Upon application completion, artist profiles are pre-activated. During this stage, our Artist Integration team will guide you through your first couple song creation opportunities to make sure you’re on the right track and set up to succeed on Songfinch.
Songfinch’s Artist Integration team aims to guide you in the process of creating your first few song creation opportunities to make sure you’re on the right track and any questions are answered along the way.
Below are a few important aspects that we find super helpful for you to review before you receive your first song creation opportunity.
While your account is in the pre-activation status, the song creation and delivery process happen across a 7-day period. There are periodic check-ins during the song creation flow to help make sure you’re on the right track with your first opportunity or two. The timeline is provided below:
Step 1: Initial Opportunity Email
The order is sent to you via email and you have 24 hours to accept or deny it. On your first order, there will be an additional email sent shortly after from integration@songfinch.com that has some very important instructions and tips for the song opportunity. *Please make sure that doesn’t go to your spam folder and read it carefully.
Step 2: Songfinch Lyric Review
For your first opportunity, the first draft of your lyrics should be sent in a response to the “Your first opportunity with Songfinch 🎶” email within 48 hours after accepting the order. A member of our Artist Integration team will review and provide feedback to ensure you’re on the right track before recording your first song. Please make sure you are sending correctly formatted and proofread lyrics that meet our lyrical specs as outlined here.
**You can generally expect a reply from us during business hours 7 days a week, but please allow for up to 24 hours for feedback. We will do our best to send feedback as promptly as possible!
Step 3: Song Creation + Submission
Once given the go-ahead from your lyric review, please create the song and submit it via your artist dashboard by 8pm on the due date listed on the opportunity. The due date is 4 days from the day that the email was initially sent to you and if you are unable to submit on time, please contact us asap and see if we are able to grant an extension.
Once submitted, a member of the team will review your order and send any fixes/tweaks (if needed) before acceptance. While not everyone fully nails it on their first opp with us, it is our goal in the Artist Integration team to present a path to success with us.
**We will do our absolute best to work with you, but if we are unable to properly resolve any requested fixes/tweaks, the Artist Integration team reserves the right to reassign the order to another artist.
Step 4: Song Acceptance & Payment
Our Artist Integration team will perform genre, mood, tempo, and content reviews and if all meet our qualifications, we will approve your order. Payment is sent via the PayPal email you set at account signup within an hour of song acceptance.
Step 5: Post-Song Delivery + Revisions (if applicable)
At this point, the customer will be able to add an extra verse if they want more or request lyrical edits if something is off or if they want some tweaks made to get it to a perfect spot. We pay artists for extra verses and all revisions that were not the fault of the artist.
We understand that you may not always be 100% in your studio ready to record at a moment’s notice. If you are unavailable when you receive a request, please reply to any revision request emails ASAP with your availability so that we can coordinate with the customer and ultimately get them the perfect song.
Songfinch has specific genre guidelines and expectations that our customers hold us to. Please click the genres below for more information on our specs and expectations around each.
Combines the catchy, memorable melodies and production techniques of pop music with acoustic instruments while maintaining an intimate and direct feel; hooky vocal chorus; polished pop melodies and vocal production; upbeat, catchy, top 40 style; driving energy; some sort of beat or pulse; needs to “sound” like a pop song but with way less production; should sound “familiar”.
Subgenres: Viral pop, acoustic chill, bedroom pop, indie pop, art pop,
Artist Examples: Tash Sultana, Taylor Swift, Sam Smith, Gavin DeGraw, Brandi Carlile, Jason Mraz, Birdy
Three chords and the truth; music derived from or imitating the style of the Southern U.S, especially: popular vocal music characterized by simple harmonies, accompaniment by stringed instruments (such as guitar, fiddle, banjo, and pedal steel), repeated choruses, and narrative lyrics; emphasis on storytelling; sounds “American southern”; traditional country chord structures and progressions; idiomatic to traditional country styles as defined by famous country artists; traditional country production elements (steel guitar, dobro, fiddle, bends, slides, and all forms of twang); distinctive vocal delivery.
Subgenres: Southern rock, pop country, country crossover, outlaw country, traditional country, bluegrass
Artist Examples: Dan+Shay, Kelsea Ballerini, Luke Bryan, George Strait, Emmylou Harris, Maren Morris, Kane Brown, Alan Jackson, Darius Rucker, Dierks Bentley, Dolly Parton, Brothers Osborne, Hank Williams
Evolved from the 20th-century revival of traditional music in the 1960s and 1970s; acoustic-based music that spins everyday events and common people into mythic status; rustic vibes; more traditional instrumentation (mandolin, violin, ukulele, etc); rural, less emphasis on production quality; campfire-style; talkin’ blues.
