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1/21/10

Write for One Person

That's it.

Imagine a person, your mythical "Perfect Fan". Who are they? Where are they? How do they view life? What are the struggling with? What are they looking for?

Now write for them.

Be specific. Don't just write a song about a girl that broke your heart. Believe it or not, there's quite a few songs like this! Write a song about a girl that dumped you a week before graduating college because you would refuse to go to frat parties because you'd rather stay at home and bake bread. Sure, that story won't connect with everyone, but the few people who get it will feel like you wrote the song just for them.

The surest way to connect with nobody is to try to connect with everybody. Leave the "everybody" for major label pop royalty. It's better to connect with one fan on a personal, spiritual level then get 10 listeners who are ambivalent about you. Which of these groups is gonna support your music?

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