Custom songs, or personalized songs consist of a non-songwriter providing information to a songwriter

Songwriter

A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...

 so that the information can then be turned into a piece of music. Unlike the Song poem

Song poem

Song poem usually refers to song lyrics that have been set to music for a fee. This practice, which has long been disparaged in the music industry, was also known as song sharking and was conducted by several businesses throughout the 20th century in North America.- Production and promotion :The...

 of the 1960s and 1970s, these songs are more often than not purchased as gifts and do not claim any commercial intentions. The consumer demographic consists mostly of Generation X

Generation X

Generation X, commonly abbreviated to Gen X, is the generation born after the Western post–World War II baby boom ended. While there is no universally agreed upon time frame, the term generally includes people born from the early 1960's through the early 1980's, usually no later than 1981 or...

ers who are trying to be creative in their gift giving. With the Internet, songs can be written, recorded, and sent via email so that the whole process can take very little time.

The spectrum of services provided in this field are broad. Some agencies merely offer a song with a certain theme (e.g. an anniversary or birthday) on a CD with a personalized label. Others are a step up and provide a pre-recorded song with the name of the recipient inserted into the song. The most popular sites; however, offer completely original songs written and recorded from start to finish based on information provided by the customer. Some sites use a specific composer or songwriter to compose the music where others use crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing is the act of sourcing tasks traditionally performed by specific individuals to a group of people or community through an open call....

 by allowing multiple songwriters and composers to compete for the project.

One example is Chris Staples

Chris Staples

Chris Staples is a singer and songwriter from Pensacola, Florida, currently the frontman and main musician for Discover America. Previously, he was the vocalist and guitarist of the indie rock band Twothirtyeight. One of the founding members in 1995, Staples stayed with the band until its split-up...

' 2008 EP

Extended play

An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...

 (under the pseudonym

Pseudonym

A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...

Discover America) "Songs For Sale," in which he wrote songs put to lyrics submitted by fans.