Reporting by David Kornfeld, Sara Saltzman and Laura Candela
Day 3: Saturday - April 25, 2009
Here's a recap of the EXPO's concurrent panels held on Saturday, April 25, 2009.
Tech it To the Limit: Social Media and Online Tools for the Music Creator
MODERATOR: Laura Roeder
PANEL: Kyra Reed, Roy Elkins, Patrick Faucher
Elkins: "Assume your fans want to buy your music and contact you"
Faucher: "your central website is important. Keep them at your website, don't send them away.
"The whole point of social media is communication. Fans want to help you spread the word."
Takeaways:
Everything from Facebook and Twitter to blogs and band websites provide new opportunities to get your music heard. Connect with your fans, engage them. The draw is conversation; respond to comments. Update your blog often, get your fans to help you. Keep keywords relevant so that you are showing up in searches for music.
You are not the only person in your community. Write about your fans, write about a show you went to so that you'll show up in searches for that group, links to bands, venues. Take control.
Expose what's real. If you wouldn't say something to them in person, don't post about it on your blog.
MySpace is still strong. Your most effective marketing opportunity is your fans.
Writing for a Radio Market: From the Way It Was to the Way it Is
MODERATOR: Ralph Murphy
PANELIST: Wayland Holyfield
This morning's panel focused on the challenges of contemporary songwriters face in crafting songs for the radio, the "great equalizer." Right off the bat, Mr. Murphy, referencing an article he had read about job hunting, likened getting music on the radio to trying to find a new job.
One the primary messages that seemed to come across was that you should know your audience. For example, Ralph Murphy repeated several times that the audience hearing your song at 10pm in a club is very different than the audience listening to morning commute radio at 7am. Therefore to make the best impression during the worst time of day is a useful parameter to consider while crafting songs for the radio.
In order to make the strongest connection and impression, writers need to consider how to engage the audience. Several facets to think about include:
Be current, but also come across with a consistency that your audience can identify with
An artist should develop a consistent persona across songs
Audiences enjoy new takes on familiar themes from trusted voices
Holyfield: "Don't measure yourself as a failure if you don't find your songs on the radio."
Music creators should endeavor to look at what they do and find the appropriate avenue and audience for their particular music.
Mixed Genre Song Feedback
MODERATOR: Curt Frasca
PANEL: Chris Farren, Gilles Godard, Katie Welle
One comment echoed over and over again was that the songs could be tightened. Take the 80% that's good and throw out the 20% that's weakest. Editing is difficult, it's the ability to step away from yourself and look at this piece of music
Think commercially, there's a certain type of sound that is really working for synch right now. The panel loved when the verse is as commercial as the chorus
There will always be artists out there who need great songs.
Concert Music and Jazz on the Internet
MODERATOR: Doug Wood
PANEL: James M. Kendrick Esq., Stephen Paulus, Alex Shapiro
The more web presence you can have, the better. You cannot have too much web presence. 75% percent of a composer's week is spent on business, managing relationships.
Every composer is in fact their own small business. The more you understand that, the easier it is to move forward.
How do you deicide what kind of music to put up? Put up short high quality mp3s. Give little things away but they always come back in spades.
Internet partnerships are a win win for record companies. In one example, a painter approached Alex and wanted to do a video of images with my music over it. Her attitude is, you never know how successful something will be. Always assume the collaboration is wonderful and it will be popular. Always go for a percentage on your contract.
However, if someone comes to you and wants to use your music, you have the right to say no.
What's the Future for Songwriters and Publishers?
PRESENTER: Don Passman, Esq.
Don began by going through all the media that music can be licensed for and the rights you, as a songwriter, have in relation to those.
How do you get a copyright? All you need to do is make it in a physical form. If you register it, that just means you get some more rights.
Anytime music is used commercially, it's generating money for the publisher & songwriter.
Technology has disrupted the music industry to the point that we still don't have a remedy to fix it. But one is coming.
Family Guy's Secret Recipe for Success: Great Relationships + Great Music = Great TV
MODERATOR: Richard Bellis
PANEL: Ron Jones, Walter Murphy
Jones: "We never write funny music, the comedy is in the visual and the dialogue."
Takeaways:
Demo everything
More people equals more energy into each piece.
Live musicians make a huge difference in shows like Family Guy and American Dad.
Get a background and strong foundation in composition and music theory.
Take jobs. Even if it's a challenge, it's for the experience.
You need a technique. You need to be able to take an idea and develop it and go deeper.
Get outside of the norm. Learn the vocabulary.
