6 REASONS WHY MANY SONGWRITERS IN THE PHILIPPINES ARE POOR

Songwriters don’t get praised a lot. Oftentimes, the artist or the interpreter gets the credit. Let’s take a test. Can you name at least 10 Filipino songwriters? Gotcha!

I bet most Filipinos never even knew who Levi Celerio is, our National Artist for Music (1997), who wrote over 4,000 songs and recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the only man who could play music with a leaf!

But more painful than not getting enough credit is not getting off financially. Only songwriters who have direct access to record companies, TV shows and production, very popular boxer, err personality pala get rich. Does that mean they are the only GIFTED songwriters God has ever created?

NO! The fact is there is no scarcity of songwriting talent and genius in our country. Someone who used to work for a giant record company (that recently closed shop) even told me that if I were a songwriter in the US, I would have been a multi-millionaire right now, because of the popularity some of my songs gained.

So why is it that many songwriters in the Philippines are poor?

I can cite six reasons why and maybe you can relate to one or all of them:

1. RAMPANT PIRACY AND GROSS DISRESPECT FOR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS

Piracy in the Philippines is very rampant and we can unanimously say it affects many businesses including the Music Industry. In fact piracy has gravely pulled down the Music Industry that several Record Companies which had their heydays in the 80s and 90s closed down. Some of the bigger companies merged just to survive. I don’t own the copyright for these good articles (they are written by different bloggers) but you can check them out if you want to know more details about music piracy in the Philippines:

-Music Piracy and the Philippine Government

-Piracy and its Impact on Philippine Music Industry

-Who Killed The OPM Radio Star

Some record companies have evolved with regard to their marketing and selling strategies. Instead of dwelling on losses from piracy of physical albums, they focused more on managing artists and organizing live shows/concerts. Good for them, they can still earn. 

But how about US, songwriters? Our main avenue for earning is slowly getting sucked up dry by piracy. It is not a lack of good songs or quality of production that created the monster that is Music Piracy. As Dave Aguila, a musician/entrepreneur said in our conversation, it is TECHNOLOGY that is making piracy so hard to stop.

It is so easy to download, burn, and share music nowadays. No one seems bothered because almost everyone is GUILTY. But the truth is THIS: for every song that we copy and share, the songwriter loses profit. Profit that could have motivated him/her to create and produce more beautiful songs. 

But don't lose hope! For every problem, a new opportunity arises. I will talk about it at the end of the blog so please read up till the end (hanggang sa P.S. section hehehe).

Issue of Intellectual Property Rights

Many songwriters don’t see their songs as PROPERTIES. They think of their songs as mere products or commodities. Let me tell you this, your song is borne out of your CREATIVITY. It is VALUABLE! Think of it as a house. You can rent it out for a lower price, but if someone wishes to OWN it, the buyer has to pay a BIG amount because you will be selling to the buyer ALL THE POTENTIAL EARNINGS FROM YOUR SONG. This leads to another reason why most songwriters are poor.

2. MANY SONGWRITERS ARE IGNORANT OF THEIR RIGHTS

When I started writing songs, I didn't think of earning money from it. My dream was just to hear my songs on the radio or on TV. I never realized that as creator of the song, I am entitled to certain rights. Rights that have to be respected and paid for should someone use my song. 

I was very fortunate to have met several people from the music industry who introduced me to these concepts. One of them is Rico Soliman of the group Father and Sons, who became famous in the 90s for their hit song Miss na Miss Kita. He in turn introduced me to Ms. Christine Bendebel, a Song Licensing Manager and herself a prolific composer (Kung Maibabalik Ko Lang and Urong Sulong, both by Regine Velasquez). 

They told me to be careful of any publishing contract that I will sign, specially the fine prints (sections of the contract that needs magnifying glass to read!). Be watchful of the word PERPETUAL or the phrase "in perpetuity". Because it means you are assigning your rights to the other party FOREVER— which in effect means you don’t own the song anymore (yikes!).

Many songwriters are not aware of these rights:

Mechanical Rights – the right to record your song in a particular format and medium (digital/physical CD). You should get paid for this, first through an “advance” payment that has to be recouped or made up and deducted from future earnings of the CD or digital file.

Synchronization Rights – composer should get paid if the song is used as background for TV shows, commercials or movies.

