When Dan Hagen and Michael Inge sat down to co-write for the first time, they weren’t sure what to expect. However, the product of that first session, ‘If Love Ruled The World”, is a song that has the potential to change lives worldwide. Indie Connect interviews Dan about the experience and about what they are doing to share their song and message with the world.
But before you go any further, go to this website, listen to the song and watch the short video:
www.IfLoveRuledTheWorld.com
Indie Connect: When did you know that what you’d created could be much bigger than ‘just another song’?
Dan Hagen: We wrote the song during the presidential elections. The Country was in a recession and involved in two major wars. Michael and I were reflecting how our world is killing each other over religion and politics, a subject that divided us all. Greed had caused the collapse of the world’s economy. “If Love Ruled The World” is an uplifting and spiritual song that imagines a world where we realize that we as humanity are all in this together and that if we could put “Love” at the forefront of our thought patterns what an amazing world it would be. When the chorus came out, we looked at each other and I think both had chills with the way it felt and sounded, and with the message that was presented. We sent the work tape to some people and the response was powerful. I sent it to my mother who is a very honest audience. She said “Dan, this is amazing. You’ve captured something the whole world needs to hear.” She sent it to all her friends and the response was the same. Soon after recording a full-production arrangement of the song we had the song on hold with two major artists, licensed it to two major Film/TV placement co’s and had a major not-for-profit company wanting to make a video to promote their cause.
What instantly felt gratifying about this song was that we wrote it not only to have commercial success but because we felt the world needed to hear a message like this. My church, where I regularly play in the worship team, wanted to play the song for their service a few months ago. When I looked up and saw 90% of the congregation clapping and singing along to a song they had never heard before and then giving a standing ovation for 3 minutes it showed me how powerful the song was.
Indie Connect: Given the nature of the song, where are you marketing it? 
Dan Hagen: The song is being shopped to Film/TV, artists, not-for-profit co’s and any other contacts that Michael and I have. Every time we present the song to someone it opens new doors. The church in Nashville where we performed the song had the CEO of a major not-for-profit during a service as a guest speaker. I was so moved by what they were doing and how they were helping millions of people around the world. I got his contact info and sent the song to the company. I told them that Michael and I wanted to donate the song to them to help promote their cause. They held a marketing meeting within two days and emailed me back telling me they wanted to shoot a video with it.
Indie Connect: Are you promoting with Michael as the artist, or is what we heard on your website your demo?
Dan Hagen: We originally recorded the song with the intention of it just being a demo. The response we got soon made us realize that the recording was something we wanted to pitch to artists and sell the song ourselves with Michael being the artist. He is the perfect singer for the song. Michael has such a powerful and soulful voice that the audience naturally believes every word. I produced the song and we recorded at a friend’s studio. Producing music for a living, I have learned how to make a master recording on a demo budget without sacrificing quality.
Indie Connect: Most artists/songwriters have their own artist websites or use MySpace, Facebook etc. to market all of their songs together. Why did you purchase the web domain of the title of this particular song and set up an actual webpage around it?
Dan Hagen: It was important to Michael and I to get the song out to the world as soon as possible. We wanted to be able to capitalize on any exposure that the song created(Film/TV placement). So we created a project name called “11th Hour featuring Michael Inge”.
We teamed with a great web developer/photographer named Tom Schaefer that did our photo shoot and website. Tom explained how search engines work and said that we needed to own the domain and make it simple as possible to find the song once people heard it in a movie or tv show. They can google the song, find the website and learn more about the song, see/hear an acoustic performance of the song and access links to purchase the song.
Indie Connect: Why did you set up a separate formal business entity for this song?
Dan Hagen: Michael and I have both had certain levels of success in our own careers but wanted to make a project name that could be used for selling the song on digital sites and use it for future collaborations. We chose “11th hour featuring Michael Inge”. Though we wanted to create a name for the project we also saw the importance of the audience wanting to attach it with an artist. Since Michael has already created a great audience with his artist career we decided to feature his name as well.
Indie Connect: What are your next steps?
Dan Hagen: Once the not-for-profit organization releases the video, we want to approach them with possibly traveling to some of the countries around the world that they are helping and teach the song to under-privileged kids. The message of the song is one that we can see bringing a lot of hope to people in times and places of adversity.
We will continue pitching the song to artists and Film/TV placement co’s. We would like to write more songs together and possibly tour to support the music and project we created together.
Indie Connect: Is the song available for purchase?
Dan Hagen: The song is available on some digital sites already and will be ready for download on all major digital sites in early March.
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