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Songwriting Articles

Entertainment Cyberscope
by Jerry Flattum, CyberAstronomer

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Search Engines & Major Portals

There are specialized search engines and databases (SEE Databases-Film; Databases-Music) but many of the commercialized search engines are quite powerful. Many search engines are multiple search engines in one.

Use your browser's bookmarking capabilities.

1Reader

About

About Internet Keywords - Netscape

Alexa

AltaVista

AltaVista - Image Search

Ask Jeeves

Backflip

Brint

CDNet

Copernic

CUI

CUI Search Engines

CUI Software Tools to Access Information Servers

CUI W3 Search Engines

Dogpile

Earthlink

eLibrary

Encyclopedia Briannica

Excite

Expedia

Ferret

FindArticles

Fortune

Go

Good Keywords

Google

Hotbot

Internet FAQ Archives

Internet FAQ Consortium

Library of Congress

Lycos

Maple Square (Canadian Search Engine)

Metacrawler

Microsoft Corporate

Microsoft Network

MyPlay (also a digital music subscriptions service)

Pay Per Click Search Engines

Netscape

Netscape NUGgies

Project Gutenberg

Real Cities

Reference Desk

Search Engine Watch

Search Engines Worldwide

Silverplatter

STAT-USA

SubmitWizard - Network Solutions

TheGlobe

Thomas Register

Tucows

Union of International Associations

WebBrain

W3 Search Engines

Webmonkey

Webocracy

Webcrawler

What Is

Yahoo

Yahoo Geocities

Yahoo - Searching the Web

yourDictionary

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Songwriting

Obviously Muse's Muse is a premier songwriting website. This portal of the EC will strive to supplement Muse's Muse with some unavoidable duplication.

A listing here does not imply an endorsement.

Warnings are in order. Beware of sites that claim they can teach you how to write a hit song. The same applies to song critique sites and song placement sites. Many of these sites are far removed from the actual decision makers in the industry whose job is to find new material and new artists.

The worst mistake any songwriter can make is to try and sell or showcase their material in front of the wrong people. A heavy metal producer is unlikely to be a good judge of your country tune not because of prejudice but more so because of preference.

Songs are highly personalized and so are the opinions of the people who listen, produce, and buy those songs. What is a hit to one person is a rejection by another.

Beware of the comments you hear: "The intro is too long." "No one wants to hear a song about growing up on a farm." "June and blue don't rhyme." "You need a guitar solo." "You need to write dance music." "Where's the hook?"

Are there weak melodies, weak lyrics, weak vocals and weak productions? Perhaps, but it never stopped songs containing these mishaps from becoming hits. Is Bruce Springsteen a great songwriter? What if you don't like Bruce Springsteen? If you LOVE Springsteen, then most likely any intro will never be too long. Are rap lyrics and Shakespearean poetry similar? Opinions vary greatly as to what constitutes a good lyric or what is poetry and what is fodder.

Be unique.

American Songwriter - Articles

American Songwriter Magazine

Guild of International Songwriters and Composers

Independent Songwriter Web-Magazine

International Lyrics Server (Songfile)

Jason Blume

Jeff Mallet's Songwriter Site

John Braheny

LyricDepot

LyricFind

Lyrics World

Nashville Songwriters Association International

Nashville Songwriter's Foundation - Songwriter Hall of Fame

New York Songwriters Circle

Northern California Songwriters Association

Paramount Group

ProAudioMusic.com - Songwriting Resources

Real Lyrics

Seth Jackson

SongFile

SongLink

SongScope

Songwriter Associations - Beaird Music Group

Songwriters Association of Canada

Songwriters, Composers and Lyricists Association

Songwriters Directory

Songwriters Resource Network

Songwriters Showcase of America

Songwriters Webring - Jukebox

Songwriting Education Resource

Songwriting.Org

SongwriterUniverse

Unisong

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Talent Agencies

Many of the major talent agencies do not have an online presence. Of the top three major talent agencies ICM and CAA do not have websites. William Morris does. Surprisingly, Ford Modeling Agency has a site.