R&B/Hip-Hop Song Feedback
MODERATOR: Walter Jones
PANEL: Charity Duplechan, Carlos Hudgins, Jon "Jon Street" Yip & Jeremy "Jerm the Beat" Reeves (The Stereotypes)
Audience question: How radio ready are you looking for a song to be when it comes to you? Charity: "For me the music doesn't have to be polished. I just need a reference. I need to decide should we spend more money on it, or scrap it and start over? But the better quality it is, better chance you do have.
Takeaways:
9 out of 10 times A&R has a different idea than the direction the album actually goes in.
Artists sometimes make the mistake by submitting something like how they sounded their first, 2nd, or last album. That's not the direction the label wants to go in.
Having a good team, a good base around you...good manager who's waving your banner is a good asset to have. When you look at hot songwriters and producers, they have a team. Build a team, grab a hot producer. Everything in the industry is very cliquish right now.
Get a job where you're going to get seen or heard. Mail room, intern, runner at a studio. You'll be around the people you want to talk to and have your foot in the door.
Country Song Feedback
MODERATOR: Ralph Murphy
PANEL: Jewel Coburn, Steve Seskin
Takeaways:
AABA song form is a good technique. AABA means verse, verse, bridge, verse. And the title is most often at the beginning or end of verse. Doesn't usually appear in the bridge section.
The only time you ever break a rhyme pattern is for a content reason or a little internal rhyme. When you establish a rhyme pattern in the first verse, you establish a template the listener expects it in the second verse.
Everything we do is defined by what we do before it and what we do after it.
Every Song Tells a Story
MODERATOR: Brendan Okrent
PANEL: Gary Baker, Steven Bishop, Jack Tempchin, Wendy Waldman
Songs performed:
Gary Baker: "I Swear" and "I'm Already There"
Steven Bishop: "On And On" and "Separate Lives"
Jack Tempchin: "Already Gone" and "Slow Dancing (Swayin' To The Music)"
Wendy Waldman: "Save The Best For Last" and the first song she ever wrote.
Film Music Master Session with James Newton Howard
MODERATOR: Jon Burlingame
James Newton Howard wasn't sure he wanted to do film scoring, but started with a few cues and loved it. Nowadays he gets assignments from directors but also scales out interesting projects. Directors have very different ways to talk about film music. He had to learn to "listen" to directors to really understand what their particular vision would be for a film.
Howard's hardest job was scoring three hours of music for "King Kong" in 5 weeks. He would usually have between 3 and 5 months.
The audience was shown demos of King Kong scenes with no music, then the score.
Howard: "Don't be confrontational with the director, listen!"
Spanning the Genres: Johntá Austin and Warryn Campbell
MODERATOR: Tremayne Anchrum
First, if you're not Tim, don't try to do a Timbaland type track, he will always be better than you. We can't stress enough, do what you do. I don't feel like there is a cutting edge. I feel like a great song today is a great song ten years ago, and it'll be a great song 10 years from now. Goes back to writing a great song that is timeless. They will always be relevant and needed. We need more of that.
Don't worry about trying to be the hottest for right now. Because hot gets cold. You want to be the most consistent. You want to prove you're gonna be around for a while. Be strawberry, be vanilla, be chocolate. They're always in the ice cream shop. Mint julep butter pecan isn't going to be there next month. Do you. Do you.
Audience question: What programs should we buy...what's available downstairs? Answer: "Maybe, or maybe not. You need to use whatever works for you. We can't tell you what or what not to buy."
Audience question: Where should we send a song if we want to get it to a certain artist? Answer: "Anybody who knows the person you want to get it to. Her management, her cousin, where she gets her car washed, wherever."
Audience question: I have the talent God gave me, but I have reservations about doing music other than gospel. Answer: "Don't let your occupation run all over your salvation. Write the kind of music you want to write...but keep it clean"
Audience question: How important is it to have manager? Answer: "If the manager has a lot of experience, it can help you get to the next level. But if you're two young people just starting out, there's not much they can do for you."
Pop, Rock, Urban and Everything In BeTween
MODERATOR: Eric Craig
PANEL: Jamie Houston, Damon Elliott, Andrea Remanda
When you're a writer you can morph yourself...when a song's a good song you can dress it up in different ways.
One thing that young writers tend to struggle with is trying to always write great songs. Write a lot of songs, even bad ones. Write every idea. You might find one chord change, come back to it a year later and pull the bridge out. Some people are afraid to write a bad song, then they only want to finish that kind of song.
How do you change gears between genres? Have ADD. You multi-task, you morph depending on the artist. Get into the artist's head, try to deliver what they want. Be a music psychologist.