Performance Rights – whenever your song gets played either live or recorded in enclosed venues (particularly malls, bars, and concerts), you are entitled to be paid since it was used for commercial purposes and not for personal consumption. FILSCAP is an organization in the Philippines that acts as a collecting body for songwriters. You might consider joining it, just go to their site.

Print Rights – remember those songhits and song magazines wherein the chords and lyrics of a song are printed? A songwriter should be paid for it too!

I will deal with the above including the details in another blog.

3. MANY SONGWRITERS DO NOT GRADUATE FROM THE FIRST STAGE

I have written about the different stages of songwriting in another blog (click here). Some songwriters remain financially hard up or have not even earned anything from their talent because they do not go beyond the first stage of songwriting or the realization stage. This is supposedly your springboard to a more successful and profitable venture as a songwriter, when you realize that you can actually write songs. Most songs that you create while in this stage are all about yourself and your experiences.

The problem with remaining in this stage is you become stagnant in your own universe. Your talent will not grow if all you can write about is and for yourself. That’s it, you don’t care if nobody can relate to what you are saying. What matters is you are happy with what you’ve done.

But that’s a problem if you want to earn from your songwriting talent. You will have to be sensitive to what others can relate to. Because like any other business, the question you should ask yourself as songwriter is this: do I have a market for my song? In order to have a bigger business and earnings, your song should also have a BIGGER AUDIENCE. You should not only be a plain songwriter. You should be a SONG SELLER! (try saying it, "I am a Song Seller!").

4. MANY SONGWRITERS ARE NOT AGGRESSIVE

This is very much related to number 3. Since some songwriters live in their own universe, they don’t go out and meet people who can help them. They don’t look for mentors who can coach them to improve their songwriting skills. So what they do is write songs about themselves and wait for THE break or opportunity, hoping that it would be given to them on a silver platter.

Or if they submit demos and get turned down they easily get demoralized. If they join a songwriting contest and don’t win, they get discouraged. Trust me, these songwriters will not succeed.

Just like in any aspect of life, you should not lose hope. You should learn to hustle. As author-preacher Bo Sanchez said, if eleven doors are closed, you should look for the 12^th door that is open. There is opportunity out there if you open enough doors! 

Sadly, like Juan Tamad, many songwriters in the Philippines opt to just wait for the fruit to fall down their wide open mouths.

5. MANY SONGWRITERS WORK ALONE

I have also written about this topic in this blog. Most songwriters don’t earn money from their gift simply because they like doing things on their own. They write the melody and lyrics. They play the instrument, sing and record it. They then look for record companies or independent album producers to give their demos to. They do it ALONE.

This is okay if you are an ULTRA GIFTED songwriter/ musician/ singer/ arranger/ mixer/ publisher/ and hustler. But I have seen songwriters and heard demo songs fail simply because either the lyrics is bad, or the vocals doesn’t fit the song, or the song is good but there is no one to market it.

STOP WORKING ALONE!

Find superstar teammates whose strengths are your weaknesses. You’ll be amazed by the results.

6. MANY SONGWRITERS ARE FINANCIALLY IGNORANT

Okay this point is a bit encompassing because it includes even seasoned songwriters who already earned a lot from their songs but are still complaining that they don’t have enough or they are still not financially free.

Let’s say you earn a hundred thousand pesos from your song or jingle, or even a million. Now what? What are you going to do about it? In fact that is not the question many Filipinos ask themselves when they have money in their hands. It is this: WHAT AM I GOING TO BUY?

The truth is many Filipinos, songwriters or not, do not know anything about money. We are generally a FINANCIALLY IGNORANT people. I personally only learned about Financial Education just recently after reading books by Robert Kiyosaki, Robert Allen, Napoleon Hill, Larry Gamboa and Bo Sanchez.

I have earned money from songwriting for the past few years but I wasn’t growing my money and letting it work for me, simply because I don’t know how to! But now, I know more. And I am continuously expanding my content and context.

So there, I encourage YOU to read up on the authors I mentioned, while improving your songwriting skills. I also invite you to become a member of the TRULY RICH CLUB, founded by Bo Sanchez. I’m a member, and you can gain tons of great stuff about improving your core gift and how to handle money. Just click on this link.

May you be successful in your musical venture,

Robster Evangelista

P.S.

Get my Ebook THE SECRETS OF RADIO HIT SONGS AND 10 TIPS ON HOW YOU CAN USE THEM WHEN WRITING YOUR OWN SONGS for FREE!!! Just sign up on the upper left corner of this blog or below and you will receive an email with instructions on how you can download my FREE EBOOK.

