About American Songwriter
Songwriters, musicians, and music enthusiasts trust American Songwriter to be their authentic home for the latest news and information from the music industry. Dedicated to the craft of music for the past 35 years, American Songwriter is an international website, magazine, and podcast network.
American Songwriter magazine is published bi-monthly. The magazine offers in-depth Q & A’s with up-and-coming, established and legendary songwriters, covers recording technology, including the latest gadgets and gear every songwriter should know about, and reports on the business of music publishing with interviews and insight from publishers, producers and other industry professionals.
American Songwriter explores all genres of music -from country to hip-hop, folk to classical, rock to pop, blues to electronica and soul to r&b. Over the years, issues have featured Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Neil Young, Garth Brooks, Clint Black, John Denver, Smokey Robinson, Wilco, Willie Nelson, Billy Joel, Kris Kristofferson, John Mellencamp, Drive-By Truckers, Paul McCartney, Elton John, Beck, Dolly Parton, Eric Clapton, R.E.M., Weezer, Death Cab for Cutie, Ryan Adams, Jimmy Buffett, Merle Haggard, Rob Thomas, Toby Keith, Roger Miller, Public Enemy, Sheryl Crow, James Taylor, Ray LaMontagne, Tom Petty, Neil Diamond, Zac Brown Band, Kings of Leon, My Morning Jacket, Taylor Swift and many, many more.
Distributed internationally with a heavy domestic subscriber base, the readership of American Songwriter is just as diverse as its contents—professional to aspiring songwriters, music fans to music publishers, studio owners, copyright lawyers, record label presidents to music consumers.
Advertisers include national instrument manufacturers, record companies who want to gain exposure for their artists, publishers who honor writer achievements, demo studios, recording software companies and a select group of non-musical companies who position their product offerings to identify with music culture.
AmericanSongwriter.com provides much of the same plus daily news, new album reviews, video interviews, in-office video recording sessions, live photos, business insight, blogs and online exclusive content for aspiring or professional songwriters and serious music enthusiasts.
The American Songwriter app for the iPad official launched May 25th, 2011 and can be downloaded for free here. Features of the American Songwriter App for iPad include:
- Embedded music videos;
- Streaming music tracks from featured artists;
- Exclusive artist photo galleries;
- The ability to purchase songs directly from iTunes;
- “The Muse,” featuring a highly curated list of 30 staff-picked songwriters to check out.
For more information about advertising with American Songwriter, click here.
History
American Songwriter was founded in 1984 by Bruce Hurt and only one year later was passed on to Jim Sharp (who, along with columnist Michael Kosser, discovered Blake Shelton). In 2004, the magazine changed hands again, purchased this time by two recent college graduates, Robert Clement and Doug Waterman. Under their direction, the magazine reached another level altogether with better writing, higher quality presentation and more insightful, intellectually intriguing content about the art and stories of songwriting. In 2012, Albie Del Favero, co-founder of the alternative weekly Nashville Scene, bought majority control of the magazine with both Robert and Doug remaining minority partners.
American Songwriter’s circulation has grown from under 2,000 copies per issue to more than 30,000 with readership approaching 100,000 per issue. AmericanSongwriter.com averages 300,000 unique visitors per month and has grown at the rate of 15% or more per year since its inception in 2003.
