Songwriting Expert Ralph Murphy on TAXI TV 

John Regan's Reviews, Tutorials, & More In another lecture Ralph has said he writes about 100 songs a year, cuts demos for 40 of those and then gets a Billboard hit about once every three years and that most of those are co-writes. I think an aspiring "pure" songwriter has to consider that life. If those are the odds for someone at his level then think about what that says. As a writer do you want to spend three years writing three hundred songs to fit a commercial formula that says what a certain demographic want to hear or do you want to write songs that may find a small audience that will require you to tour often... Not everyone has the total package to be a successful singer-sonwriter and not everyone who does wants to tour all the time, but I don't like how Mr. Murphy has in other interviews belittled those who just refuse to compromise what they write to fit mainstream. I greatly respect those artist even if they probably pull in a much smaller paycheck. Thinking of writing 300 songs only to have 1 make it though to it's mainstream crowd... Yeah, I imagine I would need to be on anti-depressants to make that work for me long term. What a truly miserable career that must be.... Of course in my perfect world all music regardless of how imperfect would be genuine and from the artist performing it. In my perfect world the "pure" songwriter would be reduced to writing TV and advertising jingles, etc... Of course if you think about it, that's not far from what they are already doing.

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Ralph passed away about 4 years ago. Try emailing or calling ascap.

Prob. Because theres no money in it haha i never hear him ever talk about alt music. Sucks :(

Its quite depressing indeed. Where is the pivotal point for a rock revolution?

Haha seriously. The problem is that people spend money on shit music that goes away after it falls off the chart only to be replaced with more disposable stuff. Only way to fix it is to educate people on more complex stuff and take their money before they spend it else where haha. Have a sound cloud?

Yea, but nothing professional wise as of yet.

who does? haha