For SongStudio 2024 in Toronto, here are musical backing tracks to which you will be writing lyrics & melody.
We suggest you download these to your device (phone, tablet, computer, etc) so that you can listen privately – through your own headphones – at SongStudio while you are writing lyrics & melody. If you choose not to download them, but instead to play them from this page, you may have trouble if you can’t be connected to the internet. We wouldn’t want that.
We suggest you download at least your favourite THREE tracks, although you may download them all if you like.
BEFORE YOU ARRIVE AT SONGSTUDIO:
- Choose three or more tracks and download them to your device.
- For at least three songs, ask yourself “What kind of story is this music telling me? What descriptive words can match the story of this music?”. Go ahead and write down some answers to these questions.
- DO NOT do any lyric & melody writing in advance. If you just can’t help yourself, go ahead and write, then choose a different track to bring to SongStudio.
IMPORTANT:
NONE of these music tracks may be used for you to publicly release your song. These music tracks ALREADY EXIST online, so if you use them in your recording, you will certainly face issues releasing your recordings – copyright notices, takedowns, etc.
These tracks are to be used for our songwriting exercise only. Once you have written to these tracks, if you want to pursue a release, then look at REPLACING the music tracks with something new.
HERE ARE THE TRACKS!
For each track, there is an AUDIO file and a CLUES file which describes the structure of the music track to help you write. To download the tracks to your device:
- on a Windows computer, right-click the song title and choose “Save As” when your browser shows a menu
- on an iOS tablet or phone, hold your finger on the song title and choose “Download Linked File” when your device shows a menu
- or refer to your device’s instructions or good old Google for help
- as a last resort, email us and we’ll help you out
Guitar-based tracks (Country, Folk, Americana)
Bedroom Pop
Piano Ballads
Dark Pop
REWRITES
* These tracks are Karaoke versions of existing songs. If you recognize the song, it may be best to choose a different one. These tracks are meant to give you a chance to write a “Plan B” lyric and melody to a hit song.