Determining Singles

[evanmcgill]

Do record labels pre-determine which songs will be released as singles well in advance and in what order, or do they play it be ear?

[mojobone]

It's like makin' babies; it happens pretty much every way it can. Depends on the genre, the label, the artist, the producer, the various managers and agents for the artists/producers. For modern urban records a label or artist may select a producer for one or more singles before the songs are even written. (it's expected that the artist will co-write with the producer or producers) Usually, the A&R person/team, the project's executive producer and artist hash it out, and the label's promotional people decide the plan of attack and where to allocate resources while the finishing touches are being applied to the record, or after it's in the can. Sometimes, bigger labels will use focus groups or surveys to make the determination; on small indies, the artist simply works it out with the label head.

[Len911]

The title said hit songs, I'm wondering how that ties into your question? It sort of implies that the labels pre-determine the hits, and I'm not sure how they play that by ear. If they have deep enough pockets I guess they could buy back the cd's and cause them to be a hit? Of course I've heard a lot of people call songs hits I've never heard of, so maybe the definition of hit changed to a released single.
As you probably surmised, I don't know a thing about the record business,lol!!

[evanmcgill]

I guess I was going for singles are released to be hit songs, so how is it determined which songs are released as singles to become hit songs

[Hookjaw Brown]

I took a page from Futurehits.DNA and I am releasing only singles for a while through CDBaby. The people at CDBaby said that this was 'cutting edge'. I also took the advice of a Taxi member about using Jango Radio to get a feel for how well an audience likes a song, this will tend to indicate what could be a 'hit' single. I put up three songs, with equal play credits and see which one gets liked the most. Also Jango play will give me a clue about putting a sucky song on an album.

It seems that a lot of current 'hits' are promoted to death by the bigs. This does not mean that the 'hit' makes any money.

Before pitching a song as a single hit to a record company it may be wise to see if it flies on a social network or internet radio format. Pre market it and present the song with marketing data.

[mojobone]

There's also Uplaya.com and a couple of sites that use similar technology. I like the idea of removing the human element so the 'decider' can't be influenced by how good looking the band is or what their media profile or web buzz says about them.

[evanmcgill]

When a label signs a song though, are they signing it anticipating a #1 OR are they just anticipating a radio hit or album cut?

[simonparker]

I am not familiar with labels "buying" songs they think are hits, and I only can talk about pop, dance and R&B genres and not country, rap, hip-hop etc because I only work in certain genres. The labels I discuss submitting material to usually have artists that write or co-write most of the songs that appear on their "release" (since CD is no longer a real viable term anymore in the new music business). Any artist that doesn't write, or is open to outside songs usually gets such songs from different point people. For example, there's usually an A&R at the label that is assigned the artist and is on the look-out for songs that are appropriate for the artist. There's managers, publishers, lawyers, etc that are probably working closely with the artist in other matters and adds on responsibility in finding songs that might be appropriate. Then there's the artist themselves that might listen to some songs to choose an appropriate song to record.

So, after the hundreds, perhaps thousands of "viable" songs, the artist then will record maybe 30 or so on the budget they have with the label, and then the "weeding out" process begins, assuming the master recording is "acceptable" by the label, perhaps the 10 to 12 best songs make it onto the release. And these 10 to 12 songs are usually strongly influenced by the A&R of the company. Of those 10 songs or so, perhaps one or two were not written by the artist. There are exceptions, such as Katy Perry and her latest release, where all her songs were outside writers (although I suspect this to incorrect, and that she "wrote" on all songs).... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teenage_Dr ... rry_album), (although Dr Luke/Max Martin, Greg Wells and Stargate are staples for today's pop market and appear on everyone in the pop genre. So to be fair about "outside writers", these writers are on the "inside" with Katy Perry, Ke$ha, etc. Not quite fair, huh?)

So in answer to your question(s), I don't think labels are actively "buying" songs. The outside writers tend to be writers with previous and RECENT track records in the industry, and the label tends to make the decision of the first release they think has the strongest potential of being a "hit".