Why Aren’t You Having a Hit?

1. Do you know what a hit actually is? This is not a trick question, my friend; however, it is the most important question on this list. Do you know what the actual destination, finish line, and targets are for what a hit song is and should sound like?

If you don’t know what a hit actually is, how are you going to know the target?

How can we get to the destination if we don’t know exactly what it is?

And let’s be real: who knows what a hit is today? But historically, certain things show up again and again. Also, if you truly want to be doing this, in my opinion, you need to know the “songbook of the greats” and the masters who have come before you.

You need to study so you actually know what a hit is in the first place.

Solution 1: The Songwriting Vocabulary Expander. This is a lost art and, in my opinion, ESSENTIAL to your success. Especially for newer songwriters and artists, the songwriting vocabulary you carry with you may often be limited. So we need a better foundation to know what the actual targets are.

Solution 2: Change your environment and inputs immediately. If your inputs are TikTok, the random “Best New Music” playlists, and whatnot, your targets are going to be skewed to basically junk. Instead, change your inputs and your environment. You can immediately do this by swapping out from those playlists and immersing yourself in playlists like “Rolling Stones Top 500 Songs” or the “Billions Club” on Spotify.

If you believe the saying that your success is equivalent to the average of your five best friends, then you also need to change “the song friends” that set the internal barometer of your songwriting.

2. Do you know the ingredients for a hit song? This is the second most important question and it directly ties into the first question. I’ve said this before, but if you want to bake a cake, you need to know what ingredients actually go into that cake. It cannot be a guess. Obviously: eggs, flour, sugar, yeast, flavoring, and so on. If you don’t know the ingredients and throw random things in, you’ll end up with a ham sandwich. Clearly this is not what you want. Knowing the ingredients of a hit song is not just a recommendation; it’s a non-starter. Solution: Check out the Insider Secrets to Hit Songwriting course, or get a quick start on the three most important yet rarely discussed hit-song elements here.

3. Do you know the answers to questions 1 and 2 but haven’t implemented them? Why? What’s holding you back? Hell, maybe you do want a ham sandwich instead of that cake you’re baking? Again, as Mike Koenigs said: “You’re closer than you think. You’re farther away because of your thinking.” You may have even heard me say this time and time again. But why hasn’t action been taken to get you where you need to go? Why hasn’t this been implemented? Most people wait too long, until the last minute or when it becomes clearly obvious that something isn’t working. You don’t have to wait for that moment. Make the navigational changes now.

4. Do you get sucked into your co-writers’ vortex and narrative for the session? In other words, do you get run over in the session and become complacent and nice in accepting your collaborators’ lower-energy ideas? Or do you have a strong enough frame in the session to stand up for what you believe in? Think of all those sessions where you weren’t 100% on board with the song and the session direction in the first place.

Having a stronger frame is something many of us need to work on. Solution: Not Nice by Dr. Aziz Gazipura, a must-read. This also applies to saying no to sessions where you can already predict the likely outcome. Instead, consider taking the time you would have invested in those sessions and committing it to your song-learning curriculum: (a) analyze, learn, and then (b) model those hits! Remember: success leaves clues! Get that hit songcraft in your DNA! That is worth way more than a rando session.

5. Have you actually started the session with an A+ seed idea, concept, or song start? This is so simple, yet rarely does it get implemented. The best songs usually start with the best seed ideas and starts. This can be done by stockpiling inspiration and selecting only the very best ideas to bring into the room. Spend more time developing A+ seed ideas and focusing exclusively on those. See Derek Sivers’s “Hell Yes or No” on YouTube. Every session should begin by answering this question: Is this idea a “hell yes?” This is also the age of the ideator. So ideate often. Continue to ideate and add to your palette of ideas, and then choose only the very best as a starting point.

Solution: Regarding ideation, you can also use Suno or the Song Manifestation Worksheet from my course The Hit Songwriter Accelerator to create your own song and production concepts, rather than leaving ideation up to your co-writers. You are letting your co-writers predestinate your future instead of YOU predestinating it yourself, and that is just dangerous long term and not acceptable!

