Create 2011 Song Entries

Thank you to all our participants in this year's CREATE! Songwriting contest! Check out some of the songs from our fabulous contestants!

Networking, Networking, Networking

(JUNE 2011) If you're an independent artist, there are a lot of things you have to think about in order to enhance your career. You do everything you can to perfect your music by focusing on your songwriting, production capabilities, and overall artistic direction. You use various promotional...

Brett Manning Studios: Leigh Nash Gives Vocal Lessons

(JUNE 2011) Lead singer of Grammy-nominated and Dove award winning band, Sixpence None the Richer, Leigh Nash is the newest vocal coach to join the prestigious Brett Manning team! Leigh is best known for hits like: "Kiss Me" and "There She Goes" and is passionate about using her years of...

Letters From Lindsey: To Sign or Not To Sign

(JUNE 2011) To sign or not to sign…that is the question! As we roll into summertime, most artists are gearing up to hit the road and looking forward to the next leg of their tour schedule and if they're wise, they're also thinking about the next leg of their career. One of the biggest career...

Production Agreements: Who Owns What?

(JUNE 2011) This month I decided to respond to a question that was emailed to me from Daniel H. He asks: "I had a Producer tell me that if we recorded a project, I would own the songs but he would own the actual recordings…is that true?"

Show Up

(JUNE 2011) Uncertain of victory or utter annihilation the one thing I could not do was not show up. Like some unwritten code in my DNA as a man-child, I had to at least be there, to not run from the challenge, I may not have been able to walk away from the scene but at least I would show up.

Songwriting Tips with Natalie Hemby

(JUNE 2011) You may not have heard her name, but you've definitely heard her songs. Over the past year and a half, Hemby has seen great success from cuts like "White Liar" and "Only Prettier", by Miranda Lambert; "Play On" by Carrie Underwood and"Timing is Everything" from the Country...

With Music and Justice For All

(JUNE 2011) Artists boast all the time about being unique and unlike the rest but Corrin Campbell is the real deal. Her unmatched background coupled with her dynamic, pop rock sound makes her a force to be reckoned with in the Christian music world.

The “Musts” of Marketing

(JUNE 2011) Being an independent artist is tough work. You have to have talent and drive, but that's the easy part. To survive and thrive independently, you have to operate as a business; sometimes doing the job of 6-7 different people. One of the most important jobs is that of marketing yourself...