Subgenres: Folk-pop, folk-rock, traditional folk, contemporary folk, acoustic blues
Artist Examples: Gillian Welch, The Decemberists, Bob Dylan, Avett Brothers, Ed Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes, Leo Kottke, Elliot Smith, Sufjan Stevens,
Combinations of rapping/non-melodic singing (crooning) with rhythm-centric instrumentation; focus on hip hop sampling and beats; emphasis on sampling/electronic instrumentation; rhythmic poetic vocals with an emphasis on cadence; strong hooks; thoughtful use of repetition; descriptive storytelling.
Subgenres: Chill-Hop, trap, drill, old school, underground, Pop Rap, urban contemporary, boom bap, backpack
Artist Examples: Drake, Doja Cat, Cardi B, Childish Gambino, Logic, J. Cole, Post Malone, Vic Mensa, Larry June, T-Pain, A Tribe Called Quest
Soulful vocal delivery; gospel influence; hip hop influence; inspired by jazz; more emphasis on sampling/electronic instrumentation than acoustic; combines rhythm and blues with elements of pop, soul, funk; potentially pitch-corrected vocals (autotune as an instrument); drum machine-backed rhythms; smooth lush vocals; contemporary blues influence.
Subgenres: Pop soul, neo soul, pop r&b, alternative r&b, chill r&b, trap soul
Artist Examples: John Legend, Ari Lennox, Beyoncé, Luther Vandross, Keyshia Cole, Sharon Jones, SZA, Kehlani, Rihanna, Mary J. Blige, Lalah Hathaway, Summer Walker, Boyz II Men
Guitar-driven arrangements and production (both acoustic and electric); full-band instrumentation including acoustic drums and electric bass; rhythm and lead guitars; driving vocal delivery; “rock band” instrumentation; characterized by a strong beat and the use of blues forms; may also include electric organ or electric piano.
Subgenres: Hard rock, pop-punk, soft rock, garage rock, indie rock, alternative, roots rock
Artist Examples: Paramore, AC/DC, The Smiths, Greta Van Fleet, Tame Impala, Young the Giant, Tom Petty, Foo Fighters, Queen, The Beatles, Jimmy Eat World, The Killers, Imagine Dragons, Fleetwood Mac
Covers a wide spectrum of stripped-down, self-accompanied music, typically with only a single acoustic guitar or piano; intimate; lyrics are deeply personal and utilize metaphors and analogies to accomplish detail-driven storytelling; the sound is typically spare, direct, and reflective; material that brings you directly in touch with that person’s emotions; minimal instrumentation; emotional vocal delivery; emphasis on the strength of the song itself without needing much production to stand up.
Subgenres: Mellow Gold, Tin Pan Alley Pop, Lilith, Americana
Artist Examples: Joni Mitchell, Ani DeFranco, Ed Sheeran, Jack Johnson, Neil Young, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Norah Jones, Laura Marling
Genre Expansion For Your Songfinch Account
Our system currently supports two main genres for each artist. If after reviewing our examples above you feel that you’d be better suited in a different genre or if you’d like to add a 2nd that you didn’t audition for, please reach out to songexamples@songfinch.com with some mp3 examples of your work in that genre.
Please make sure that they are self-produced in the exact same method you intend to create Songfinch songs. Please do not send in studio tracks that were professionally mixed and mastered unless you intend to deliver that level of quality as a baseline for future opps. If you would like a writing prompt to create an audition song for a new genre, please reach out and we would be happy to send you some options!
First, please do not use the backing track/instrumental from your audition song for song orders.
We suggest creating new instrumental tracks for your first 6 opps and after completing 6-10 orders, please reach out to artistdev@songfinch.com and inquire about setting your song examples. Your song examples will auto-rotate between your most recently completed opportunities until we permanently choose three that best showcase your style and ability.
Once we’ve completed the process of locking in three song examples on your profile, you are welcome to use pre-built backing tracks for up to 50 orders each, provided those backing tracks/instrumentals are not featured in your song examples. If you decide to re-use instrumentals across different songs, we recommend creating 3-5 new tracks monthly to keep things fresh! Your song examples can be rotated at any time, so please email us if you would like to swap something out.
When our songs are delivered, our customers generally listen to the song and follow along with the lyrics, so the accuracy and formatting of your lyrics are very important.
Correct Lyric Formatting
1) Lines are a great length and separated into accurate stanzas - they don’t run on and they aren’t too short
2) Section markers like “VERSE” and “CHORUS” are removed as well as other signifiers like // and *
3) The word “and” is typed out and not “+” or “&”
4) The chorus is typed up and included for each time it happens
5) The only things capitalized in the lines are the first letter and proper places or names
6) The song title only has the first letter of each word capitalized
7) Punctuation is removed at the end of each line
8) Double-checked all spelling
Below is an example of correctly formatted lyrics:
