most songwriters, "writing good songs" is no longer a problem. What they face are a series of complex challenges beyond creation.

How do songwriters build their own brands?

At present, the music industry has fully entered an economic model centered on songs. However, this does not mean that it is centered on the songwriters behind the songs.

While songwriters behind the scenes face the same challenges as musicians on stage, where musicians can monetize their fan bases through live performances and merchandise sales, songwriters face more limited options for expanding their business and creating new revenue streams.

According to MIDiA statistics, 59% of creators hope to promote their works to film, television, advertising, video games and other media to obtain synchronization rights income; 38% of creators hope to build their own brands and enhance their visibility and influence in the industry; 35% of creators expressed the need for more cooperation opportunities and personal networks; 30% of creators expressed the need for financial support, and 28% of creators expressed the need to recommend their works to more well-known artists.

As mentioned above, songwriters’ needs for support are often for things they cannot accomplish alone and for which they have not yet found a solution.For example, a songwriter's primary goal is to secure more sync rights for their work, a process that often involves pitching the song to decision-makers at advertising agencies or other related industries.

All of these needs can be met in one step as songwriters build their own brands.

From the perspective of the outside world, listeners can not only be transformed into fans, but also become active supporters and disseminators of their personal IP. Overseas, many songwriters and composers have directly converted fans' support into economic benefits through crowdfunding, membership subscriptions, music reviews, podcast radio stations, etc., and transformed their careers as songwriters and composers behind the scenes into personal settings, creating a highly recognizable brand image.

From the internal perspective of the music industry, building a personal brand is crucial to increasing the "winning bid rate" of lyrics and music works.Specifically on the execution level, for example, you can choose a fixed lead singer, or serve as the lead singer yourself, and when submitting songs, you can match videos for each DEMO, mark out the key phrases in the lyrics, etc. Polishing these details will help to establish a good reputation in the industry and build a personal brand, thereby increasing the chances of songwriters being noticed by potential partners, copyright agents and record companies, and expanding more possibilities for cooperation.

Of course, this is undoubtedly closely linked to the works. Brand building is not only reflected in the works, but also in each piece of work, leaving its own unique creative "watermark" so that the work and the brand complement each other.

In recent years, domestic music platforms such as NetEase Cloud Music and Tencent Music Entertainment have launched numerous music support projects and creative training camps to solve the problem of career development planning for current practitioners. For example, in 2021, NetEase Cloud Music launched the industry's first training course that provides musicians with fixed remuneration and five social insurances and one housing fund, and customizes personalized plans for students including training, song production, and publicity and promotion, and will make real-time adjustments based on feedback from the market, students, teachers and other parties.

In addition, many domestic copyright agencies and record companies have also "opened classes" to fully incubate songwriters through customized training strategies, covering all aspects from professional skills improvement to music business development, market trend analysis and communication skills. In the long run, these training programs will not only help companies discover and cultivate creative talents with market competitiveness, but also meet their continuous demand for high-quality content.

For creators, these training programs are not only an opportunity to learn in the industry, but also an important way to gain a deeper understanding of the industry's operations and expand their network of contacts. Both parties benefit from each other and contribute to the development of the industry together.

Ultimately, the goal of these efforts is to comprehensively build a personal brand, which not only strengthens songwriters' connections with fans and industry partners, but also increases their influence in a highly competitive market and opens up more professional opportunities to achieve sustainable career development.

Is the era of songwriter branding coming?

From a traditional perspective, songwriters have always been the "mysterious figures" behind the stage, but now the direction of the spotlight is slowly changing, and the "branding" of songwriters is becoming more and more common.

For example, Billie Eilish's brother Finneas O'Connell, as a successful creator, interacts with fans through social media platforms such as TikTok, sharing his behind-the-scenes stories, creative inspirations, and life when making music. These interactions are not limited to promoting works, but also deepen the personal connection between him and his fans.

Another example is Jack Antonoff, a songwriter known for his collaborations with well-known artists such as Taylor Swift and Lana Del Rey. He often shares his music creation process, personal life, and interactions with artists on social media, and even launched peripheral products made with his image and name on platforms such as Etsy.It is not difficult to see that some outstanding overseas songwriters and producers have surpassed the traditional behind-the-scenes roles and become symbols with cultural significance.

This trend is also gradually emerging in China. In the traditional record era, the names of gold medal songwriters such as Joseph Koo, James Wong, "Two Weiwens", Jonathan Lee, Chen Xiaoxia, Xiao Chong, Yao Qian, and Shi Rencheng only appeared in the production list of the record, and only a few of them were remembered.

In addition, the "King Bomb Combination" formed through stable cooperative relationships also laid a good foundation for the branding of songwriters.

From Jay Chou + Fang Wenshan, David Tao + Wawa, JJ Lin + Lin Qiuli to today's combinations such as Qian Lei + Tang Tian, ​​Chen Hongyu + Tang Yingfeng, they have created classic works such as "Blue and White Porcelain", "Ordinary Friends", "Jiangnan", "The World", and "Ideal Thirty", forming the musical aesthetic symbol of a certain period and enhancing the recognition and influence of their works.

It’s just that at the moment, songwriters have more opportunities to be seen. MIDIA analyst Tatiana Cirisano pointed out that several larger trends will help songwriters move to the center of music consumption culture.

On the one hand, the widespread use of social media has further enhanced the visibility of songwriters.They now sometimes appear in musicians’ social media feeds, giving fans the chance to engage with them directly. Fans can learn many details about their favorite artists, such as their background, lifestyle, etc., through a simple search.

The wide availability of this information also makes fans more interested in the production process behind the music. In the past, fans may only pay attention to the artists themselves, but now, they also want to know who created these songs behind the scenes, which makes the value of the creators more prominent.

On the other hand, streaming service platforms have also begun to pay attention to the talents behind the scenes, displaying the creator information and personal homepages of the songs.This not only helps fans more easily identify and connect with the creators of the songs, but also significantly increases the popularity and market influence of these creators.

As the core creative force in the music industry chain, songwriters are perhaps the ones who deserve the most "cake". However, due to the unreasonable profit distribution system in the early days, they did not receive reasonable economic compensation. The emergence of these trends also broke the traditionally relatively secretive status of songwriters, and promoted their transformation from "behind-the-scenes heroes" to "brand IP".

However, skilled craftsmen are often constrained by their skills. Creation itself is a lonely thing, and it requires a relatively isolated creative environment from external "noise". This conflicts with the current marketing environment that is eager to speak out and be seen.

How to balance the flow state required for songwriting and the marketing needs of a personal brand may be a greater test of the songwriter's energy allocation.

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