Music Connection Magazine's Industry Spotlight on the ASCAP "I Create Music" EXPO

April 2008's ASCAP "I Create Music" EXPO: Affordable Conference Empowers Songwriters and Composers

By Dan Kimpel

The ASCAP "I Create Music" EXPO elevates the conference experience to an unparalleled magnitude. Since its inaugural year, the EXPO (open to all regardless of performing rights affiliation) has attracted more than 4,000 music creators, industry professionals and exhibitors and is expected to convene an unprecedented gathering for the third annual EXPO in Los Angeles Apr. 10-12, 2008 at the Renaissance Hotel at Hollywood & Highland.

The star power is extraordinary: The EXPO's headliner interviews have already featured Tom Petty and Randy Newman. Other panelists and performers have included Clarence Avant, Johnta Austin, Glenn Ballard, Alan & Marilyn Bergman, Stephen Bray, Darrell Brown, Chris Brubeck, Bun B, Kandi Burruss, Regina Carter, Chamillionaire, Tom Chapin, Desmond Child, Alf Clausen, Ted Cohen, John Corigliano, Marshall Crenshaw, Hal David, Patrick Doyle, Dre & Vidal, Jermaine Dupri, Barry Eastmond, Mike Elizondo, Michael Giacchino, Lukasz "Dr. Luke" Gottwald, Jerry Harrison, Mark Hudson, Brett James, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, John King (Dust Brothers), Holly Knight, Russ Landau, Jerry Leiber & Mike Stoller, Tania León, Alejandro Lerner, Seth MacFarlane, Kenny MacPherson, Johnny Mandel, Tom Maxwell, MC Lyte, Rhett Miller, Rick Nowels, Martin Page, Rudy Perez, Linda Perry, David Renzer, John Rich, Matt Scannell, Stephen Schwartz, Jill Scott, Matt Serletic, Jeff Silbar, Marc Shaiman, Michelle Shocked, Jill Sobule, J.D. Souther, Don Was, Jimmy Webb, Paul Williams, Ann & Nancy Wilson (Heart), Bill Withers and Dan Zanes, to name just a few of the stellar participants representing a wide range of genres.

"The EXPO took off like a rocket," marvels ASCAP President and Chairman and Academy Award-winning lyricist, Marilyn Bergman, who offers this overview: "For someone who wants to know what the business is like today — who are the players and where help might come from — attending this event is a very wise thing to do."

EXPO EVOLVES
For decades, ASCAP has been presenting workshops and career development programs. Each year the Society holds general membership meetings in Los Angeles, Nashville and New York. When ASCAP began offering premeeting seminars the response was immediate, says Phil Crosland, Executive Vice President, Chief Marketing Officer for ASCAP." Virtually everyone — about 1,000 people at each location — would show up an hour early to sit in. We would have panels of successful writers interviewed by Todd Brabec, and we had tremendously positive feedback."

Clearly, as ASCAP members were surveying the landscape for networking and educational opportunities, the Society surmised that having one huge event under a single umbrella — 100 percent dedicated to the needs of songwriters and musicians across all genres — could empower artistic creators. Crosland notes that a working group that included a key EXPO architect, Lauren Iossa, Senior VP, Marketing, said, "'We need to do our own music conference where we can focus and make it more significant than an afternoon, a day or even two days.'"

BEYOND SONGWRITING 101
New Jersey songwriter/producer Deb Ferrara, founder and producer of the popular ASCAP showcase series NJ Songwriters in the Round, has featured hundreds of up-and-coming artists and helped the music community connect. Most recently Ferrara partnered with Askold Buk to form 901 Music Productions.

Ferrara was skeptical about the EXPO. "I was a big SXSW person. I wondered, 'Is this Songwriting 101?' Everyone I spoke to said that aside from the seminars being terrific, it is a great networking opportunity — and that's what it's all about." At the EXPO, Ferrara met a representative from Ricola, an EXPO sponsor, who was conducting on-site interviews and she connected with Chris Devito, from Devito/Fitterman, the company's ad agency. "I asked if they were accepting CD's. He said 'Sure.' Six weeks later I got a call and Chris said, 'We love your song; we want to use it for the ASCAP/Ricola video.' The ad agency wants to work with us again. ASCAP put us in Playback magazine. We subsequently signed with an entertainment attorney in New York who is shopping our material. Askold Buk and I signed the artist, April Start, who sang the Ricola commercial, to a production agreement. Is it a coincidence that it all happened after? I don't think so."

COMPOSE YOURSELF
Ernest Adzentoivich composes music for film, television, video games and advertising in rock, jazz, orchestral and electronic music. Originally a bassist, he observed an economic disparity. "I noticed guys writing the music were making more than the guys playing the music," he laughs. A key opportunity at the EXPO propelled his career forward. "ASCAP had a panel called "Film Your Issue" where they had a couple of shorts on their website and you were able to score them. Shawn LeMone (Assistant Vice President of Film & Television/New Media & Technology for ASCAP's Membership Group) picked two of mine to be shown, I got great responses, and immediately afterward Edwina Travis-Chin approached me from Associated Production Music (APM) who gave me her card and told me to call her when I got back home. Since then I've made enough to pay for the trip to Los Angeles maybe 12 times."

