A&R, Managers and Producers – Hire John To Work With Your Artists
Experience
I’ve been a touring solo performer, songwriter, recording artist, film music composer, commercial jingle writer/producer, teacher, author of the best selling book, The Craft and Business of Songwriting, and was co-founder/director of the Los Angeles Songwriters Showcase for more than 20 years offering creative and business services to thousands of songwriters. Among them are many legendary songwriters who remain friends today.
Coaching
I characterize what I do as coaching. It’s billed on an hourly or project basis. I help writer/artists fine-tune their songs and enhance their own unique styles with an emphasis on increasing the commercial viability of the songs. I offer honest critiques in a supportive and constructive way. If I offer a suggestion I can always explain why.
Advantages
The most obvious benefit is that there is no official collaboration or royalty involvement in any song that is written with my assistance unless specifically offered in writing by the client. I will never ask for songwriting or publishing credit or royalties. I will help the client generate song ideas and fashion them toward making them commercially viable. I will assign specific rewriting tasks to the client, offer suggestions that the client can implement or not, but I will not actually re-write their songs.
Confidentiality
In the process of working with a client to develop song ideas we may explore areas of their personal life that may be sensitive and that they will not wish me to share outside of our working relationship. I have no interest whatsoever in divulging any of this information and no amount of money will buy me.
I will sign any confidentiality agreement. My reputation for honesty is one of my most valuable assets and always has been.
When You Might Want My Services:
Your artist or band gets off the road after a tour and needs to generate new songs ASAP. Artist feels pressured and blocked OR has a ton of bits and pieces of ideas that he/she/they need to sort out and focus in on.
You know your artist is a good writer but still falls short of mass commercial appeal. There doesn’t seem to be a potential hit. You can pair the artist with a great writer/producer who can write for/and with the artist. Or I can work with your artist to help them become a more commercial writer while staying true to their own unique style.
There are competing interests in the band and they need an outside, more objective set of ears to help make decisions about material – or whether songs need more work.
Send me all the songs written for the project and get critiques and suggestions or a big thumbs up for the brilliant stuff.
You need to find new original songs for your artist. I’ll spend enough time with the artist, manager and producer to get all the info I need to find the right songs or enlist successful songwriters to write specifically for or with the artist. Selection of potential hit songs is crucial to the success of an artist and you need someone with the resources and connections to work with you.
Fees: negotiated based on budgets, time constraints, on-call status, amount of time and work required.