ASCAP EXPO Mobile App Coverage (Sponsored by ole)
Reporting by David Kornfeld, Sara Saltzman and Laura Candela
Day 3: Saturday - April 25, 2009
Here's a recap of the EXPO's concurrent panels held on Saturday, April 25, 2009.
Tech it To the Limit: Social Media and Online Tools for the Music Creator
MODERATOR: Laura Roeder
PANEL: Kyra Reed, Roy Elkins, Patrick Faucher
Elkins: "Assume your fans want to buy your music and contact you"
Faucher: "your central website is important. Keep them at your website, don't send them away.
"The whole point of social media is communication. Fans want to help you spread the word."
Takeaways:
Everything from Facebook and Twitter to blogs and band websites provide new opportunities to get your music heard. Connect with your fans, engage them. The draw is conversation; respond to comments. Update your blog often, get your fans to help you. Keep keywords relevant so that you are showing up in searches for music.
You are not the only person in your community. Write about your fans, write about a show you went to so that you'll show up in searches for that group, links to bands, venues. Take control.
Expose what's real. If you wouldn't say something to them in person, don't post about it on your blog.
MySpace is still strong. Your most effective marketing opportunity is your fans.
Writing for a Radio Market: From the Way It Was to the Way it Is
MODERATOR: Ralph Murphy
PANELIST: Wayland Holyfield
This morning's panel focused on the challenges of contemporary songwriters face in crafting songs for the radio, the "great equalizer." Right off the bat, Mr. Murphy, referencing an article he had read about job hunting, likened getting music on the radio to trying to find a new job.
One the primary messages that seemed to come across was that you should know your audience. For example, Ralph Murphy repeated several times that the audience hearing your song at 10pm in a club is very different than the audience listening to morning commute radio at 7am. Therefore to make the best impression during the worst time of day is a useful parameter to consider while crafting songs for the radio.
In order to make the strongest connection and impression, writers need to consider how to engage the audience. Several facets to think about include:
Be current, but also come across with a consistency that your audience can identify with
An artist should develop a consistent persona across songs
Audiences enjoy new takes on familiar themes from trusted voices
Holyfield: "Don't measure yourself as a failure if you don't find your songs on the radio."
Music creators should endeavor to look at what they do and find the appropriate avenue and audience for their particular music.
Mixed Genre Song Feedback
MODERATOR: Curt Frasca
PANEL: Chris Farren, Gilles Godard, Katie Welle
One comment echoed over and over again was that the songs could be tightened. Take the 80% that's good and throw out the 20% that's weakest. Editing is difficult, it's the ability to step away from yourself and look at this piece of music
Think commercially, there's a certain type of sound that is really working for synch right now. The panel loved when the verse is as commercial as the chorus
There will always be artists out there who need great songs.
Concert Music and Jazz on the Internet
MODERATOR: Doug Wood
PANEL: James M. Kendrick Esq., Stephen Paulus, Alex Shapiro
The more web presence you can have, the better. You cannot have too much web presence. 75% percent of a composer's week is spent on business, managing relationships.
Every composer is in fact their own small business. The more you understand that, the easier it is to move forward.
How do you deicide what kind of music to put up? Put up short high quality mp3s. Give little things away but they always come back in spades.
Internet partnerships are a win win for record companies. In one example, a painter approached Alex and wanted to do a video of images with my music over it. Her attitude is, you never know how successful something will be. Always assume the collaboration is wonderful and it will be popular. Always go for a percentage on your contract.
However, if someone comes to you and wants to use your music, you have the right to say no.
What's the Future for Songwriters and Publishers?
PRESENTER: Don Passman, Esq.
Don began by going through all the media that music can be licensed for and the rights you, as a songwriter, have in relation to those.
How do you get a copyright? All you need to do is make it in a physical form. If you register it, that just means you get some more rights.
Anytime music is used commercially, it's generating money for the publisher & songwriter.
Technology has disrupted the music industry to the point that we still don't have a remedy to fix it. But one is coming.
Family Guy's Secret Recipe for Success: Great Relationships + Great Music = Great TV
MODERATOR: Richard Bellis
PANEL: Ron Jones, Walter Murphy
Jones: "We never write funny music, the comedy is in the visual and the dialogue."
Takeaways:
Demo everything
More people equals more energy into each piece.
Live musicians make a huge difference in shows like Family Guy and American Dad.
Get a background and strong foundation in composition and music theory.
Take jobs. Even if it's a challenge, it's for the experience.
You need a technique. You need to be able to take an idea and develop it and go deeper.
Get outside of the norm. Learn the vocabulary.