"All of the ASCAP film and TV people were at the screening. I met Nancy Knutson, Shawn, and Sue Devine, who sent me to an IFP Film Market here in New York where I met a director from L.A. who I had lunch with the last time I was there and I'm talking to him about scoring some promos. Without going to the EXPO I wouldn't have gotten all of this attention." Adzentoivich notes that being self-motivated, professional and visible can magnify the EXPO as a phenomenal resource. "Especially for someone in my position. It depends on the person; if you're starting out, the panels are great, if you're a little further along, it's important who you're standing next to, who you get to talk to, and who you get to meet. You have to put as much into it as you can."

INDIVIDUAL ATTENTION
This year, to take writers to the next level, ASCAP will be devising a system of "tracks," suggestions for how to maximize the conference experience with the events and opportunities specific to individual careers. While there will be plenty of basic information, this will be a way to address the needs of songwriters and composers who, like Ferrara and Adzentoivich, are at higher levels.

As always, participants will pick and choose, but with so much programming available, ASCAP believes it will be advantageous to provide this measure of guidance.

Phil Crosland explains the expansion of the EXPO's one-on-one sessions. "We put attendees across a table from someone who can really help them with a particular career issue. It might be a successful ASCAP songwriter or a successful publisher or an industry influential of some kind. For the first two EXPOs we said the first 500 people would be entitled to one of these sessions. We did it to market the EXPO; to add to the early registration numbers and build excitement. We found a couple of things: we don't need the one-on-ones as an incentive. We're approaching 400 registrants with five months to go until the EXPO occurs."

"We oversold it the last two years. Some people were cut out because they didn't hear about it until later. We said, for an additional administration fee of $25, we will guarantee a one-on-one session. It democratized the availability of these sessions. 85 to 90 percent (of registrants) have said they want this. We know they're valuable, so there will be an opportunity regardless of when they register as long as we don't reach capacity."

Jimmy Landry, an A&R rep and in-house producer for Capitol Music Group in New York has his own label, Audiostrike (www.audiostrike.com), but he considers himself "a songwriter at heart." He was one of the mentors who met with writers, offered advice, and listened to music. He notes that he heard some signable talent with whom he has stayed in touch. "Out of all the conferences I've attended this one gives participants opportunities to sink their hooks into the industry. Everyone is approachable. I think you get more bang from your buck. Some conferences are overwhelming, not focused. This is very focused. It's not like you come, give someone a demo and get signed; at this conference you come and roll your sleeves up and learn how to possibly make some money by getting your music licensed or you're going to have a mentor session with someone who can give you some guidance. There is camaraderie — everyone is there for the right reasons."

BIZ REALITIES
Empowering the songwriter with tools to understand business adds another dimension. ASCAP Board Member Leeds Levy is President of his own independent music publishing company, Leeds Music. Levy was, until recently, the President of Chrysalis Music Group, Inc. Until 1991, he was the President of MCA Music Publishing, the world's third largest music publisher. Levy also established Elton John and Bernie Taupin's American music publishing operations. "A songwriter is an inventor; a song is an invention; now, they have to create commerce from it," he remarks. "You cannot just come to the market with a great song; you have to have a plan of execution. The more that writers are at EXPO to glean that information they can move their careers forward."

Levy, who helmed a high-profile publisher panel at the EXPO, notes that the terrain of music publishing is far different in this era than that of his father, Lou Levy, who quite famously signed Bob Dylan to his first publishing deal. He says his EXPO panel was reality-based.

"There was reluctance on the part of the publishers to give anyone false hope in terms of a deal. I think one thing that writers today realize is that in the early stages of their careers they are going to be their own publishers, record labels and artists. The burden, if you will, is on the back of the creator to, as they say in Hollywood, be a hyphenate. Still, if the publisher could write the hit songs he wouldn't be looking for the writer."

Crosland notes the heavyweight panelists and performers from the ASCAP community. "Our Membership Group, led by Todd Brabec, does an absolute heroic job in reaching out to those ASCAP members who can not only draw a crowd, but say something meaningful and relevant to aspiring music creators. The other point I would make is that a lot of our wellknown writers contact us and say they want an opportunity to give back. It is not all that difficult to recruit panelists and keynotes. Sure, schedules are always a problem; it you're successful you have no time. That's what we find about business in general — you keep giving the work to the people who get it done. The people who are making things happen are first in line if they can shake their calendars loose."

GAINING A DECISIVE EDGE
Marilyn Bergman avows that the ASCAP "I Create Music" EXPO, despite its inspiring glow, offers a sobering reality-check on the business today. "I think writers are learning that they not only have to be their own publishers, but they have to be their own outlet of music. The funnel is narrower than it has ever been. They either have to find a way to widen the bottom of the funnel or find a way to go around it. It's not just about coming together and networking. Hopefully, people learn something from all of the wonderfully talented people who have paid dues over the years. Everyone they hear — panels, discussion groups, performers — all of these people have skills and crafts that they've honed."

"Talk to anyone whose been to an ASCAP "I Create Music" EXPO, and you will hear it's the best money they've ever invested in the music business," says Phil Crosland. "We keep the price low so it can appeal to the kinds of numbers it does draw in. We want to make it affordable; there is nowhere you can spend $250 - $275 and get three days that are totally focused." Deb Ferrara agrees, "If you're a songwriter you have to be there. It's about being at the right place at the right time, and this is the right place."

To register, click here.

From Music Connection Issue No. 25, 12/10/07 to 01/06/08