What I Learned At The 2011 ASCAP Expo (April 28-30, LA)

by Cari Cole
This past week I was at the 5th annual ASCAP Expo “We Create Music” (that’s a pic of pop singer-songstress Sara Bareilles interviewing the legendary Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac shot from my iPhone).

If you are a singer-songwriter, an emerging artist, producer or are trying to make it big, put ASCAP on your calendar for April 2012 – you won’t want to miss it. I have attended 3 out of 5 not only have none of them left me disappointed in the slightest, I always leave inspired, informed, connected and elevated. It’s a good feeling to be in-the-know and up-to-date on what’s happening in this industry!

If you missed it you can check the www.ascapexpo.com to purchase a video of the entire 3 days of panels! (Priceless).

I wanted to share with you the key points of what I learned this year so you too can step up a notch with the latest tips and trade secrets shared by some of the music businesses best songwriters, producers and industry insiders.

The Hitmaker’s Cookbook Panel with moderator Randy Grimmett (ASCAP), songwriters Dan Wilson, Josh Kear & Ari Levine.

1. That planning your career is fundamental (Josh Kear planned on being a published songwriter when he was 13 and started meetings at Music Row early on to build relationships.
2. That often the songs that are not the obvious hits – the painful dark ones or softer ballads – become the big hits. One can never really tell. Just write your best songs and don’t worry about writing a hit.
3. Not to hold your songs so precious – write a lot – but finish each one whether good or bad.
4. Find out what inspires you. Dan Wilson said that getting up and walking around allows his thoughts to flow better and sometimes lying under the piano while someone plays it does just the trick!
5. Identify your strengths and weaknesses so you can play your role better when co-writing, i.e., one person may be stronger at lyrics and the other is better with melody.

The ASCAP Advantage Panel with moderator Senior VP of ASCAP, Seth Saltzman and Josh Briggs (ASCAP), Etan Rosenbloom (ASCAP), Lynne Lummel (ASCAP), Matthew DeFilippis (ASCAP) talked about the multitude of ways ASCAP can help you with your career.

1. The new ASCAP Member Access Online is an instant view of your catalog, income, and cue sheets. You can track everything with just a click!
2. For artists with songs in Film or TV it usually takes 6 months for the film/TV company to deliver cue sheets to ASCAP. After that – you should inquire. (Cue sheets are sent to ASCAP directly).
3. ASCAP needs a Content Tag ID to track YouTube plays. I’ll keep you posted on how to find/get/determine yours. I’m working on it.
4. This was my addition from the audience: I spoke up about how I just found out by chance this year by registering with Rumblefish that they track and collect video synch licenses for You Tube plays) and distribute payments to SR (sound recording) owners (that’s you if you self release your records).
5. The ASCAP Lester Sill workshop and the film composers’ workshop (in LA) is spawning success for their writers.
6. Sound Exchange tracks digital performance royalties for SR owners (DIY releases). 45,619 performers are registered and they have paid $614 million dollars in royalties so far. If your music is being played online – go get your share!

At the Beyond Marketing Panel with moderator Ariel Hyatt (@CyberPR on Twitter)

1. Best hours for posting on social media sites are 11am, 3 pm and 8 pm EST (most eyes on Twitter, FB etc.)
2. How important brand is. Tay Zonday talked about his success with Chocolate Rain (66 million YouTube hits) and that the only thing he can attribute it to is a chance posting on Digg and the fact that his name and brand are easily searchable (made up his name Tay Zonday for that reason alone).
3. Marketing genius and artist Laura Roppe spoke about how marketing is just part of the job of being an artist today – unless you want to play your songs by yourself in your room. Get on Twitter folks – and get control of updating your website so you don’t have to pay anyone to do it, she says!
4. Ariel Hyatt stressed the importance of having a regular newsletter that goes out the same time and day twice a month. And how it’s imperative for artists to use an Email marketing program for your newsletter – Ariel’s top 3: ReverbNation, Chimpmail, and FanBridge. You can keep track of your fans and track who opens your email!

Note: Ariel mentioned that a Saturday and Sunday newsletter delivery schedule evidently gets more opt-outs but more opens because people have time to read.

At the Sara Bareilles interview of Lindsey Buckingham:

1. That Sara gets really nervous before stage – and that she suffers from a lack of confidence as a performer still (that’s what she said). Lindsey even said how she was visibly nervous before they went on (it’s comforting when big stars like her admit their jitters)
2. To be in a band is to make concessions and sacrifices – that’s how a successful band works (Lindsey on being in Fleetwood Mac). Lindsey said the most important thing was to do and play what the band needed – that often times he felt unfulfilled in the process – but that it served the band.
3. That while most artists in the 60’s – 70’s did not exactly calculate their route as artists today do – but they did certain things to make it happen. He reminisced about how had he and Stevie had not made the decision to move to LA from Northern CA – they may not have landed their record deal.

At the Dr. Luke Master Class:

1. That Dr. Luke works with people that are better than he is and he has a big team and doesn’t try to do it all himself – nor take all the credit. Matter of fact, he is quick to give credit where it is due. You get the sense that his success is truly collaboration at all levels.
2. New music trend: Dr. Luke said that the music he is now working on is moving away from the multi-tracked dance productions that Ke$ha, Britney and Katy Perry currently have out.
3. Dr. Luke uses a Manley microphone for lead vocals and pans a track of the chorus lead vocals to stereo to make them bigger. He usually uses all 197 tracks Pro Tools offers for most mixes and quadruple kick drums at different frequencies. Those were a few of the many tips he shared with us at his Master Session.

Other tips and thoughts from the 2011 ASCAP Expo:

…Someone said this at last year’s conference — but it really applies to right now and is worth repeating to anyone you know who is trying to do this music thing and be successful –and that is — Don’t focus on the people who are already stars – look for the people who are emerging and rise up together.

…Connecting with attendees ahead of the conference made a big difference for me this time. I connected with the pre-conference tweets via Tweet Deck (@ascapexpo) and hooked up with ten people I didn’t know prior to the conference. Meeting them in person was a stronger connection since we’d been tweeting and getting to know each other online first. I also made my own hashtag so folks could follow along with me firsthand (#cari@ascapexpo)

… I walked away knowing that while Luck is one of the main ingredients of making it big – don’t we create our own luck?

If you attended ASCAP this year or last – I’d love to hear what ah-ha’s or epiphanies you had – and /or let’s connect up during the year and meet up in 2012!