Being able to write songs is an exceptional skill to have. While many of the most famous musicians of all time also wrote the lyrics to their own songs a lot of the time, there have also been some brilliant lyricists who weren’t notable musicians in their own right.

Bernie Taupin would be one such example. Although he has released his own records both as a solo artist and as a member of a group, he is more widely known for being the writer behind some of Elton John’s biggest and best known tracks. Likewise, the Stock Aitken Waterman partnership in the late 80’s and early 90’s weren’t known for their own abilities with an instrument or a mic, but even if the types of songs they produced weren’t your cup of tea, it is impossible to argue against their success.

Being a songwriter was once a very lucrative career, particularly if you had a talent for doing it and were tone deaf yourself and wouldn’t ever make it as a musician in your own right.

Are things the same today?

Modern Song Writing

In terms of the opportunities song writing can present, you could argue these are still applicable today. However, the way the music industry has changed, with the majority of music purchases now made digitally rather than in physical form, has had a knock on effect on songwriters. We also need to consider that many people simply aren’t actually buying music anymore.

If you’re a musician who writes all your own material and you own it all, then you probably aren’t affected too much, as you’ll get paid when your record sells anyway. However, musicians and songwriters find themselves in the same boat when it comes to problems caused by music streaming platforms and YouTube.

Are Songwriters Missing Out?

An article published on the BBC News website looks at whether songwriters can survive and thrive in the new digital landscape, giving the example of advertising revenues from Spotify and YouTube not being enough to ensure everyone sees a fair return. When the ad revenues are paid out, it’s likely the record company and the artists are the ones getting paid first. Many observers might think that is fair enough, but when the songwriter is essentially the foundation of the song, this surely needs to be rebalanced.

Another example given, and something else that the BBC looked at earlier this year, is the case of Kevin Kadish, who co-wrote Meghan Trainor’s smash hit All About That Bass with the artist herself, but received under $6,000 despite the song being streamed 178 million times. At time of writing, the video for the song had over 1.1 billion YouTube views, too.

Will Artists Taking a Stand Help?

Global superstars are starting to look closer at how streaming services affect them. Taylor Swift and Adele are just two artists who have taken a stand, and while they are primarily protecting themselves there is no question the consequences of their actions will lead to more money for songwriters, too. However, songwriters can still wait as long as two years before they see any money from hit songs, and although this timeframe is likely to reduce in the near future, songwriters will still find themselves waiting behind the record label and artist for payment, depending on the terms of their publishing agreement.

The answer for songwriters? Keep writing, but make sure you sign a publishing deal with a label or artist that will stand up for themselves, and by extension, yourself.

For budding songwriters there are also several websites where you can sell your song lyrics.

Music has the power to inspire.

For musicians, the power to inspire others through what they create is an incredible feeling. If listening to music and going to gigs and clubs has inspired you to start making your own music, it can be difficult to know where to start.

Understanding the instrument that would suit you and that you would enjoy playing most is the first step on your musical journey, whether you see yourself playing for a hobby or potentially becoming a professional musician one day. While you might automatically think “guitar” there’s a wide range of opportunities available in the music world whatever instrument you play.

How can you help yourself to choose the right instrument for you?

What are Your Musical Tastes?

If you love listening to bands like Metallica or the Foo Fighters, it’s highly likely that you’re going to want to play the instruments these bands use. It is listening to these bands in the first place that has likely inspired you to want to play music at all, so you may automatically gravitate towards the guitar, the bass, or the drums.

It isn’t unheard of for musicians to play instruments outside of their own tastes, but this usually occurs if they’ve started playing a particular instrument at school. If you enjoy heavier music, you can still choose an instrument that you wouldn’t normally associate with a particular genre if you have a passion and affinity for a particular instrument.

If you want to get super creative, you could always choose such an instrument then look to adapt and play it in the style you enjoy.

What do You Want to Do?

While people choose to play the guitar because it’s seen to be cool, one of the often unspoken about reasons why guitar is so great is because you can pick it up, put it in its carry case, and take it anywhere you want. If you’re planning to play gigs or join a band then you may need to consider ease of transportation when choosing an instrument. Guitars and anything smaller are always great as you can take them anywhere. Most brass instruments fall into this category, too.

Think about your reason for wanting to play an instrument. If you want something to do for a hobby then something like a piano is brilliant, and it doubles up as a stunning piece of furniture for your home.

How Will You Learn?

One of the best things about playing an instrument is that your learning opportunities are highly varied. Whether it’s from a book, hiring a tutor, or investing in online music lessons here at Pro Music Tutor, how you learn to play an instrument will depend on numerous things, not least your own ability to pay, although you should focus more on your own learning style and how you feel you’d become better, quicker.

If hiring a tutor to come to your home is out of the question, or you are unable to travel to a tutor yourself, that may influence your decision making, as could your ability to access the internet when you wish to, or the affordability of books and DVD’s for certain instruments.

How to Choose an Instrument

While factoring all these points in, you should focus most of all on an instrument that is going to keep you passionate and interested, and something that you will want to play for many years to come.

Depending on your personal preferences when it comes to a night out, standing in a cramped music venue listening to a band you’ve perhaps never heard of is often a million times better than standing in a nightclub using bad strobe lighting and an even worse smoke machine.

Sometimes we would have heard about a band due to a preview in the NME, often derided as the hipster magazine of choice before hipsters even became a thing/derogatory term. Other times we’d have friends who had heard about a band, or knew someone, or sometimes we’d just get used to hanging out in pubs that had lists of bands that were playing every weekend.

Most of the UK adult population today will have some memory of attending a live music event of some sort. Yet, there are fears this won’t be the case for the current generations of teenagers and younger children.

BBC Newsbeat reported earlier this week that Jeff Horton, who runs the legendary 100 Club on London’s Oxford Street, said the continuing closures of music venues in the UK meant this aspect of the industry was reaching crisis point.

He reportedly said, “Without places like the 100 Club and other grassroots venues, where are tomorrow’s headline acts going to come from? You can’t keep churning out the same old acts, which you can already see is happening.”

There are various reasons why music venues in London and around the UK are closing at pace. A number of amazing clubs and venues have closed in London purely due to the Crossrail development, which is one of the modern and unique reasons in among the usual closures due to noise pollution or clubs being an unprofitable venture.

Some of the venues that became famous for “club nights” and “open mic” nights have been fortunate enough to find residencies elsewhere, but these are now maybe one night a week, if they’re lucky, in a pub or club somewhere else in London.

Despite the concerns of Horton and others across the music industry, there are still plenty of places across the UK where you can go and enjoy live music by bands that have a serious chance of making it big. Our own James Morton regularly plays to large crowds in venues all across Bristol, while back in London it’s almost impossible to have a night out in Camden Town without experiencing a live band. The problems will come when closures reach such a point that bands cannot get bookings because popular venues in the best locations are all booked months in advance.

For all the NME has its critics and is struggling to remain relevant as a print publication, it is difficult to argue against what good it does for the emerging music scene.

It’s probably too much to say live music is dying, but if venues keep disappearing there will fast become a disconnect between audience and musicians, and soon gigs will be reduced to live recordings in a garage being uploaded onto YouTube.