6. Do you get distracted by trying to write a song purely for money rather than for art, excitement, passion, joy, and fun, writing from true songcraft, to nourish yourself? Remember that Quincy Jones said, “When you do music for money, God leaves the room.” As professional songwriters (and even artists), I feel we can lose our path on why we got into doing this in the first place. At some point our target goes toward writing to pay the rent, what the fans might want, writing for the charts, etc., vs. writing for what lights you up. Writing for what lights you up generally takes care of the rest.

7. Have you stepped outside your box in a big enough way? What would be exciting for the world, and for you, to hear? Are you outside your comfort zone? Remember Seth Godin’s observation: “To be safe is to be risky. To be risky is to be safe.” 95% of the songs written by professional songwriters are in the same safe playground. The songs that get the attention are the outliers.

8. Are you stuck with your old stories, beliefs, and identities about yourself? Examples: “I’m not a fast writer.” “I can’t compete with that hit maker.” “I’m just not good enough.” “This is too hard.” “Pitch songs never get placed.” “Someone else gets those superstar placements.”

Well, why not you?

Solution: Lean into and build new personal narratives instead, and toss aside any narrative, belief, or identity that’s not serving you. Instead, what if you had these beliefs and identities: “I am a hitmaker.” “I write hits easily.” “I am my own producer.” “I don’t have to write inside a constrained box to make hits.” “I deserve to be on that record or writing with [x, y, z].” “I write hits all the time.” And most importantly: “I’m worthy of having this success!” In other words, change your songwriting story at a core identity and belief level. More on this “must read” here.

9. Are you “selling” enough? This is a big one. All writers and artists probably need to be doing more “sales” and get better sales skills. “This is an outrage!” said Tony Harrison.

I know we didn’t get into this business to be in “sales,” but actually this is indeed the business we are in. This includes reaching out and building relationships (via Instagram DMs, etc.) with compelling new artists, writers, and future collaborators where you can initiate the conversation and ideally become part of their foundational team.

We have one client in particular who has just recently activated this, making personal connections and making daily and weekly progress. Her business is booming.

So, why aren’t you doing this? The idea of relying entirely on your publisher or manager is not just a sense of entitlement; it’s an easy opt-out from doing the sales work. Remember: we are all in sales. You can help your publisher or manager double the sales efforts if you also join the process.

Solution: See Sales Concepts and Techniques for Songwriters and Artists.

10. Are the writing rooms you’re in congruent with hitmaking outcomes in the first place? Often, your collaborators are not on the same page as you, or they have their own agenda (including having a covert psychological agenda to sinking both your and their ship), for example:

(a) Will they diligently work on getting a hit to the finish line? That is, rewriting, and going that last 5%;
(b) are they writing songs purely to make money, or are they in it for what lights them up and perfecting songcraft; and
(c) are they in it to win it as much as you?
(d) do they have the right mindset, identity, and beliefs?

Let’s not forget the value of having someone in the room who has actually written a hit before, regardless of genre, decade, or age. In fact, I’d rather have a 50-something-year-old hitmaker in the session who’s already climbed that hit mountain several times! Let them help you; be the guide. And yes, they probably know what a hit is!

11. Do you have someone around you who is actively coaching your A+ ideas or holding you accountable to get those A+ songs to the finish line? Furthermore: do you listen to this person and take consistent action?

Consider Bonnie McKee rewriting “Teenage Dream” up to seven times. Without Max Martin repeatedly saying, “This isn’t good enough,” the song would never have become a hit.

Here’s Bonnie talking about it herself.

12. Is there explosive song energy in the vessel of the song to evoke an emotion (no matter what the tempo)? This is your goal as a songwriter. If a song is merely a vessel for emotion and energy, here’s the question: Is your song vessel providing the right energy? It doesn’t matter if this is a ballad or a raging club banger. Is your song conveying a level “9” or level “10” energy transfer? This is the goal. The level of energy in your song vessel is equivalent to how this will move your listener, or not. To say it another way: the level of energy of your song and the transfer of that emotion will be equivalent to the royalties you receive.

13. Does the song explode with energy in the first four measures, or minimally the first 10 seconds? While this isn’t the most crucial answer to the question “Why aren’t you having a hit,” it is indeed truly important.

It’s important to remember that you’re competing against 1 million new songs released per week, as well as the entire history of music! Grab your listener aggressively from the downbeat! This is whether it’s through production, lyric, vocal, or something else. Set the odds in your favor.

