He wrote the lyrics to numerous popular songs for several prominent artists, including Irwin Goodman, Jari Sillanpää, and Katri Helena.

The company's production manager, Toivo Kärki, reluctantly took the beginning lyricist under his wing and taught him for five years, making him at first read Aristotle's Poetics and learn musical notation.

[2] Yleisradio (YLE), the Finnish Broadcasting Corporation, censored or banned several of Goodman's songs, due to lyrics, often written by Salmi, that they considered to be of a "suspicious nature".

In the 1980s, the label produced several albums that achieved gold records, for artists including Vesa-Matti Loiri and Jörgen Petersen.

The same year, Salmi also collaborated on Kirka's Surun pyyhit silmistäni, which became the best-selling album in Finland at the time with 210,000 copies sold.

Since then, Salmi has made his living as a freelance writer and lyricist, authoring multiple novels, biographies, and a book of poetry.