YOU WANT TO BECOME A MORE SUCCESSFUL SONGWRITER? STOP WORKING ALONE!

Jesus Christ has the 12 Apostles. Superman has Justice League. Thor and Iron Man have the Avengers. Wolverine has X-Men.  Heck, even Barney has his friends! The list goes on. They were good individually, right? But with their TEAMMATES, they are MAGNIFICENT—more POWERFUL.

LeBron James was heavily criticized when he made The Decision in 2010 to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers to join Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami. He was bashed and laughed at when the Heat lost to the Dallas Mavericks in the 2011 NBA Finals. They said he made the WRONG decision. But after the 2012 NBA Finals which everybody knows the Heat won over the Thunder, nobody is laughing at James anymore. Why? He made his point. He reached his GOAL. He left the Cavaliers because he wanted to become an NBA champion. LeBron knew he cannot do it alone—he has to surround himself with winners, even if it meant he has to take less money. AND HE REACHED HIS GOAL.

BUILD A TEAM OF SUPERSTARS

What does Lebron have to do with songwriting? Hey, I am no Lebron fan but we, songwriters, can learn a lot from what he did. Or even from Superman, Thor, Barney, and Jesus Christ. That is – for you to become more successful, you have to sacrifice something and BUILD A TEAM. Surround yourself with people who are BETTER than you.

WHY? Teams are more powerful, more efficient, and they achieve more than an individual does or can.

Let me tell you my story 10 years ago. I was a struggling composer. Nobody accepted my demos. I even came to a point when I didn’t want to touch or even look at my guitar anymore— I was so depressed! One person even told me, “Robster, no matter what you do, nobody will accept your song!”.

Well, all that changed when I met a very talented person named Benjie Pating. I heard him in the lobby of a recording studio playing with his keyboard and making it sound like a heavy metal guitar. I was so impressed that I told myself, “I have to know this guy!”. So we had a little chitchat and found out that he arranges songs. Just give him a raw demo of your song and he will magically turn it into a high-quality minus one. Some of the artists he has worked with are Luke Mijares, Toni Gonzaga, Mocha, Gretchen Espina, Sexbomb Girls, and a lot more. From that point onwards, Benjie became my sidekick, my trusted arranger.

So there, I realized that my songs were good but when I recorded them they sound bad because I was not a very good instrumentalist! THE REASON I GET NO BREAKS IS I WORK ALONE! I write the lyrics, melody, and record my songs on my own using my not-so-good-sounding guitar. But when I worked with an awesome arranger like Benjie, things changed: producers noticed my songs.

FIND A PERSON WHOSE STRENGTH IS YOUR WEAKNESS AND WORK WITH THAT PERSON!

If you are a good composer of melody but sucks at writing lyrics, then find a good lyricist, and vice-versa! Search for one in your area or in social networking sites. COLLABORATE with them. Never mind if you won’t get 100% credit for the song that you made. BE HUMBLE. Share your glory (and earnings). Sacrifice a little so that you will achieve more.

Your song will not be complete if it’s just melody and lyrics: it has to have accompaniment right? So if you are not good at instrumentation (like me) then you probably need a good arranger like Benjie Pating. Do they charge you for arrangement? YES of course you need to pay them, you made use of their time, effort, and talent!

But think of the benefits that you will get if you get your song arranged by a professional— your song would SOUND PROFESSIONAL too! All the more reason producers will notice you. Arrangers charge different rates depending on the usage (for demos, actual minus one, etc.) and this I will cover in a separate blog. The point is, you should also invest in your creation so that it will be easier to SELL.

GET A GOOD INTERPRETER TO SING YOUR SONG

As songwriters, we all wish to sing our own songs, right? I've been there before! But hey, you have to realize this point: your song may be good but it would sound bad IF YOU ARE NOT A GOOD SINGER! So go get one, have your song sung by a REAL SINGER and record your demo.

We should be humble enough to accept that nobody has a monopoly of talents. If you wish to become more successful as a songwriter, delegate your weakness and utilize the strengths of your teammates.

Aside from saving you headache (and heartaches from ignored demos), building a team will give you these benefits:

1. You save time and money ( you don't need to study how to play certain instruments or how to operate recording equipment and take singing lessons!).

