"In the music industry, success is surviving," says Bruce Burch. He began in Nashville as a songwriter in the late 1970's. It took him five years to get a song recorded, still longer to have one break into the top 10, then Reba McEntire took his "Rumor Has It" to #1 in 1990. He has written for Faith Hill, George Jones, Aaron Neville, T. Graham Brown, the Oak Ridge Boys, and many others over his career. He ran his own publishing company, worked as an executive of EMI publishing and now heads the Music Business Program at the University of Georgia's Terry College of Business. He survived.
What's his best advice to a wannabe songwriter?
"You have to have an education," he says, qualifying that he's not talking strictly about a college education. He had a college degree when he arrived in Nashville, but he didn't know what he was doing. "People get into the music industry because it's fun and they like music and it can be exciting. But I didn't know how much money I could or how much money I wouldn't make."
Pure songwriters are a dying breed. Many performers are singer/songwriters and are reluctant to look beyond their own catalogs to record. Also the priorities have changed. Publishers used to develop writers and pitch their songs to the record labels. Labels developed artists, helping them polish their looks and their sound, picking songs for them. In the last 10-20 years, record/CD sales have dropped and the labels don't always have the resources to develop artists so now publishers are."There will always be a place for pure songwriters, but it's just harder to make a living at it," Burch says, adding that knowing other aspects of the industry can help songwriters stay in the business. "Become a producer. Especially in urban music, the producer has a lot of control over the music." Another suggestion for a songwriter who doesn't want to perform is to team up with an artist, especially one starting out. Build your careers together.
Other resources he offers to songwriters or anyone interested in the music industry are the websites www.artistshousemusic.org and www.starpolish.com (then click "resources") and the books All You Need to Know About the Music Business by Donald Passman and Music, Money and Success by Jeffery and Todd Brabec. Both books are available online at Barnes and Noble.
How did he get into the music business?
While in college, Burch heard a Kris Kristofferson song that blew him away. He taught himself to play guitar and shortly after he began writing his first song. After graduation in 1975, he went to Nashville. He wrote for a publisher for a while, often teamed with co-writers.
"I got really desperate to get some songs recorded and if you sit around waiting on a publisher to pitch your songs, it doesn't get done," he explains, "I got to the point where I thought I was probably the best salesman of my own songs. I got so good at it that I started my own company." He had been with his publisher about five years by then, writing maybe 100 songs a year.
He ran his company for another five years when another publisher approached him and asked him to work for them and pitch other people's songs. His own songwriting drop dramatically.
"I miss the process of writing, but I don't miss having to go out there and hear 'no' 90% of the time."
Why head up a music business program?
Burch began teaching while still in Nashville. Belmont University had a big music business program which brought him in to teach some classes on publishing music. He says that it surprised him how much he knew about the industry simply because he had been in it so long and had done so many things.
"I couldn't believe that Athens (and UGA - his alma mater) didn't have a program." Athens has a rich music history, launching bands like the B-52s, REM, Drive by Truckers and others. So Burch approached the dean of the Terry College of Business in 2002, who was immediately excited about the idea of a music business program here.
It took about four years to get it up and running. Now he is teaching junior and seniors about the secrets to success in the industry. He uses his contacts to bring in music professionals to give the students insider views and personal experiences so they might be better prepared than he was nearly 35 years ago.
The program is totally donor-funded so 50% of his job is fund-raising, and he's further away from his songwriting roots. But that's OK.
"I've written about 5000 songs that I could pull out and pitch to get recorded," he says. "This is my baby now. My priorities have changed."
To learn more about the UGA music business program, click here.
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