Hi, I’m Joshua May, the creator of Song Structure Vault. I’m a musician and freelance online marketer who’ve been producing music and marketing businesses for 15 years. Whether working on websites or helping songwriters to craft great music, I‘ve always attempted to marry my love of music and love of technology together whenever I could.
11 years ago I created a simple website called learneverythingabout.com to teach the basics of songwriting to anyone who wants to learn, no matter the genre. My goal was to use very simple explanations and examples that anyone could understand to help them grasp difficult topics in music.
In a few years, that site was a hit! Thousands of people started visiting, and today my small site gets over 5000 visitors each month and that number is steadily growing.
But a few years ago I noticed a lot of people were visiting one specific page more than any other and that was my Song Structure page. And after studying the data I realized songwriters wanted a better way to understand how to properly structure their songs and my initial explanations just weren’t cutting it.
So I thought: why not create a visual representation of song structure using popular songs that songwriters can use to research, study and also follow as a guide?
So in 2016, I rewrote my Song Structure page (see updated page here: https://www.learneverythingabout.com/lyrics/song-structure.html) and designed my prototype library called “The Song Structure Vault” to serve as a resource for songwriters to:
1) Search thousands of popular song structure examples by genre, artist/style, or emotion.
2) See song structure dynamically while the track plays, to take advantage of the way the brain learns through audio/visual learning.
3) Study the songwriting patterns that made each song a hit, and then
4) Structure their songs using the same winning formulas.
Imagine scrolling through an online library of music that feels like Hulu or Netflix, filled with thousands of hit songs you know and love. You click on an image and the song expands into its dynamic template with loaded video or audio track. You play the song and the template comes alive as each section is highlighted while the song plays, giving you tips, pop-ups, and links to deeper lessons about each song section.
As you interact with the template while listening to the track, you begin to understand the pattern used for the song and other songs that have a similar writing style.
The library also has a search feature that filters the main list based on genre, artist, and target emotion so that only the types of songs you’re interested in appear. Finally, you select the templates you’d like to use in your next song and then they’re emailed to you. I have ideas for additional features but this is these are the core functions of the library.
Also with this visual library, I’m designing a free complimentary email training course to show songwriters exactly how to structure their songs using the library.
Please have a look at the beta library here: https://apps.learneverythingabout.com/
Since 2018, I’ve had 16 songwriters pay a monthly subscription of $4.95 to use the library. And as of today, 1,500+ people have signed up for my email training course.
“Grateful thank you. Your work did assist me in writing and singing my first song, (only into my phone) but still…it felt Divinely sent…a lot of healing took place that day for me.
Happy to share your work with my community.” – Debbie
My library is not how I envisioned it to be just yet. The design is basic and there are only 120 songs stored but my goal is to have thousands more – from the classics to today’s hit across all major genres – so that it’s a TRUE resource for any songwriter, whether they’re a novice or a professional.
The response has been very positive, but there’s only so much one person can do without a team. $5000 pays for a 3-month budget of the following:
Please join me and help complete this project. All the pieces are in place, I just need your help to hire the team to put it all together.
Pledge $1 or more – {Co-creator Title; Promotion Link; Thank You letter} Be immortalized with the label “co-creator” on my website, seen by 5K+ people each month. Your name will also link to *ANY* web page, project or social media account you choose for a chance to promote your work or gain more followers (no porn sites, shady links, or illegal stuff). Finally, get a personalized “thank you” letter emailed to you for your support.
Pledge $5 or more – {…PLUS 3-Month Subscription; Random eBook Chapter} Get everything promised in $1 pledge…Plus a 3-month subscription to the Song Structure Vault after it’s redesigned. Also, get a *random chapter* from my 60-page song lyric writing eBook.
Pledge $10 or more – {…PLUS 6-Month Subscription; Random eBook Chapter} Get everything promised in $1 pledge…Plus a 6-month subscription to the Song Structure Vault after it’s redesigned. Also, get a *random chapter* from my 60-page song lyric writing eBook.
Pledge $15 or more – {…PLUS 1-Year Subscription; Random eBook Chapter} Get everything promised in $1 pledge…Plus a 1-year subscription to the Song Structure Vault after it’s redesigned. Also, get a *random chapter* from my 60-page song lyric writing eBook.
Pledge $25 or more – {…PLUS *LIFETIME* Subscription; Full 60-page eBook} Get everything promised in $1 pledge…Plus a LIFETIME subscription to the Song Structure Vault after it’s redesigned. Also, get my *complete* 60-page song lyric writing eBook.
Pledge $50 or more – {…PLUS Full Profile Page} Get everything promised in $25 pledge…But instead of just your name (and link), get a full page dedicated to you as a “co-creator”, promoting anything you want to 5K+ visitors monthly (no porn sites, shady links, or illegal stuff).
Pledge $5,000 or more – {…PLUS Song & Dance} Get everything promised in $50 pledge…Plus I’ll send you a video of me dancing to any song you choose while singing a personal “thank you” to you.
I come from a family of musicians and I love music, all kinds of music. I would love to keep helping songwriters learn everything about this art form in this new and exciting way.
If you love music too and believe my website, Song Structure Vault and training course can really help songwriters, I need you to do two things for me:
1) Choose a pledge to back this project. Any amount you give to this project will be greatly appreciated.
2) Share this Kickstarter with anyone you know who also loves music, especially anyone who has a desire to become a singer, songwriter or musician. Give them the chance to take advantage of free membership when this project is completed.
Together we can play a small part in helping the next generation of music artists get one step closer to living their dream.
Who knows? Maybe that person is you.
Pledge now.
Library & Website Redesign – I’m using Upwork to hire the needed web developer, email campaign specialist, and copywriters, relying on the platform’s rating system, work history & feedback to select the best professionals for the budgets I’ve set. But no rating system is foolproof. I will thoroughly vet each professional, but there’s always a chance I could hire a professional who can’t deliver as promised, wasting time and money. Backend Technology – YouTube provides its API for free to use on any website. Currently, this is the technology I’ve adapted to generate part of the library. There’s always a chance YouTube could stop sharing their API with third-party websites. Library Content – Each song in the library is personally reviewed for its structure, which takes time. I’ll use Fiverr to temporarily hire two songwriters as “librarians” I can train in song structure analysis. Again, I will thoroughly vet these individuals but there’s still a chance they won’t be able to grasp the skill properly to accurately analyze each song. If that’s the case I’ll train new people. Plus I’ll continue to add new songs. Budget – The budget for this project takes into consideration the professionals needed and the costs of each task, and then that rate is estimating higher by 1.5 times. But there’s a chance that tasks could cost even more. Subscription Rewards – My goal is to deliver these rewards by February 2020. But the delivery of all special subscriptions depends on whenever my web developer successfully completes the redesign of the visual library. $50 Pledge Rewards – Each profile will take time to write & publish. I hope to publish all profiles at the same time so depending on the number of people who back this pledge, delivery could be delayed.