2. You get to share income/profit/recognition (Hey LeBron was so much happier when he won the NBA Championship than when he won the MVP Award, did you notice?).

3. You get to focus on your TRUE STRENGTH, and that is SONGWRITING.

Lastly, let me tell you the story of my former manager at work, Raymund Ryan Santes. I look up to him A LOT. He was the one who inspired me to never stop writing songs because he said I only need ONE song to make it big. Anyway, one day at work, I caught him humming an unfamiliar melody (he doesn’t know how to play any instrument) and then suddenly called for the recording room operator so that he could record the melody with rough lyrics he just made.

Then, Raymund Ryan sent his recorded voice to an ARRANGER who made the demo and had it sung by a real singer. That same rough melody and lyrics became a hit in 2005: GET ME, recorded by MYMP (you may listen to it here). It was in the same manner and procedure that he created other hit songs such as Paalam Na, A Little Bit (also by MYMP), In My Life (Ariel Rivera), among others. Again, Raymund Ryan doesn’t know how to play any instrument. So he found people to work with, those whose strengths are his weaknesses– recording, instrumentation, singing, arranging, mixing, publishing, and promoting. AND HE MADE HITS.

You want to become a more successful songwriter? Get superstar teammates!

May you be successful in your musical venture,

Robster Evangelista

P.S.

Get my Ebook THE SECRETS OF RADIO HIT SONGS AND 10 TIPS ON HOW YOU CAN USE THEM WHEN WRITING YOUR OWN SONGS for FREE!!! Just sign up on the upper left corner of this blog or below and you will receive an email with instructions on how you can download my FREE EBOOK.

HOW TO WRITE SONGS THAT SELL

“You cannot give what you do not have” – from someone with an awesome brain. Honestly, I did my best searching on the net for the person who FIRST said that line, but failed. Anyway, that statement is very powerful because it applies to a lot of things, songwriting included. You want to write songs that sell? Then you have to HAVE songs that sell! HOW???

Mr. Louie Ocampo, a very successful and respected musician in the Philippines, and composer of great OPM hits such as Martin Nievera’s Say That You Love Me and You Are My Song, Gino Padilla’s Closer You and I, Joey Albert’s Tell Me and a whole lot more, said that our brain works like a hard drive of a computer. You store tons of data in it and then when it’s time to download, our brain would spew the same items that we stored in it. So applying that to songwriting, his advice is to LISTEN TO AS MANY HIT SONGS AS YOU CAN! Store your brains with beautiful melodies that were loved by millions so much so that they translated into millions of pesos (or dollars even).

DO NOT DISCRIMINATE. Listen to different genres. Rock, hip-hop, RnB, ballad, novelty, etc. Just store them up in your hard drive, your brain. Subconsciously, you will be familiarized with sounds that hook audiences. It could be the intro, the chorus, the first line of the verse, or it could even be the story of the song—it doesn’t matter. Radio is a good source of these hit songs.

I’m gonna let you in on a secret. You know why album producers come to me to write songs for their artists even if I am not a Vehnee Saturno or a Ryan Cayabyab? Because I have a knack for writing hooks. But how was I able to write these hooks? Because I always listen to the radio, EVERYDAY! In fact, IT’S MY JOB TO LISTEN TO THE RADIO (haha). There, you know my secret. That is my ADDED VALUE as a songwriter. That is my UNIQUE SELLING PROPOSITION to album producers. That’s how I differentiate myself to other songwriters: I can write songs that are RADIO FRIENDLY.

Enough of myself, the point I’m driving at is if you listen to hit songs everyday, you will find it easy to write songs that have the potential to be popular and therefore, sellable. Again, do not discriminate. Some songwriters tend to be hard-nosed “artists”, those who say, “I won’t listen to that, it’s so BADUY”. Or, “I don’t listen to this kind of song because it’s not who I am”. If you are like these people, chances are, you won’t grow. Brendon Burchard, a best selling-author said: you will manifest whatever you expose yourself to. Whatever comes in comes out. So if you immerse yourself with songs that have the LSS factor, the higher the probability that you will write songs that have LSS factor.

Next step is to write your own hit song. Wow, that’s a tough call! Some people ask me, “Robster, when you write songs, where do you start, melody or lyrics?”. My answer, it depends! Sometimes, I start with a title or a concept (e.g. the song I wrote for Wondergays, “Blind Item”, you can listen to it here) and develop the entire song from it. Sometimes I start with a memorable line, e.g. “Kung pwede lang sumigaw ang puso kong ito… (you can listen to it here). Or a story (like my song for Parokya ni Edgar, AMATS, you can listen to it here). There are times when I would just hum and hum to a set of chords, like this very famous chord pattern: D-A-G-A, and then after a few minutes or hours, voila! I have a song!