There are thousands of talent agencies, modeling agencies and casting agencies. Unless you're a major star or you were born with a silver spoon, if you're looking for an agent--start small.

Agents pose the classic dilemma facing artists across all realms of entertainment: You can't get a job without an agent and you can't get an agent without a major credit. Many guilds require commercially released work before membership, with associate memberships meaning very little in terms of earning income.

If you are not a performer and you want to sell a song to a major artist, how do you get them to listen to your song? The EC attempts to reveal some of the secrets behind this mystery but only from a broad perspective. Generally speaking, agents, agencies and professional guilds happen after the fact.

The entertainment industry has created some of the most famous humans in history. The agencies that represent these artists are as protective over their clients as governments are over kings, queens and presidents.

Major talent agencies, like ICM, William Morris, et. al., are the industry's power brokers. Negotiating talent contracts crosses the lines of technology and entertainment, where producers, technicians, software developers and IT specialists intertwine and and interweave in an ever increasing matrix of the entertainment industry's talent pool. Bill Gates has no less a profile than Al Pacino.

Talent is morphing. Numerous music artists have turned film stars and many film stars have released top 10 hits. Music video is a training ground for many new Hollywood filmmakers. Other conversions or multi-role players include Thomas Dolby, musician extraordinaire turned technologist and now famous for the Beatnik Player (SEE Technology - Media Players). When actors like Robert Redford turn to directing and producing, they have much to say about the film's soundtrack.

Music producers and engineers contribute immensely to an artist's final product. And when they don't, the artist takes over the engineering and producing duties. From Todd Rundgren to Prince, many artists have embraced the combined roles of artist and technologist, producing their own original work while producing others as well.

Like corporations, artists who diversify successfully become bigger celebrities. The bigger they are, the more they need high-powered brokers to do their bidding.

AFTRA

About.com (Search Engine - list of talent agencies)

Contracts, Wages and Working Conditions - SAG

EntertaiNet (includes other source listings)

Ford Modeling Agency

MusicBizBuzz (A global resource covering many areas with multi-lingual translation capability)

North American Performing Arts Managers and Agents

SAG Franchised Agents

William Morris Agency

Worldwide Internet Music Resources - Agents and Artists Services

Yahoo (Search Talent Agencies using the Yahoo Search Engine)

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Jerry Flattum is a songwriter (BMI), screenwriter, freelance writer, book writer and singer/keyboardist/arranger. Jerry has written Bridge On Fire: A Holistic Journey in Song Creation. Bridge On Fire is a comprehensive manual on songwriting from the technical, social, cultural and entertainment industry perspectives. The book will be published by Publish America in 2005 and available through major and other retail outlets. In 2002, Jerry wrote a full-length feature comedy, 7/11 Pair-O-Dice Road for Lear Entertainment (Las Vegas). Several screenplays are in-progress: The Acrobat; Watertown, South Dakota; Lars; Out of Context; Amazon Moon and others. He has written the story, music and lyrics for Time Travelers in the Celestial Age, a screen/stage musical loosely based on H.G. Well’s, The Time Machine. As a freelance writer, he has covered live shows for e-Vegas.net, the Las Vegas film scene for Callback, and written several articles for Musesmuse.com, Script Magazine and others. Jerry has worked as a singer/keyboardist in several bands throughout New York, the Twin Cities, and on the road. Prior business experience includes CBS, Harry Fox Agency, Samuel French Play Publishers and other indie ventures. He has a self-designed BS in Songwriting (graduating Phi Kappa Phi) and a Masters in Liberal Studies (U of MN). Jerry is a member of the Songwriters Guild of America, the Nashville Songwriters Association, and the International Songwriters Association. He is soon to become a member of the National Writers Union and plans are to join the Authors Guild and the Writers Guild of America. He is also launching JerryFlattum.com in October 2004, featuring original songs and other works. This site will interface with SongCatalog.com, an online service designed to connect songwriters with song buyers.

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