ABOUT US

How SongMight Came To Be

Over the last 11 years I have been writing about indie artists on my blog American Pancake and my mantra, my mission statement has always been about covering artists / bands that the Pitchfork Medias of the world don't and even though AP has been a side passion while I was working that proverbial day job, I am proud of the countless thousands (around 7,000) of musicians AP has supported. Along the way, I have not written or supported roughly 17,000 other bands / artists who did not appeal to me or share my musical tastes or the aesthetic of the blog. Several months ago on the AP Facebook I admitted that even after so many years of writing the blog that I still somehow feel terrible when I reject a piece of music / band for the blog. 

 
And mind you, I fully realize that American Pancake is built around my specific taste in music. That is how a lot of smaller blogs operate. While other blogs will take into consideration, the import of a band in regards to the size of their audience, their trajectory etc and, in so doing, how many reader they draw to the blog, American Pancake has always been centered simply around indie artists whose sound I feel interesting and am drawn to. 

American Pancake by any stretch of the imagination is not a big blog. Most months the page view count hovers around 25K and it has been as high as 75K some months. I have, a few times, wanted to scrap the blog because it seems to not be getting enough views but then a nice appreciative letter from a band brings me right back front and center. When I reject a piece of music I always add this statement after specifically stating my reasons for their song not appealing to me or fitting the blog:

—-PLEASE REMEMBER THERE ARE NO bad songs really, you just have to find that audience and / or blogger who gets you. We don't have any rules on what constitutes a song that we post about. It just has to engage us and hopefully surprise us and at best be a song that breaks new musical ground and touches us in deep emotional ways. We will reluctantly pass on this one as we are currently looking for different sounds. thanks for sharing your art

Not long ago, an artist who I rejected thought that my rejection statement was inspirational and he thanked me. I never looked at those words as a point of inspiration but realizing that your art may not be accepted by everyone is key and realizing that if you desire to have an audience for your art, you just have to find them and cultivate that relationship. All art is subjective afterall. 

It is hard to be heard when you are a singer-songwriter, a person who crafts a bit of their soul into a piece of music. Myself, as part of the blogging community, am referred to as a "gate keeper" and while the aforementioned artist who praised my rejection statement got something positive from our interaction there are others who pointedly have told me (after I referred to their song as sounding a "bit too familiar" and "not offering enough surprises") that I am "asking a lot" or "asking too much" of them. Maybe they are partially right but in order to write passionately about art, about new songs presented to me I do have to feel something first. Still, I do lament how hard it is for artists to have their songs exposed to the world. I am also a song-writer and have gone through the arduous task of submitting my songs to countless blogs, even spending a great deal of money via submission platforms, and not obtaining one approval but, instead, only rejections. 

SongMight is now operating as a fundraising arm of American Pancake tied directly to AP's Go Fund Me campaign. We hate asking for financial support at AP and we hate cluttering our pages with pop up ads. We, again, hate asking for support but we want to keep the lights on. 

SongMight is a no judgment zone. It also is not a place to have your song reviewed. It is simply a place to show off you song, information that you provide and a picture of you or your band that says something about who you are as an artist. It is a place to have an attractive display of what you do, what you create that you can share with others instead of a typical Soundcloud or Bandcamp link or EPK. It is a way to have your music on a blog without playing the game, without engaging with the "gatekeepers" and without spending countless hours waiting or wondering if your song will be listened to, judged, accepted or rejected. 

4 Million Songs on Spotify have Never Been Streamed

SongMight is a simple model to let artists show their work and maybe get their song streamed on Spotify or other platforms by directing people to see those streaming links. Another part of SongMight will be the SongMight Playlists that will pull selections of songs from our pages and include them. 

SongMight is the flip side of American Pancake. AP is my personal taste in music. SongMight is open to all kinds of music, at least anyone who wants to be here and be part of the SongMight Community. SongMight will also serve as a repository of songs that may flow into American Pancake. There will naturally be songs on SongMight that attract my ears and eventually end up on AP.

SongMight offers a lot of heart for a donation. 

In order to have a post of a song (and any mention of the album it is on or anything else) on SongMight I do require a that you support AP via the Go Fund Me Link below. We struggled hard to decide if we need to have a minimum donation but decided that we need to to make it worth everyone's while. Donate what you can but at least, please donate $5. This donation will supplement my income and hopefully, eventually allow me to make music and music blogging bigger and last forever. That would be a dream fulfilled. The nominal donation also filters out those kinds of submissions that come from having no fee. AS humorous as it might be to have a track consist of a hip hop beat and farting noises for 3 minutes, it is not what SongMight is all about. 

It is easy to have you and your song attractively displayed on SongMight. Simply email us a press pic, bio and or song info, a viable song link (EPK type stuff) and your a paste up or email letting us know of you donation. On Go Fund me please state that the donation is from this band or artist for this song etc. SEE Donation Link below. Thanks so much.
songmightsub@gmail.com

 

See the Tips section for suggestions on how to make your post the most effective and the FAQ section for answers to questions you might have.

Thanks for all your support.

Cheers
Robb Donker Curtius