Last week I went to the ASCAP ‘I Create Music’ Expo in Los Angeles. It’s an annual three day event featuring songwriters, artists, producers, and music business people in a variety of presentations, panels, demonstrations, and performances. Some of my main takeaways:

* I was reminded that ASCAP has many resources other than collecting and distributing royalties available to their songwriters, including working with their representatives, the “CollabLab’, various songwriting workshops, the ASCAP Foundation, etc. The other Performing Rights Organizations – BMI and SESAC – have similar resources available to their writers (though, having only been an ASCAP writer, I don’t have personal experience with them).

I plan to look into these in the year to come. My experience has often been that it can be hard to get the attention and help of people at ASCAP and other large music business organizations unless you’re already a big earner for them and don’t actually need their help anymore. Though, in fairness, they do have over half a million members, sometimes it’s only when they need you that they’ll take the time. But I’ll give ASCAP’s services another shot and report back.

* The music business has its own 1 percent. It was amazing how many of the producers and writers that were featured at the Expo wrote for the same small group of artists – Adele, Rihanna, Jay Z, Beyonce, Usher, Justin Timberlake, Katy Perry, and a handful of others.

* I’m moderately hopeful that in the near future positive legislative change can happen for songwriters and music creators, resulting in more reasonable payouts to songwriters. As I often say in songwriting workshops, “It’s a great time to be a songwriter… in every way but financially.”

The digital world has obviously completely changed the landscape of selling music. One result has been that songwriters make much less money (I think this was mostly an unintended consequence… but the businesses involved have taken full advantage). So, on the one hand you have people, some of them legislators, who recognize that without a reasonable financial incentive many of the most promising music creators will find other things to do. On the other hand you have large corporations who are coining money from recorded music and frankly don’t give a shit about the future of songwriting. I know this sounds crazy – why kill the goose that lays the golden eggs? – but think of what’s done to the environment for immediate profit, not caring what the long-term consequences are for human life. Same basic idea.)

All of the organizations affiliated with the creative side of music are pushing hard for legislative change, which is the only thing that will make a real difference for us. Without meaningful action in Washington the financial outlook for songwriters remains pretty bleak. Read my post here for info. Go here for a lot more great information. Sign the petition!

* Eric Beall is still the most comprehensive, organized, and articulate speaker on songwriting- and music business-related information that I’ve come across. He gave a talk on ‘The Nuts And Bolts Of The Music Business’ (that actually focused on the business of songwriting – he didn’t choose their title) that packed more usable information, analysis, and sensible forecasting into an hour than you could get in a whole day from most of the other workshops. (I also recommend his book ‘The Billboard Guide To Writing and Producing Songs That Sell’.)

* It’s still a man’s world. I’m not saying this is ASCAP’s fault – they’re probably reflecting the business pretty accurately… and maybe even, to their credit, bending in the other, pro-female, direction a little bit. But, sad to report, the majority of the panelists and presenters were men… and the women were sometimes relegated to ‘women only’ panels and performances.  This situation is certainly better than it used to be (10 years ago I got my daughter an internship at a top studio in NYC and after a week she said to me, “Dad, this has got to be the most patriarchal business in the world.”). But it’s still… a situation.

* If you are one of the many songwriters who use the ‘Voice Memos’ utility app on your iPhone to record moments of inspiration, download Apple’s new FREE ‘Music Memos’ app. It functions similarly, BUT…

Among other things, it records high quality audio, has a guitar tuner, analyzes chords. You tap to expand what you recorded into a chart or score. You can type in lyrics, save capo positions, etc. You can add drum loops and other instruments. Etc., etc., etc. All on your iPhone or iPad. Then you can load what you’ve done into Garageband (and then also open that in LogicPro). Nice.

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