Flattery or Infringement in Songwriting The Complicated History Of Copyright Law in Music Every songwriter has been there. After battling writer’s block for days, the frustrated tunesmith finally strikes gold with the perfect chord progression. They spend hours more, excitedly composing the masterpiece, before eventually realizing that the’ve just rewritten “Hey Jude.” If on the other hand, they’re unaware of the similarity and decide to publish the work, they would be guilty of song infringement! In a universe of infinite Continue

Seven ways to Promote your Songs So, you’ve written and recorded a song you’re excited to release, you’ve prepared the artwork and everything’s ready to go, but how can you promote yourself and make sure people hear your new music? This is an uncertainty for countless indie artists. We can help. Here are some of the latest ways to promote your songs. There will probably be some trial and error involved as you find what works for you and your Continue

Earning Money From Music Sync Licensing What is music sync Licensing and how can you earn money from it? Have you ever watched a commercial or seen a movie that has suspenseful music playing? This is done through a process called music sync licensing. Film companies appoint music supervisors who are in charge of finding music that is perfect for their scenes. They apply to different licensing libraries, partner with music labels, or work with artists directly to fulfil their goals. Continue

What is a lyric? In order to write a perfect lyric, It’s important to realise what a lyric is , or rather what it is not. A lyric is NOT a song. Often people use the word ‘lyric’ and ‘song’ interchangeably. This is not accurate. A lyric is NOT a song, in the same way a poem is not a lyric, nor a song, (just to cloud the issue further, people also confuse poems with lyrics and songs) but we’ll Continue

The Songbay Lyric Writing Competition: How We Chose The Winners The winners of the 2020 Songbay Lyric Writing Competition were announced at the end of last year. The standard was incredibly high and the process of choosing the winners, from a short list of over a hundred and fifty, was a challenge! In this blog post, we reveal some of the thought processess of the judges. We’ll also be sharing the winning and commended entries throughout this article in case you Continue

Feautured Songbay Artist: Mandy Vinson This week we take a look at the work of the winner of the 2020 Songbay Lyric Writing Competition – Mandy Vinson.   “How did you get in to songwriting?” I started writing at a young age, my first song I ever wrote is called “Roses”. I remember asking my brother to give me a topic, any topic to write about. He gave me the title Roses. I remember sitting up in my room that night, Continue

Featured Songbay Artist: Martin Hampton This week we take a look at the work of the runner up of the 2020 Songbay Lyric Writing Competition – Martin Hampton.   “How did you get in to songwriting?” I was given my first acoustic guitar and a John Pearce learn to play guitar book when I was eleven. I drove everyone mad by trying to learn ‘She’ll be coming ’round the mountain’. My fingers were red raw afterwards! Around the early 1970’s  I was introduced Continue

Feautured Songbay Artist: Sheena Hope This week we take a look at the work of Songbay lyricist – Sheena Hope. For the second year in a row, Sheena has been a prize winner in the Songbay Lyric Writing Competition. “How did you get in to songwriting?” I love singing and have been involved in choirs since I was eight years old. I started in a Gaelic choir and one of my first jobs was as a singing waitress at a Jacobean Continue