Review of the Song Tipsheet SongQuarters
By David Goldstein
When you’re ready to take the training wheels off your bicycle, SongQuarters (http://www.songquarters.com) is probably the next best song tipsheet semi-professional and professional songwriters and record producers upgrade to. Like the grandpa of song tipsheets Songlink, SongQuarters features dozens of solicited song placement opportunities in any given year. That means, a number of A&R’s or artist managers have asked SongQuarters to let their members know that they are looking for songs for their artists.
However, unlike Songlink, SongQuarters also features a number of unsolicited music placement opportunities also. So for example, when Rihanna starts working on a new album, SongQuarters members might also see a lead for Rihanna. The disadvantage of an unsolicited lead is that the A&R does not necessarily want SongQuarters members to pitch their songs. However, if you’re more experienced and know how to approach A&R’s directly that’s not an issue. After all, the best leads in the business are usually unsolicited. What’s valuable – particularly for professional music publishers and successful songwriters and record producers – is the lead itself. It’s knowing which artist has started working on a new album and might need songs or collaborators interested in co-writing with them.
For amateurs, however, SongQuarters’ unsolicited leads might prove to be a dead-end black box as A&R’s rarely respond to unsolicited song pitches and might hit the delete button as soon as a pitch enters their email box. So you really would want to be a bit more experienced when pitching to those leads.Having said that, the overall quality and quantity of leads on SongQuarters are a notch better when you consider the unsolicited leads published in its song tipsheet. That’s because you regularly see recording artists signed to the major record labels Sony, Universal, Warner, etc. which is something you do not often see on Songlink.
For that reason, I believe SongQuarters is a step-up from Songlink, but again, only for those of you who are more experienced. Up-and-coming songwriters and amateurs may prefer to stick to Songlink’s solicited leads. But semi-professionals and professionals definitely would want to try out SongQuarters to play in the major leagues.In summary, I recommend SongQuarters as an alternative to Songlink for semi- and professional songwriters, record producers and music publishers. Amateurs might want to stick to David Stark’s Songlink until they know how to approach A&R’s and artists directly.
