INDUSTRY NEWS

Tunedly and the Modern Songwriter

Tunedly and the Modern Songwriter

The Tunedly Team
Tunedly- Music production and publishing solution. On any given day, you will find a busy Richard Bonnin somewhere on the road, getting on or off a plane, meeting up with an important client, or attending a corporate function on behalf of his company.

No doubt, the PR and Corporate Communications Director, of a fast-growing national hospital system, runs a pretty tight shift. His job leaves him with little time for anything else.

Yet, in recent times, Bonnin has managed to not only make time for his long-neglected hobby of writing songs, but has also been able to gain sizeable recognition by winning a few prestigious songwriting contests. In fact, since he started putting pen to paper two years ago, he has been making significant headway with his music.

Most recently, he won an award in the Hollywood Songwriting Contest, as well as co-wrote lyrics for a song that made it into the 2014 finals of the American Songwriting Awards Competition. Not bad at all for someone who has spent most of his adult life climbing the corporate ladder, successfully holding down one position after another.

But Bonnin’s just getting started despite his late entry in the world of music. His impressive writing skills have already fallen on fertile ground. Coming off his success in the Hollywood Songwriting Contest - where he won his category with a song entitled “Black Widow” - the busy Texas native signed a 3-year publishing deal with Music of the Sea. This is a major Chicago-based publisher headed by Eddie “Sea” Caldwell, and which owns music put out by several big-name acts, including Beyoncé. That’s quite a feat in itself. But how does Bonnin manage to juggle a demanding day job running hospitals, while writing and recording music?

Technology, of course. Like many successful businessmen, Bonnin has learned to leverage the power of the internet to help him do more, so far as creating music is concerned. Helping him with this aspect of his life is one of the most prestigious online music production platforms to land on the scene – Tunedly.

With their new approach towards music production, the online music recording studio has quietly been creating quite a stir in the music industry, despite not being around for long.

Tunedly For Bonnin, Tunedly was an instant no-brainer, offering him an online recording studio solution that not only provided the same services as the typical brick-and-mortar production houses, but also at lower rates and even better quality. With so much time spent traveling on behalf of his job, attending meetings, and showing up for various social events, choosing Tunedly to create his demos and songs fitted right in with his lifestyle. Bonnin loves the idea of actually being able to do his music without compromising his 9 – 5 obligations.

His new lease on life represents the opportunities available to new age, modern-day songwriters. Those who lead extremely busy lifestyles but still find time to indulge their artistic side and bring dreams to reality. For Bonnin, that dream was sparked when he was no more than a little kid, listening to his mother’s Elvis Presley collection. A trip to Graceland reaffirmed his passion for songwriting as an adult but he just couldn’t find the time – until now. With Tunedly in the picture, Bonnin can feed his passion for writing songs without having to worry about his regular job being affected.

“My experience with Tunedly has been tremendous. I work directly with Chris, whom I can count on for candor and honesty – two traits I highly value in this industry,” says Bonnin, when asked about his relationship so far with the online recording studio.

He is referring to Chris Erhardt, Co-founder, and Producer at Tunedly. Erhardt has been working with him on several projects since he decided to start writing. Bonnin points out that, although his musical tastes lean towards country and blues, like Meghan Trainor, he writes in several genres. That kind of versatility requires a special ear to ensure each song maintains their shape and he believes Chris has that special ear he is looking for.

“If I send him a song, he’ll give me an accurate assessment of whether it has commercial potential. His team of professional musicians produces radio-ready masters with melodies that match what I hear in my head. I write lyrics; I’m not a performer or musician, so I need the expertise Chris and his team provides.” So, how exactly does Tunedly allow Bonnin and other busy or cost-cautious people to make music on the go? Based on Bonnin’s explanation, the professional music production studio seems to have everything needed by the modern musician, accessible online from virtually anywhere.

A quick search online, which is pretty much how Bonnin learned about Tunedly, reveals that the company operates a cloud-based service that utilizes talented session musicians and professional-grade equipment. They create both demos and radio-ready songs, in addition to providing tools, resources, and advice to budding songwriters. In the past year, the company has also been offering music publishing services by partnering with a team of professional song pluggers.

Their unique way of leveraging new technology, session musicians, and partner studios helps reduce the cost of producing music. As many songwriters know, this has been a sore point for many who simply can’t afford to pay thousands of dollars, in some cases, to create high-quality demos.

Tunedly has a growing client list, including people like Bonnin and other songwriters who are into music both part and full time. The company is slowly revolutionizing how music is produced around the world. Erhardt acknowledges this and is pleased with the direction in which Tunedly is heading. “Many aspects of life and business have evolved in the past 20 years due to new technology. It made things more affordable, evened out the playing field, and things only accessible to a few, suddenly became accessible to all. Sadly, this has not been the case for music production and Tunedly is on a mission to make recording and producing high-quality music accessible to anyone with music within,” he said.

While all that is happening, Bonnin is fired up and excited about the possibilities that lie ahead. Not only does he make time to write songs in between flights and car rides, as well as late nights and on weekends, he is also highly optimistic about striking it big with a notable act in the near future. He has already gotten his foot in the door at Music of the Sea and managing to get his projects professionally done by the people at Tunedly. It may just be a matter of time.

If you would like to find out more about Tunedly, please visit https://tunedly.com.

Please note: this article was originally published in June 2016 by American Songwriter after switching names from SongCat to Tunedly. Hard to believe it has been years already! We look forward to growing with you all over the next few years.