Nashville has turned into a place where, instead of making money with songwriters, the new business model seems to be be making money off of songwriters.
Most of (if not all of) the "hit writers" who are selling their services aren't getting hits in today's market, and in fact, are having the same trouble getting through doors in town as everybody else.
One of the best known scams in Nashville is by somebody who was involved year ago in a four-way co-write (with at least one great writer, who BTW can't make any headway in today's market in spite of several #1s) that became a hit. Nowadays, this person charges people money to watch other people pitch songs to publishers. That's just wrong.
I told them that I had serious issues with the concept of paying for access to people in the industry to listen to my songs. I was told to quit my effing whining, and that truly great writers will find somebody to put up the money for them to attend the "workshops". I still get invitations to attend on a regular basis.