I understand that everyone has their own reasons for coming to any of these places, but most often it is just to be around people like them, who have the same passions, same interests, writing, performing, recording, songs, networking, making friends and finding out about the ever changing elements of the music industry.

Everyone are now are doing this. They are "facebook and Twitter" stars. Facebook alone uploads around 100,000 songs, videos, an hour. If you add up the many areas, Spotify, Pandora, the dozens of Internet platforms, upload millions of songs a month. So being able to stand out with our songs past a couple of minutes for our friends and family members is a pretty tall order.

Songwriting is not learned in a vacum. It's not just about things you throw down and expect people to embrace. It's about learning craft, it's about finding ways to put your experience into a format that other people want to listen to. In order to do that, you have to learn from people who have been there, people who have trod the places you are trying to get to. That's what these forums are about.

I hope it is appreciated. 

For myself, I've been a professional musician and songwriter for over 40 years. I'm happy to have done it and wouldn't trade anything for it. But I honestly have reservations for the future of our art and craft. The money is mostly going away. The business opportunities that were once available are no longer. We're all having to make adjustments. What I've tried to do over the past 20 years is try to save people money, try to give them some heads up on things to do and things NOT to do. I enjoy sites like these because it shows me where people are in their thought processes and from time to time, that brings me business. But the main reason I am here is to share information. I hope it helps something. I actually enjoy the forums more than going to listen to songs, because tha this what I do on a daily basis. Listen to, critique and deal with songwriters and songs. There are also legal issues, that all professionals go through in that if we were to listen to a song, and write something similar (and eveyrthing is written over and over and over, just different versions of existing songs) we could be accused of "stealing songs and ideas." So unless someone points me to a paricular song, or asks me privately, I skip the song forums. If anyone asked you to do your job after hours and for free, after working on that job all day, you'd probably not be interested in that either. So I enjoy the forums on subjects that people have questions about. That's why I'm here. 

I hope people will use this and other forums as a place not just to share songs, but to learn about this art. That is the only way to stand out to remain viuable when most people fade away. It is a good forum and I hope people will see the postive addition it will make in their lives. I do hope it's appreciated. 

Thanks to Gavin and the people who participate and contribute. Thanks to the people who come from other forums. And thanks to the administrators who try to keep this going. It costs money to do web sites and maintain them. And if there is little activity, they will finally decide that it's just not worth it. 

So I do hope it's appreciated. For those who have questions or thoughts on the subject, chime out. There will usually be someone that answers. 
I hope it's appreciated.