So how do you start? It depends on your style, mood, or requirement. But I guarantee you, if you have stored enough hit songs in your brain, the right words and melody will just flow out. Don’t worry if eventually you’ll realize that your song sounds like this or that song. It’s a reality you have to accept: WHATEVER COMES IN COMES OUT. You get a part of this song and this song and string it together and make it your own. As Mr. Louie Ocampo maintained, everything we make is BORROWED.

But hey, I’m not saying that you PLAGIARIZE. That‘s an entirely different animal. Plagiarism is intentionally copying another’s work. What you do as a hit songwriter is to be INFLUENCED by other hit songwriters so that you can make your own hit.

There’s a practical way of being influenced by a songwriter. Pick a hit song that you really like and then try to put yourself in the shoes of the composer of that song. If you were the one to say what the song is saying, HOW WILL YOU SAY IT (lyrics) and HOW WILL YOU SING IT (melody)?

Say you choose the hit song by Jose Mari Chan, Beautiful Girl. If you were the one to say the following lines, how do you say them? How do you talk to a beautiful girl?

Beautiful girl, wherever you are

I knew when I saw you

You had opened the door

I knew that I’d love again

After a long, long while

I’d love again

That’s just one way of doing it: get someone else’s topic and express it in your own way/words.

After writing your “hit” song, TEST it. ALL songwriters have the tendency to FALL INLOVE with HIS/HER OWN SONG. That’s understandable, it’s your creation, your baby! But for you to know if your song really has LSS factor (therefore, sellable),  you will need the ears of other people. Get their opinion. As much as possible, get an objective listener. DO NOT GET REACTION FROM YOUR MOTHER, FATHER, GIRLFRIEND, BOYFRIEND, OR WORST SOMEONE WHO OWES YOU MONEY!

I remember writing a song and singing it in front of my mother. She said it’s very good and I believed her! And then I presented the song to Mr. Nonoy Tan, the first person who introduced me to the business side of music. He is the father of Champ Lui Pio (former vocalist of the band Hale), and is likewise a successful producer and composer of hit songs such as My Love Will See You Through and You Made Me Live Again. Anyway, when he heard my song, he told me, “Ayoko ng kantang yan, iho” (I don’t like that song, son). I said “But sir, it’s a beautiful song!”. Sir Nonoy reiterated, “Hindi yan maa-appreciate ng masa, iho, hindi yan bebenta. Kung ipipilit mo ang gusto mo, mas mabuti pa, ilagay mo na lang sa baul ang kanta mo!”. (Your song will not be appreciated by the general public, so it won’t sell. But if you will be hard-headed, it’s better for you to just put your songs in a wooden chest).

Ouch! That hurt a lot! But hey, Mr. Nonoy Tan is a nice guy and he knows what he is saying. So I swallowed my pride, lick my wounds, and went back to the drawing board to write a new song. I have learned a valuable lesson that day: don’t listen to your mother’s feedback. Just kidding! GET AN OBJECTIVE FEEDBACK. Don’t fall inlove too much with your song. Have the humility to accept criticism.

Now, I have one way of testing if my song really has the LSS factor: I let KIDS hear my songs. To be more specific, I let my 2-year old son listen to my songs. If my son dances to my song or hums along with it (even if the lyrics is gibberish) I know that my song has LSS factor. THIS WORKS! Why? Kids do not lie. They are not yet influenced by any social discrimination about which is acceptable or beautiful. Kids do not brand songs (baduy, jologs, corny, cheesy, etc.). They have simple standards. They will dance or sing along with a song that sounds good and easy to remember. Oftentimes, these are the songs that you HEAR ON THE RADIO. These are the songs THAT SELL.

So there, start writing your hit song!

May you be successful in your musical venture,

Robster Evangelista

P.S.

Get my Ebook THE SECRETS OF RADIO HIT SONGS AND 10 TIPS ON HOW YOU CAN USE THEM WHEN WRITING YOUR OWN SONGS for FREE!!! Just sign up on the upper left corner of this blog or below and you will receive an email with instructions on how you can download my FREE EBOOK.