Today we’d like to introduce you to Cynthia Anderson
Hi Cynthia, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I was a covid transplant, stuck here with the travel ban. I took over a venue that had someone murdered at it a few months prior – my job was bar rescue. I successfully cleaned the place up, turned it around, and started bringing in music.
I was working 90 hours a week to ensure my staffs safety and my artists could see the toll it was taking on me.
Ninja Cowboys founded the Texas State Songwriters Championship in 2014 -he begged me for a year to take it over.
He finally got his wish when the 2022 Champion, Kim Hunter approached me to also take over her radio station and start booking gigs for her. I am not cut out for booking. I can bring people together and make things happen but chasing phone calls and emails in circles is not my jam.
I took over the station and songwriters competition in January 2023. Our first finale was packed out of the door 3 hours before the show! I showed up to a venue of full of people at Horus Hall thinking they had another event before ours and was freaking out because we were supposed to start radio interview in an hour and these people looked like they had no intentions of leaving. It was a great show- over 28 songwriters and 11 hours of music – we decided it best to break it up into qualifiers the following year and eliminate some of the time – it was a LONG DAY – somehow we added qualifiers and the semifinals is now the night before the finale as a last chance opportunity for artists to jump in on the fun and chance to win cash prizes and still plan to run a 9 hour production.
We have come so far since the success of our first show – we have so many winners as we now have 3 events where artists can win cash prizes and titles! Our cash money shows are Female Songwriter of the Year 3rd Sunday in March – Male Songwriter of the Year 3rd Sunday in May and the finale 3rd Saturday in December =)
We also have a Fun Show / Artist Development show Aug 17 3-6pm- basically a big music family reunion and play time open to the public. And the semifinals I previously mentioned. We also have a monthly talent search and networking opportunity. www.jokesandstrokes.com
So, our first year of my running the finale we were at Horus Hall, we used them again year 2 for the monthly shows and qualifiers and built up to the big stage at Madam Pearls’ Dancehall & Saloon in the downtown stockyards =) The venue was nonstop packed with patrons from 1pm until 2am when the show was done! A beautiful sight but we honestly needed more room. And more attention on the songwriters. We are forever grateful for these two venues going through the trenches with us to grow to where we are. We have always wanted to live broadcast our shows and now we can!
We moved all of our shows (except the finale) to EMP Studios on Country Club Lane in Fort Worth (they have 2 FTW locations). 2nd Saturday of every month we invite media, artists, fans to join us in the studio building. During the show we have the studios and engineer ready for creative moments – demos – might even get a track – stop by and have fun with us =) We open the conference room for media to pull artists in for interviews and the showroom has a stage and seating area where we will be having our shows – we open it up for meet and greet and open mic for our comics and songwriters before comedy starts at 830pm – comedy runs from 830- 10 and we have room for 4 featured songwriters to do 30 min sets all genres – on our live broadcast – we now offer 50 in studio vip audience tickets for $25 each and Feb 8 if they get 2 or more tickets they get a complimentary bottle of champagne. Online worldwide viewing is $10 and available for 21 days =)
We have affiliate opportunities because we are a non-profit- we want our artists involved and getting a cut for their efforts too and not just when they show up, we are family =) – #tribe as we say together we go further.
Businesses/media/influencers can also become affiliate- help us make music great again by supporting our original songwriters – and build up a residual income as we grow- affiliate partners get 20% of tickets sold from their links.
Collaboration tshirts -cuz most artists have a problem with self promoting – and to be successful you have to be a self promoting machine – so we put our logo either the radio or songwriters on the front and theirs on the back so they can plug shamelessly – businesses can get these shirts as well and get a listing on the site www.texasstatesongwriters.com/collaboration
We do have some marketing / sponsor options that are tax deductible through texas state songwriters association www.texasstatesongwriters.com/marketing
We have partnered with Dance Time In Texas – a weekly red dirt radio show featuring all the top dance songs keeping people packin’ the dance floors. The show is broadcast to over 150 stations worldwide with over 3 million listeners with just the top 3 on the network – for $500 they get 4 mentions blast across the globe- and a month spinning on texas brew radio – as well as media blasts and a copy of their commercials to send to local radio =) This is huge as 50% goes back to the future of our organization and our vision for a music mecca- think something like bronson, mo or disney but music / cowboys / fine dinning =) and a party barn =) I dont’ want to get too far into plans as we still have lots to talk about whats happening.
UncleRyano partnered with us about 6 months ago – completely co branded – self funded (10k) trip to perform at the finale and support the songwriters. He’s launching his new merch on our platform to support the organization with 50% of proceeds – www.uncleryanoshop.com and is working hand in hand with some of our artists to get some really poppin new songs coming out =)
We hope to change the top 12 song topics to something a little less depressing. We believe if our world is struggling our entertainment is struggling and we need to support originality in a world where everyone wants us to conform.
If we change the top 12 song topics we change the world. And it starts with supporting songwriters, BUY THE SHIRT!!
