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Explore music has recently published the results of a poll determining the scariest theme songs in film. As a songwriter i find this list as an invaluable tool that you can use to compare songs in your library that you have deemed scary. Take a listen to each song in the list, most can be found on Youtube, and listen carefully to what instruments are being used and how they are being used, then mimmic these styles and sounds in your productions. Music supervisors are constantly basing their selections off of similar sounding songs, so having songs that mimmic the top 5 should definitely help with increased placements. Remember good artists copy, great artists steal. Landing at number 1 by the way, Psycho Theme (Psycho) by Bernard Hermann.

What exactly does a music library do. Music libraries are becoming more important to the indie musician as money gets tighter and the demand for indie placements rises. Songplacements.com is now the premier music library in southern California, helping artists land opportunities previously only available to the majors. With that being said, the insider has a great piece on exactly what a music library is and does. Knowing how company's such as Songplacements.com operate empowers you, the independent musician, allowing you to better exploit our services, and hopefully land more placements!

Radio isn't just for listeners anymore the RAB (http://www.rab.com/) CEO Jeff Haley is calling for a further commitment for radio station to start encoding their broadcasts with Song tagging technology, proving that the radio is no longer just for ears but for the eyeballs as well. The iPod Nano and Zune music players are both FM enabled devices that would provide a perfect opportunity to display the encoded signals, including song names. The overall idea is to drive more song purchases and awareness at the radio level, an even stronger indication that radio is still an effective medium for songwriters.

Came across this article that will definitely increase successful placements. I particularly like the points of saving money with a home studio, building a library, and finding a song writing partner to help compensate for any weaknesses, that you may have.

Tired of creating songs that sound too much alike? Add a partner to the group. The ideas that a partner can bring to the table and they way that they work through and create songs can bring you all of the orginal flava that your new music has been craving.

In a panel discussion at the CMJ Music Marathon the Path of a Hit Song seemed to be highlight of the event. Those panelists who have had Hit Song success say that radio is key. Mass hits come from mass exposure. READ MORE.

Pre Mastering Last week we saw a lot of interest in our mastering explained article, so this week we thought we would being you the prequel of mastering explained, preparing your songs for the mastering process. These tips are in no way a doit yourself guide for getting your songs to killer quality. Mastering should be done by the master, mixing should be done by the professional, let these tips serve as a guideline for being able to participate in the conversation with whomever you've hired to take your recording to the next level. http://musicproducersforum.wordpress.com/2010/02/03/tips-for-the-mix-to-the-master/#more-693

Suspend Vocal Technique Momentarily Have You heard those songs when it sounds like the vocalist is whisper-singing and wondered "man how do they do that". It's not quite singing and its definitely not a full blown whisper, its actually a track that a lot of Pop vocalists keep in their bag of tricks. Vocal Coach Judy Rodman has some bad news for you wannabes, the trick can either be executed expertly or poorly. I'm guessing the poor one sounds like somebody choking on a rice grain. To find out more about delivering vocals with authentic emotion rather than just "singing" head over Judy's blog and check out a couple videos.

1. The best approach is slow and cautious. Right now, we are in the jungle. In the jungle, you don't rush blindly ahead. You dip a toe in the sand, and see if you sink. We have no hope of predicting which of these services might catch on. We need to move slowly, with very short-term agreements and see what works and what fails. And we need to be sure not to undermine our other business partners while we do that. Which leads to… 2. We should support our allies and punish our enemies. Rob McDaniels for InGrooves estimates that it takes 150-200 streams of one song to equal the royalty income on a single download. Right now, our industry still relies on the sale of physical product (believe it or not, it's still the primary source of revenue) and on digital downloads. Perhaps streaming is the future. Perhaps not. But we would be very unwise to cut ridiculously low-cost rates to a business model that obviously threatens both physical retailers and iTunes. Let's take care of the people paying our bills. At the same time, we should continue to press ahead with legal efforts against things like Pirate Bay- efforts that are finally starting to show some results. 3. We need to recognize that "bundling" and ad-revenue sharing is a marriage, and it works both ways. If we bundle the cost of music access into the cost of a mobile phone or the sale of a computer, we're now not only in the music business, we're in the electronics business. Any economic factors that hurt the sales of phones and computers will now hurt us as well. 4. Most of all, we need transparency in the negotiations and setting of rates, so that everyone in the music community understands what they're being paid and how it's being calculated.

An organized hustle for placements.

Are you a the visual type? I am, thats why this chart comparing all of the online music distributors is freakin awesome. If your new to the world of online distribution then let this chart be your roadmap to thousands if i dare say millions of sold songs.

The Nydailynews says that radio is not supposed to be here right now. First, the TV was supposed to kill the radio by changing it from an audio to a visual medium, that didn't work so much. Then MTV was supposed to be the radio killer back promoting a product that sucked the magic out of songs by pre-empting the listener's imagination - again the radio withstood the test of time. To be fair MTVs claim was that television and radio could work together, promoting and enhancing the other and thats exactly what happened. iPods, and social media are the disruptive technologies now but something tells me many other mediums will kick the bucket before our good ol friend the radio lays its head to rest.

could apple be creating some form of radio experience that allows users access to any song you want, whenever you want it, from wherever you are using whatever device you choose? could we be headed towards the mass distribution of streaming music services and Internet-delivered radio?

Labels - 0, Songwriters - 1 In a historic deal between labels and songwriters the national music publishers association has come away with a major win in an agreement that will see labels forking out the monies from "pending and unmatched accounts" that are set up in cases where a publisher has not been located by a record label, or an ownership dispute over a song. This is good news for the industry because publishers and labels are finally beginning to see eye to eye.

Pt. 2 of the path of a hit song with references.

Forget the Record Deal, What about the Publishing Deal. While labels are understandably trying to mitigate their risk, by targeting artists who are already as "developed" as possible, it seems that publishers have taken on greater roles as nurturers of talent. Taylor Swift go her start by honing her songwriting abilities under the guidance of Arthur Buenahora at Songy/ATV Music publishing. Keri Hilson speaks about having first developed as a songwriter with Universal Music Publishing, and how that experience helped her launch her solo career with Interscope Records. HERE is a full interview with Eric Beale, who began his tenure in the industry as a songwriter, writing songs for the Jacksons and Diana Ross. Hopefully this interview gives you some further insight into the world of publishing and some hints on how you can either get into the publishing business as a working artist or as a career, helping other artists hone their skills!

If you're singing your own demos...STOP! I'm sure you have all heard of Murphys Law, right? Well have you heard of Murphys Laws of songwriting? Probably not, so let me acquaint you. Ralph Murphy is currently ASCAP's Vice-President of International and Domestic Membership, as well as a legendary songwriter and publisher with more than twenty number One hits under his Levi's. I stumbled across his website the other day and came across this article outlining why it is best not to sing your own demos, and the reasons are not "obvious". Head over to Ralph Murphy's website to check out the advantages of not singing your own demos as well as many more valuable pieces of advice on crafting your hit song, like [this one] for example.

are you a Indie twitter musician, then maybe this tweetmysong service can help get move your music from hard-drive to world wide

The Great Balancing Act Between Art and Business Both art and music require a great deal of energy and time, the balance is how and where you spend it. There are many different factors that go into creating a successful business around your music, including record keeping and bookkeeping. The insider has a great post about the difference between these two chores as well as some good advice on multi tasking business and music creation. Einstein said that one definition of insanity was repeating your actions and expecting different outcomes, if you wanna try a new approach to being a successful songwriter then all you gotta do is READ MORE.