Pitching your own songs to publishers and A&R staff on a consistent basis requires qualities that most artists are short on -- organizational skills and logical, relentless persistence. If you're like me, you've got peoples business cards scattered throughout the several pockets of your briefcase or purse, scribbled-on napkin scraps in your wallet, and a pile of torn-out ads on the coffee table, not to mention other things in your life to deal with. That's why I was intrigued by this new software for songwriters that could organize and prompt me to actually function in a businesslike way.

Under the main menu, you can input information under Songs, Pitches, Contracts, People, Opportunities, or Reminders. For example, under Songs, you can enter the name of a song and its status (critiqued, demo'd, has contract, etc.), enter the song's musical style, copyright registration number, tempo, performer gender, and subject (choices include Faded Love, New Love, Life Lessons, and more.) There are places to list the writer(s), their social security numbers, their percentage of ownership of that song, and so on – (when I noticed this, I realized Starlight ™ might also be helpful to small publishers).

Appropriate for the Age we live in, two of the first fields on the People-page are for a cellular phone number as well as an e-mail address. (The snail-mail address can be entered at the bottom of the page if you wish.) Select the "mailing list" box if you want the person to be included when you print labels in the future. Before leaving the page, you must choose a Role for the individual (Producer, Publisher, Attorney, Songwriter, etc.)

Under the main menu is an option called Reports. Here you can generate printouts, including Songs that Match Opportunities, "Songs I've Pitched" (which can show you pitch results, comments, and any patterns), "Songs I've Written" (this report can point out songs that need to be copyrighted). In Reports you can print mailing labels for any contacts you've checked the "mailing list" box for (and you can sort contacts by Role to better target your mailings.)

"Activity Log" is another option under the main menu. Here you can see your work-in-progress summarized, if you've made notes on what your lawyer last said on that contract negotiation, for instance.

I had a question in the back of my mind – would Starlight ™ also be useful to performers? The answer was yes. I unearthed this "secret" when I tried to add a contact who was a booking agent, and yet "agent" was not an option under People. Then I found I could add or remove options by going to Custom Lists, where I happily added "Booking Agent" as a category under People/Roles. Actually, a module for Performances and Albums will later be released, according to the publisher's notes.

Starlight ™ was invented by a songwriter, Julia Swanson, who discovered the need for such a tool by trying to orchestrate her own business efforts.

The current price for Starlight ™ is $79 for a limited time.

Would I recommend it to other songwriters? Without a doubt.

The only inconvenience I encountered with the software is that when you go to a new page, the cursor doesn't always automatically appear in first form field where you'd like to just start typing; you have to click to put it there. (And Mac users, you may want to write to the company to request they make a Mac-compatible version of the software; right now its only available for PCs.) Although I have been assured that the software works great on a Mac with the use of Virtual PC Software ($149) Nevertheless, Starlight ™ will be a must-have for the songwriter who wants to do a thorough job of saturating the marketplace in a systematic manner. Congratulations to SwanSong Music for its initial release of an advantageous and long-needed tool.

Note: You can visit the SwanSong Music web site at http://www.swansongmusic.com.