We are on the hunt for an planning to have our showcase at a theatre this year. We feel it’s the best environment for our songwriters and production. And look forward to moving around to different theatres in Texas each year to branch out our roots, support the location with some new history, and get our artists stories heard.
We have started www.officialtexasdirectory.com and are hoping people contribute to our forum www.texasstatesongwriters.com/forum so we can start listings =)
Our organization is big on mental health – 20% of all of our shows go to support the North Texas Warrior Golf Association www.ntwga.org – we hope to put together a special showcase to honor them in november =)
Venues can reach out to book artists from Season 10 and receive a tax deduction and marketing for supporting them through the organization =)
We help artists with branding, graphics, merch, websites, and epks – the last 2 are some of the most important tools on the songwriters journey besides their pencil and guitar – sites average 6k a build and we do these for artists for 500 – they can presell downloads before they send their music to spotify and monetize and build their own brand- we have the ability to email capture to groups so they can hit their target audience directly – virtual tip jars and print on demand merch so no up front cost to get out tshirts – epk is a must – puts everything the mgr needs to make a decision in one spot in their email – with a photo and bio so they know what they want to know at first glance – those are $5o and come free with a site build
I feel like i may have left some stuff out =)
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has not been a smooth road- I wanted to quit in July of 2023 – wanted to quit breathing entirely and ended up back in church – i wouldn’t be here and this organization wouldn’t be what it is without God, I’m just a vessel and thankful I’m here.
The support I got from friends in the beginning was them planning parties we were expected to attend the night before we were scheduled to be in a city park in the middle of summer- so noone came to our event they partied instead.
I had to cut a LOT of people out of my life to get this far and lean no GOD. Literally only answer I have for this part. Doing so has built an entire tribe, it’s been like life is me sitting at a kitchen table with pieces of a puzzle everywhere and i just have to figure out where they fit in – it’s truly made every bit of struggle worth it-
Even ended up on medication at one point this year because i went through someone thinking they could basically steal my identity and run my idea better than I could. Its truly been a journey- but our blessings are in our struggles =) its how we grow
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
We are a state recognized artists development and growth nonprofit for the support of Texas Music and taking it worldwide =)
We host contests, give artists titles based on their strengths, we help with websites, epks, and host a live broadcast on the 2nd Saturday of each month artists can be featured in. www.jokesandstrokes.com
We do remote interview on Monday Nights- www.texasstatesongwriters.com/interviews
Radio Shows Include www.texasbrewradiolistennow.com
The Cynful Outlaws Radio Show (coming soon)
Dance Time in Texas – fri 6pm – sun 12am – tues 6pm – top 10 dance songs in texas
Red Dirt Proud – Fri 7pm – Mon 12am – Wed 6pm – top red dirt songs – and a lot of political incorrectness
Born & Bred – Oklahoma/Texas show – Fri Noon
CD Tex Radio Show – Texas Music Distributor – Thurs 12am & 6pm Sat & Sun 5pm
CDX Texas Traction – News and updates from mainstream artists play randomly through the day
Tristan Roberson won 1st Runner up Champion in Dec 2024 and bumped to top 1k country artists worldwide and top 50k artists in the world after announcing his win =)
We have watched Bad Boy Leroy 3rd place 2023 blow up going from 8k followers to over 23k
Brody Rivers Joined our July 2023 showcase and shortly after went to American Idol
Our complete list of winners is here www.texasstatesongwriters.com/finale2024
We had support from the biggest and first internet radio station to exist – fishbowl radio network
Born & Bred Radio Show came down from Oklahoma to support
Cma of Texas was present
Texas Country Music Association is sharing our events
97.5 KFDX came up from corpus christi to help with judging =)
we have a station KENS FM in Fargo ND that gives us a month of mondays in september on attitude era monday night live show –
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
Honestly everyone was worried about A1 – and then realized they had been fighting it for years – that and the algorithms with spotify – we have branches of our team working on a new streaming platform for artists and a system that helps alleviate some of the huge BMI fees- though www.uncleryano.com / www.digitalradiotracker.com/ www.wegetartists.com / springboard music fest (coming to fort worth soon)
I work hard to get artists sites converted to something that makes sense for music – so they can build their own brand and hopefully make a little off the downloads before it hits streaming – as is right now you have to get 5000 people to hear your song before you make as much as you did selling a cd – a lot of artists are starting to bring vinyl back and its doing well –
I think we just watched the country switch from red and blue to red – and a lot of things are going to change- people are tired of games- miss what america used to be and i think this is the wave where we the people start peopling again and these artists can finally make a few dollars again for working so hard to put out music
Pricing:
- Radio Blast $500 4x on 150+ stations and 1 month on Texas Brew Radio
- Artist entry $20 www.texasstatesongwriters.com
- Professional Artist Website build $500
- epk $50
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.officialtexasdirectory.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/texasbrewradio
- Other: https://www.texasbrewradiolistennow.com
Image Credits
Rustic Spirit Photography
