I really like this thread Doug. Thanks for starting it. I agree it all depends on what you want to do and where you want your songs to go.

1. I have played and sang most of my songs for my friends or at my church. They have all, without exception, told me how wonderful they are. They love me. But I discovered that most of the songs had serious flaws craftwise. So an audiences opinion of a song only counts if that's all your looking for (unless it's an audience of songwriters). If your audiences love your songs and respond just as you want them to then that's your target and you've reached it.

2. I do not know many of the people on these forums, thier experience level, the target market of thier songs, etc. I have used "paid critique" services to find out what an "industry" is looking for and if my songs come close to that. Because my ultimate goal right now is to produce a song that, not only I really like, but that "my" target industry will like as well. My target industry is Contemporary Christian and Southern Gospel music. There are very strong contingincies of publishers, artists, writers, etc. for each of these fields in Nashville. That's why I'm aiming at that market.

As I said earlier I'm very picky about who's opinion I "take to heart" when it comes to making changes and adjustments in my songs. I really appreciate all who are part of JPF and the other forums I'm a member of but do not take all of thier comments "to heart". A: Not all of them have experience writing in my target genre's. B. Not all of them are familier with that industry's wants and needs.

I would hope that a "pro" who does critiques has had some training in actually "critiquing" songs and not just writing. I know that NSAI says they train thier critiquers. BUT I will concede that I have gotten song critiques from "pros" and in my opinion they have missed my point in a song completely. AND I have had folks here or on other forums give me a critique that I thought was dead on and they exposed things I never thought about.

Great thread Doug. Thanks for raising the issue.

Steve

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