14. Are you worthy of having a hit? This is a big one. In fact, this should be way more up on the list, like tied for #1 or #2 position. We only get what we feel we’re worthy of receiving. What internal and subconscious programming might you carry that’s getting in the way?

Note: this is woo-woo, but it’s a very real thing. I’ve worked with some of the most talented artists, writers, and producers who will self-sabotage their career every single step of the way.

What is your identity saying to yourself right now? It’s easy to get addicted to our past selves and our current grind and situation. And unfortunately, this can become our identity. And anything that challenges this identity, the brain says, must be defeated, including sabotaging potential success! In other words, the brain is very good at maintaining its current identity.

And wait: what if you actually had a hit? Would you have to drop personal narratives of the struggling songwriter or artist that you’ve been accustomed to?

Here’s another one. What are your beliefs about money? For example: What would happen if you had multiple hits and made $1 million a year? Try that on; how does it feel? What if you made more money from one song than your parents earned in their entire lifetime? What would your friends think? Gah, what if you suddenly became part of the elite 1%? Now, people are coming to eat the rich. You!

Our internal programming and self-worth can work for us or against us. One key question is simply this: do you feel worthy of earning $1 million a year from songwriting? Does that excite you? Does it repulse you?

Solution: Find ways to acknowledge your worth daily and run “worthy” scripts. Read Worthy by Jamie Kern Lima.

15. Do you have the right environment to inspire hit-level work? I mentioned this before but it’s worth repeating. Here’s the wrong approach: immersing yourself in TikTok viral songs and “best of the week” playlists, which are ultimately the best that mediocrity has to offer.

The right approach: filling your environment with inspiration by listening at all times to artists and songs that genuinely INSPIRE you or that got you into writing music in the first place, such as:

Environment also includes the people you spend time with: friends, family, and fellow writers. Spend more time with winners (including what you’re listening to) and those operating at levels above you, not the opposite.

Metaphor: a world-class athlete needs to eat a world-class diet, not pizza, Funyuns, Mountain Dew, and smoking weed all day. No. Of course, instead, they are eating the very best diet possible.

You must do the same with your environment and what you consume, including who you let in and pursue to be part of your environment.

16. Are you continually stepping outside your comfort zone? Make a list of things you can do to make yourself uncomfortable. Examples: expand your circle of co-writers; add unexpected elements or people to a session; attend a music festival you’d normally skip; write something lyrically you’ve never shared with anyone; go one level further toward the extreme; reach out to 10 collaborators this week, one level above you.

In your concepts and ideation, whether in production or lyric, have you truly gone to the edges and even the extreme? You may think you have, but consider taking one more step over the line of comfort. You can always dial it back. The important thing is to create songs that make a difference. If a song is a vessel of energy, have you maximized that vessel to move an emotion: heartbreak, dancing, anarchy, empowerment?

17. This is important: Have you fully listened to and acted on feedback and priorities from your publisher, manager, A&R person, or personal coach? These people care about you and your outcomes. Are you actively working with the advice or abandoning it, and how has that been going?

What’s the outcome presently if you don’t take action and continue on the same path for another year, another five years, another 10 years? What will happen if you don’t have a hit within this time?

Solution: get LEVERAGE on yourself and take massive action now.

18. To wrap this up, consider this: in your session today, you will write what you have decided you are WORTH and WORTHY of receiving.

So make sure it’s a great one.

1. Locked-in, jump-off-the-page melodic rhythms that are repeatable per section. Note: space is also a melodic rhythm and an instrument. Read more about melodic rhythms here.

2. A second melody, riff, or producer’s hook. Read more about second melodies here.

3. A unique song concept and title that ideally evokes an emotion. Read more about unique song concepts and titles here.

4. Uptempo energy (generally speaking). As a professional songwriter, your job is to write singles, to deliver FIRE. Singles generally have uptempo energy.

5. Melodic range across the entire song: an octave plus a third on average, or higher, with the chorus typically containing the higher notes. Note: even “Party Rock Anthem” by LMFAO spans only one octave. Write songs that people want to sing.

See here: Billion Streaming Song Analysis With the Above Ingredients.