Blog

Making the most of your NSAI Mentoring Session

We asked one of our NSAI Mentors and pro-songwriter, Mason Douglas to share his advice on preparing for your next mentoring session! In this blog post, he offers three exercises to make the most of your time with one of our mentors and how to handle feedback and constructive criticism.

NSAI Member Testimonial featuring Daniel Leathersich

In light of NSAI Membership Month, we asked a few of our members to share how they've utilized NSAI's community to become better at their craft and connect with other songwriters in their area!  

 

Aren’t blogs the greatest?  How else would the wide world learn about the night-life habits of owls or how to appreciate fine art?  In fact, the first time I heard about NSAI was through someone’s personal blog.  I’ve long-since forgotten the name of it – but that chance internet search was the start of my current songwriting path.

NSAI Member Testimonials: Emily Kroll & Chris Housman

In light of NSAI Membership Month, we asked a few of our members to share how they've utilized NSAI's community to become better at their craft and connect with other songwriters in their area!  

I’ve been a member of NSAI for the past two years. I was encouraged to join by a mentor who told me it would be a great place to meet co-writers and learn more about the music industry.

4 Key Ingredients to a Pro Music Production

Contributed by songwriter/producer and musicprenuer, Seth Mosley

Here are my 4 key ingredients to a pro music production. These will help your tracks to be radio-ready and to get the attention of music industry professionals.




2018 ole Chapter Challenge Winners Announced

Congratulations to our Ole Chapter Challenge Winners! Your songs will go to the next round in which NSAI’s listening team will narrow down the top songs to send to Ole. The songs will be sent to Ole in mid-June and then the ball is in their court. This Chapter Challenge has been a blast and we have found some incredible talent through it! Thanks for all of you who participated.

Building Relationship with Music Supervisors

In light of this month’s sync theme, we’re featuring two pieces of advice for sync writers by multi-award winning songwriter/producer/publisher, Jeff Cohen.

Anatomy of a great lyric

This blog post was contributed by Connie Harrington, Songwriter & Co-Owner of THis Music, Nashville, TN
 
I’ve written songs since I was 13 and still sometimes I feel like I’m just starting to figure how to write lyrics.
 
It evolves, music evolves - but for the most part, there is still a “craft” to it that I revere. Nothing is more satisfying to me than “getting a lyric right.” Words are powerful and when chosen wisely fueled by inspiration, they can be eternal.  So I do not take words lightly.
 

Patience and Perseverance 101


I was asked to write about how patience and perseverance paid off as a songwriter to achieve my first #1, “Better with Time”, with a young performing songwriter, Billy Droze. As all overnight success stories begin, mine began in 1961. Don’t worry, I’ll fast forward through most of the fifty six years I’ve been honing my craft. There are many twists, turns, cliffs and curves in my intriguing adventure of a lifetime so please take the time to read the full story. It’s about patience and perseverance. 

Inside ole majorly indie : with Emily Olson

We recently visited with Emily Olson, Creative Director at the ole Nashville office! In this blog post, she dives into the publishing strategies at ole and characteristics of a songwriter ready to pursue a publishing deal. Come this April, we will be accepting submissions for the NSAI ole Chapter Challenge! Olson also shares tips on what to consider when submitting songs for this competition.