R&B/Hip-Hop Song Feedback
MODERATOR: Walter Jones
PANEL: Charity Duplechan, Carlos Hudgins, Jon "Jon Street" Yip & Jeremy "Jerm the Beat" Reeves (The Stereotypes)
Audience question: How radio ready are you looking for a song to be when it comes to you? Charity: "For me the music doesn't have to be polished. I just need a reference. I need to decide should we spend more money on it, or scrap it and start over? But the better quality it is, better chance you do have.
Takeaways:
9 out of 10 times A&R has a different idea than the direction the album actually goes in.
Artists sometimes make the mistake by submitting something like how they sounded their first, 2nd, or last album. That's not the direction the label wants to go in.
Having a good team, a good base around you...good manager who's waving your banner is a good asset to have. When you look at hot songwriters and producers, they have a team. Build a team, grab a hot producer. Everything in the industry is very cliquish right now.
Get a job where you're going to get seen or heard. Mail room, intern, runner at a studio. You'll be around the people you want to talk to and have your foot in the door.
Country Song Feedback
MODERATOR: Ralph Murphy
PANEL: Jewel Coburn, Steve Seskin
Takeaways:
AABA song form is a good technique. AABA means verse, verse, bridge, verse. And the title is most often at the beginning or end of verse. Doesn't usually appear in the bridge section.
The only time you ever break a rhyme pattern is for a content reason or a little internal rhyme. When you establish a rhyme pattern in the first verse, you establish a template the listener expects it in the second verse.
Everything we do is defined by what we do before it and what we do after it.
Every Song Tells a Story
MODERATOR: Brendan Okrent
PANEL: Gary Baker, Steven Bishop, Jack Tempchin, Wendy Waldman
Songs performed:
Gary Baker: "I Swear" and "I'm Already There"
Steven Bishop: "On And On" and "Separate Lives"
Jack Tempchin: "Already Gone" and "Slow Dancing (Swayin' To The Music)"
Wendy Waldman: "Save The Best For Last" and the first song she ever wrote.
Film Music Master Session with James Newton Howard
MODERATOR: Jon Burlingame
James Newton Howard wasn't sure he wanted to do film scoring, but started with a few cues and loved it. Nowadays he gets assignments from directors but also scales out interesting projects. Directors have very different ways to talk about film music. He had to learn to "listen" to directors to really understand what their particular vision would be for a film.
Howard's hardest job was scoring three hours of music for "King Kong" in 5 weeks. He would usually have between 3 and 5 months.
The audience was shown demos of King Kong scenes with no music, then the score.
Howard: "Don't be confrontational with the director, listen!"
Spanning the Genres: Johntá Austin and Warryn Campbell
MODERATOR: Tremayne Anchrum
First, if you're not Tim, don't try to do a Timbaland type track, he will always be better than you. We can't stress enough, do what you do. I don't feel like there is a cutting edge. I feel like a great song today is a great song ten years ago, and it'll be a great song 10 years from now. Goes back to writing a great song that is timeless. They will always be relevant and needed. We need more of that.
Don't worry about trying to be the hottest for right now. Because hot gets cold. You want to be the most consistent. You want to prove you're gonna be around for a while. Be strawberry, be vanilla, be chocolate. They're always in the ice cream shop. Mint julep butter pecan isn't going to be there next month. Do you. Do you.
Audience question: What programs should we buy...what's available downstairs? Answer: "Maybe, or maybe not. You need to use whatever works for you. We can't tell you what or what not to buy."
Audience question: Where should we send a song if we want to get it to a certain artist? Answer: "Anybody who knows the person you want to get it to. Her management, her cousin, where she gets her car washed, wherever."
Audience question: I have the talent God gave me, but I have reservations about doing music other than gospel. Answer: "Don't let your occupation run all over your salvation. Write the kind of music you want to write...but keep it clean"
Audience question: How important is it to have manager? Answer: "If the manager has a lot of experience, it can help you get to the next level. But if you're two young people just starting out, there's not much they can do for you."
Pop, Rock, Urban and Everything In BeTween
MODERATOR: Eric Craig
PANEL: Jamie Houston, Damon Elliott, Andrea Remanda
When you're a writer you can morph yourself...when a song's a good song you can dress it up in different ways.
One thing that young writers tend to struggle with is trying to always write great songs. Write a lot of songs, even bad ones. Write every idea. You might find one chord change, come back to it a year later and pull the bridge out. Some people are afraid to write a bad song, then they only want to finish that kind of song.
How do you change gears between genres? Have ADD. You multi-task, you morph depending on the artist. Get into the artist's head, try to deliver what they want. Be a music psychologist.