What is the Song Funnel?
Aim: To process as many song ideas as possible
If you find you’re putting in your best work and still not getting songs cut, here’s something that might help. In the advertising world, there’s a thing called the “sales funnel.” This is a representation of how individual sales go through several stages:
Awareness
Interaction
Interest
Action
Which finally means resulting in a sale.
Well, just in this similar way, as songwriters, we have our very own version: The Song Funnel. All songwriters have different versions of what that might look like.
Example
In my Organized book, I set out the various creative and commercial processes songs go through from initial ideas through to recognitions (and ideally awards!):
Idea
Writable
Written (draft songs)
Delivered (work tapes)
Demos
Cuts, and, finally
Recognition
In reality, no matter how good your songs may be, there are always way more ideas than final songs that get recognized. I don’t know the percentage of recognition songs versus the number of ideas at the top of the Funnel, but it’s a very low percentage, even for a professional songwriter.
Here’s a picture of what the Song Funnel looks like:
What this Funnel looks like is different for each songwriter, depending on their own process of songwriting, their songwriting journey, and their own definition of success. However, the trick of the Song Funnel, like the sales funnel, is to process as many song ideas as far down the Funnel as possible.
Aim: To process as many song ideas as possible
Many pro songwriters actively manage this process, whether they call it a funnel or not.
Why do so many songs not get cut?
Looking at the Funnel and the Song Chain in Part 2 of my last book, it quickly becomes clear that most of us have very little control over what happens to our songs. For most of my time as a commercial songwriter, I’ve had very little control once a song was given to my publisher. Apart from doing everything I could to make it the best song possible, making use of my publisher’s feedback to make it even better, there was very little I could do to help get it cut. Some of my best songs still are just not cut, and there are a million reasons why:
Supply and demand — it’s not that my songs are not great; it’s just they’re not needed right now
Artists writing their own material
Other writers pitching their songs more aggressively
Geography, timing, and personalities
The number of publishers pitching other songs
Whatever the reasons, a great song doesn’t get cut, the big question is: what does that mean for us as writers? The fact that your great songs don’t get cut doesn’t mean you’re not a great writer, and it doesn’t mean you should not be writing. Cuts are not the measure of your writing; that’s mostly the measure of other people involved in the financial value part of the Song Chain after you send your songs into the world.
So what should you do if they are not cut? As I see it, there are three things you can do:
Write another great song, as soon as you can, maybe one closer at the edge of the table
Every now and again, review your catalog and enjoy the songs you’ve written
Think about whether there could be any new opportunities for your songs
Enjoying the journey is the best reason to write more songs. After all, the journey matters more than the destination.
Question
Here are a few questions for you –
What processes do you use with your song ideas?
How many ideas do you write into finished songs?
What more can you do to help shift your song ideas through the Funnel?
Are there opportunities of connecting with people who could also move your songs through the end of the Funnel?
Hope this helps!
Simon.