Midnite,

Actually since all that, Thom has found an investor and has his own publishing and production company. He is producing and dating a girl who is GORGEOUS and a Great singer. Amazing hair. I cannot remember her name but she is VERY hot. He also merchandises lines of "Redneck Yaght club merchandise, coozies, t-shirts, hats, etc. He is actually doing pretty well.

Most people want to have their own publishing companies. Staff deals are usually the first step toward that.


Mike, that is actually true and not true. If you are the artist, you can get away with anything. There are no rules. The people you are talking about, Norah Jones, rap artists, etc. are all self contained writers and artists. That is a different entity. And a totally different approach.

Most of the people from the outside trying to pitch songs to other artists, who use film and pitch libraries and services, etc. who do this will be CREAMED. And often it is not just the rhymes or the cliches', it is the predictable, nothing out of the ordinary songs. They just really don't do anything to stand out.

I just left a songwriter's festival that has been going on for three days, and before that I was in Atlanta for three days. The problem is not that songs are bad, most arent. They are just average. When you have a very average, or mediocre song, and you are not the artist, you are going nowhere.

Adding those cliche's, words, overused subject matter, overused titles, redundant melodies, songs outside the frameworks, and not observing the (not rules but strong suggestions) are just ways to increase the reason that industry people say "NO." You are in effect competing with them in their own songs, their own artists, etc If you don't bring them anything they don't already have too much of, you are not bringing them anything. It is all about standing out. Most songs and writers simply don't stand out.

And until you do that you can know every body in the business. But that doesn't mean they are going to do a thing for you. It is not who you know. It is who knows you and how they know you.

MAB