How This Indie Publishing Company Got Over 100 #1 Hits
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This week on the New Music Business podcast, Ari sits down with Chris Farren, Grammy-nominated songwriter and founder of Combustion Music, a Nashville-based music publishing and artist development company responsible for more than 100 number-one hits.
Chris shares decades of experience navigating the music business, from writing hit songs to building a publishing company and developing artists. Ari and Chris break down how professional songwriters get signed, how songwriting rooms work, how publishing deals and advances are structured, and how songwriters earn royalties.
 
Follow Chris Farren:
https://www.instagram.com/combustionmusic/
https://www.combustionmusic.com/
 
Check out Ari’s Take:
https://aristake.com
 
05:54 – Building a music publishing company and developing artists
15:32 – How music publishers pay songwriters
26:07 – Songwriting as a craft: practice, productivity, and getting better
28:16 – Teaching songwriters to write for the market without sacrificing creativity
30:44 – Writing songs for specific artists
32:00 – How artists’ involvement in songwriting has changed
37:58 – How songwriting rooms work
39:15 – Pitching songs and getting them to artists
57:51 – Music catalogs and the renewed life of older songs
58:37 – Advice for aspiring professional songwriters
 
Edited and mixed by Ruben Zarate
Music by Brassroots District
Produced by the team at Ari’s Take
 
Order the THIRD EDITION of How to Make It in the New Music Business: https://book.aristake.com