Over the past few years my producer, Dave Mallen, has come back from Los Angeles around this time brimming with excitement and lots of new knowledge on how to have a career in music.  For him, it’s been a longer number of years than I that he’s considered himself a true professional.  But I took his word for it and decided to see what he was talking about: The ASCAP ‘I Create Music’ Expo 2011.

Going into it, I really didn’t know what to expect other than what Dave told me: lots of people, lots of key music industry people, everyone wanted someone elses attention but yours, and you don’t get to every session.  But on the flip side, I expected quite a bit, because it wasn’t cheap.  I had also heard from someone in passing that it was “very LA”.  Lots of superficial people, no one caring about one another, and just out for their own good.

Well, I’ve gone and come back.  I feel like part of a big family called ASCAP now who has my back and wants me to have a career and get paid to do it.  I could go on and on about the conference, but I want to put down several highlights of what I learned and did, best and worst of at the conference, and some memorable quotes my brain is still knawing on.

Look I Learned Stuff!

• Co-writing is where it is at. Just about every panel with a songwriter, singer, lyricist, people that “do” melody, said that collaborating and co-writing is very key right now for your career.  Apparently since I write everything (music, lyrics, melody), I’m an “100 percenter”–which was a rare breed at ASCAP.  It became obvious why I need to do this.  I’m not the best at all three of those things and maybe I need to get a lyricist or someone who’s good at lyrics to put words to the 40 plus songs of music I have laying around.

• Key tidbits on email and social media. Some studies have been done and they show a few key things.  The best times to send a message (email or social media) is 11am, 3pm or 8pm.  Most eyes are going to see what you have to say then.  Also, if you send out a newsletter, people are more likely to open it on the weekend.  However, they are also more likely to unsubscribe from the newsletter too.

• 60 Minutes of Life. That’s how long a message on Facebook or a tweet on Twitter will live before it’s gone (usually).  Of course, if it’s good enough it will get lots of comments and re-tweeted around.

• Copyright Law is for Lawyers.  I have a book on copyright terms as a reference.  But once entertainment and copyright lawyers start talking they go over everyone’s head.  As I put it on Twitter, they might as well have put a mirror in front of these people.  What I understand is that there’s the law, but it’s not always applied because of contracts.  So if I get a contract, I’ll get a lawyer to look it over so I don’t get screwed.  That’s about all I learned on that one.

• Trading Tracks and Beats.  In the more pop music world (think Katy Perry, Brittany Spears) the singers themselves don’t write the music for the songs.  People like Dr. Luke do.  And really what they do is put a bunch of computer generated sounds together called tracks.  The current #1, “E.T”, has 192 tracks.  A track can be an entire syth part or just a quick second of one sound engrained in a song.  Apparently there are people I met who “do tracks” or “make beats” for the purpose of having a hit producer use their track or beat.  I found this interesting, because some of these folks are making libraries of these tracks and beats.  Sometimes they sell them.  It actually gets around the issue of sampling.  It’s got its own culture and economy.  I’m working on trading chords and riffs.

Highlights for me at ASCAP Expo 2011

- Meeting Kyle Bylin.  Unless you’ve read Hypebot, a blog that sythesizes much of what’s being talked about on music industry blogs, you have no idea who Kyle is.  He’s a young guy who used to edit what Hypebot put out and read thousands of music blogs every week.  And because of that, he’s one of the smartest online music people out there–who actually doesn’t play a lick of music.  But it was a highlight meeting him, because now he’s at Billboard Magazine working on charting independent artist’s online presence using metrics and hard numbers, which is my cup o’tea.  He’s someone to watch in the new music industry.

- Seeing Sinbad.  I never liked Sinbad, but he made an appearance at ASCAP.  At first I thought, “this is a bold and utterly disasterous career move.  Sinbad the singer”, but I quickly found out he was there because of his daughter’s singing career.  Either way, I met the guy briefly and he’s super nice and friendly.

- Hanging with Ariel Hyatt, Melody and Ty, Sharif, Jason Bowen, Brandon Liss, and Marc Cooper. I met a lot of folks, and knew a few already, but knowing people made a conference of several hundred people much smaller.  This list includes a social media guru, four great musicians, and a producer.

Best and Worst of ASCAP 2011

- Best panelist: Matt Nathenson.  This singer/songwriter (who penned “Come on Get Higher”) was 0% bullshit and 100% honest about having a music career.  He put things in a way that had never been said before.  I owe him a beer.  Dan Wilson comes in second.

- Worst panelist: Fergie.  This was the fake LA person who happened to make it to a panel.  She at one point talked in a little girl voice.  It was odd.  She didn’t say anything interesting.

- Best panel: Pop/Rock Song Feedback.  Solid takes on what works in songwriting and feedback from differing perspectives (publishers, songwriters)

- Worst panel: What’s Your Music Worth?  This lost me from the second I walked in.  Too much jargon.  Bad examples.  References to court cases no one has ever studied or heard of.

- Best Showcase: Hearing Tommy Sims play “Streets of Philadelphia” and “Change the World”.  He helped Springsteen and Clapton respectively write those songs and performed them as he wrote them.

Memorable Quotes that Became Food for Thought

Take these quote for what they’re worth:

“Inspiration comes from when you’re not pressuring yourself.” -Dan Wilson, Semisonic

“Forget your success.  The next day the slate is clean and there’s no sound coming out of the speakers.” -Josh Kear, Nashville songwriter

“Rarely are you amazing in isolation.” -Tom Sturges, Music Publisher

“I don’t believe you have just one shot.  You have a thousand shots.” -Matt Nathanson, singer/songwriter

Overall, it was a wonderful conference with wonderful people and I came back inspired with what I learned.  Will I got next year?  I’d really like to, but I’ll see how my wallet looks in a few months.