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The Price Of A Song
The Price Of A Song

he Price of a Song” was the lyric winner

Michael J R Rothhael J R Roth Tof the NSAI/CMT competition, the Songwriters Association last year. I’ve won a
Mic
number of awards for different songs over the
Mid-Atlantic Song Contest, and the Dallas
years, mainly as a lyricist. I’m featured in the
Songwriters Association last year, and was
Great American Song Hall of Fame, NSAI has
just released on an EP, "I've Been Dragging
Lori McKenna called me “brilliant.” That was
These Old Songs Around, my first studio named me “One to Watch” a couple times.
recording in a while, recorded live in front of the best prize.
a student audience by Prof. Sam Negri and his
Sarah Mesa Studio at the University of New Mexico. So my perspective is a little different from
Macmullan that of a 20-year-old just starting out, even
Inspiration For The Lyric though in many ways we face the same
situation. Right now, I’m focused on gigging
Songs are central to our lives. I would even and possibly touring, though I have some
say that our lives are songs. I think if songs reservations about that. I have been doing
were taken away, we would know a kind of mainly raw guitar-and-vocal recordings at
thirst we never realized existed. Thirst, home, distributing through CD Baby as well
hunger, suffocation – we know what those as my website. I was in the Washington, DC,
are, but I can’t think of a word we use for a area before I moved out to New Mexico,
famine of music. Maybe it’s because it’s built where I currently reside. I also have made
in to us, and we expect we can always make forays to Nashville, Seattle, Austin, and
it when we need it. But songwriters, who Tucson. Every time you move, you need to
struggle to get that next song out, know how reinvent yourself and get to know the
precarious this condition is. community. I really like that part, because I’m
always discovering great new songwriters. I
All songwriters know the frustration of trying find my fellow songwriters are my best
to “make it” in the music business, but in inspiration and encouragement.
the last few years we have seen an implosion
of the music industry that has affected not Song link:
only songwriters, but performers, producers, https://easyheroes.com/track/2255353/the-
distributors, engineers, musicians, and others price-of-a-song
who make their living in the business. At the
same time, consumers have grown On Spotify:
accustomed to getting music for free. No https://open.spotify.com/track/1Gz3xNls-
one buys music anymore, venues want us to 3mCs0qUhDXHOY9
perform for free, audiences don’t tip, and on
down the line. And yet at the root of this is Hear Now
the song, the thing that everyone wants – “We https://michaelrjroth.hearnow.com/
all want something for nothin’” – without
thinking about the price. So I wrote this little Website
anthem to songwriters, to reflect the hidden http://easyheroes.com
cost of songwriting, what it takes to get that
song out. CD Baby
https://store.cdbaby.com/Artist/MichaelR-
Eryn Michel (https://erynmichel.com/) JRoth
co-wrote the music on this song.
Facebook
Music Career To Date https://www.facebook.com/michaelrjroth/

I’m a 67-year-old singer-songwriter getting YouTube
back into the music scene after a long https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCu-
hiatus. I retired from my day job a couple FAK7m-MeYveBK5ifATCzw
years ago, and have won awards in a number
of song contests since that time, most notably Instagram
for “The Price of a Song,” which was the lyric @michaelrjroth
winner of the NSAI/CMT competition, the https://www.instagram.com/michaelrjroth/
Mid-Atlantic Song Contest, and the Dallas

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