Posts Taged song-summit

Day 3 Song Summit (Final) – Meet the Publishers

6 July 2010 Tags: , , , , Yunyu

Dear Minions
Last post from the Song Summit. Took awhile because of the rabid rabbits.

Day 3 – SS3

Big Day. Actually no. It’s been a big couple of days. The house looks like a bomb shelter. Meanwhile, a furry beast also in the fridge that was once a tofu is now calling me “Ma”

My study is a glitter of CD cases and papers from multi-press kit creation.

Meet the publishers

Last day at the song Summit and there’s nothing more distracting than the impending “Meet the publishers” speed dating session coming later in the day.

Not looking forward to it and looking forward to it to be over. It’s a strange feeling.

We’re meeting publishers.

1430 hrs and there’s a horde of songwriters/ musicians/ managers in tow. Time to meet the publishers. We’re told this:

Here’s the room with the publishers. Wait till you are called. Sit in your designated chairs meet your designated publishers.

You cannot choose your publishers, You cannot choose your seats, You have 5 minutes, when the bell rings. You must go.

And no, you there, you signed up too late. You must leave, this forum is full. There’s no room for you. Next.

No you too. Look people, if you don’t have your name on this list you cannot enter, the publishers will not see you. No…no exceptions, please make way for those on the list.

Yes…that goes for you too.

You enter the publishing room and it’s an awash of activity. There’s a long line of about 20 publishers sitting in a pretty little row. All waiting for you to tell them that you are the next best thing. Yes you rock, yes your songs are going to make everyone millionaires, and yes, my dear…

You have 5 minutes to make me believe you.

So Lee and myself are at the back of the line, we watch the others approach. We watch the others leave. We watch people being shuffled….and we get shuffled along. It’s all an automated system. To a pitch we go.

“You remember your pitch?” says Lee. “Yeah I remember. I’m fine, yes…don’t worry. We’ve rehearsed this…well sort of.”

So I watch. On the publishers’ tables the CDs stack up. Each little piece of plastic holds a world of hopes for a musician who wants to make it. What’s making it anyways?Such a vague romantic notion that is probably popular because it’s vague.

I’m pretty specific about what I want from this. Right now I want my album finished, and I want it out and about into the hands of music supervisors who will then put it in films. No I’m not shy about telling you I want to monetize my music. Then I want the music to travel to places…and me along with it and make a whole heap more music. I want to work with people I’ve long wanted to work with (I have a list) and I don’t just mean musicians. Then I want to make more music and create until my fingers bleed into my zithers and I melt into my keyboard and my drums. I want to meet my minions hug them all and tell them thanks very much for making this happen. Then I want to make some more music.

I want to be paid a decent wage for my craft and then make some more music until my body no longer twitches and I am ash. That’s what I want. I don’t know about making it. I just want to make music…lots of it and leave behind a pile of nice sounding notes and hopefully some appreciators who will continue humming the songs when I cark it.

then if there’s music in the afterlife….if there’s one…Well…I’ll see you there.

what’s your version of making it? What’s their version of making it? I wonder? Is it the same? Or is making it a vague idea for most that never looks good on close inspection and people just ask other people to help them make it because it sounds nice and it sounds like a plan?

So it’s my turn and I realise I only have 5 minutes. All social filters go down. I’m no longer shy and I’m no longer interested in telling you that I might be good. I tell you that I’m very good and will get better. I tell you that these are the things that are happening for the album. Yes, the deals surrounding the album are unique and you’ve never seen this before. I tell you that…yes I write to briefs and yes I’m a bloody fast songwriter, I really really do write in most genres. Yes my music video is mid creation. Yes I work with great film people, check out my last film clip. I’m a fast writer and I’m good and I tell you that what’s holding me back is the resources to record.

That’s why the album’s taken so long…because we want it to be good. Yes, amongst many things this is where you come in and this is what I;d like you to do….we don’t have much time. Oh yes…and since you ask, this is where we are recording at the moment and of course we would like to meet with you further if you are interested in hearing more. Can’t give you the full picture…we don’t have time, it’s your move after this.

I’m trying not to listen to Lee’s spiel as he’s pretty pitching the same thing to another publisher just beside me. We don’t have time, it’s a mad dance. In Lee’s words we talk fast, we listen fast. 3 minutes into time everything slows because I’m a fly in an uber fast capsule and it speeds up again as I make sure my contact details are in my album.

Bing

the bell goes off.

Don’t call us we’ll call you.

Next.

Please don’t drag your heels.

Make way for the next.

Out you go. I’m sure you made a good pitch. good luck

There just like that…it was all over.

That was officially the end of Song Summit for us, needed 2 glasses of champagne to calm things down a notch since the neurons were firing in uber time and that wasn’t a good thing mentally in the long run.

Lee had managed to chuck a short meeting with the legendary Sebestian Chase to talk about a few things to come. It was good to finally meet Sebestian in person, and even better to see that this is a person who really didn’t believe in all the doom and gloom currently sprouting about in the panels. Good…actually Great. What a bloody breath of fresh air. The music industry is dead my arse.

We’ll show you.

Day 2 – Song Summit (Songwriting highs and lows & impt minion missions)

29 June 2010 Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , Yunyu

Stephen Schwartz – Writer of Colors of the Wind is going to review my song as part of a panel.
Good GAWD.

A little admission, Colors of the Wind was just about sparked the moment when I decided I’d have a crack at creating words to music. I remember how much I liked the imagery of that one song and how I listened to the disc till the plastic melted. (Or it could have been the high humidity in Singapore) That…and Lion King’s soundtrack….which led me on a one way ticket to a lifetime love for world music….and a teenage crush on Hans Zimmer.

There I said it, I have Disney beginnings…

So seeing the man himself and knowing he was going to listen to some creation of mine was a quiet and internally very loud moment of “ohmygodohmygodohmygod” followed by “I’mgonnadieI’mgonnadieI’mgonnadie!!!!!!” which then culminated into “Oh hey! here’s a pillar I’m going to hide behind this beautiful architecture…did I tell you how much I love architecture?!!!”

Of course, I wasn’t really forwarned that part of the listening to the music panel meant that you had to sit a metre from the man himself on stage and that you were going to have to have a very public conversation with the man himself about songwriting.

Stephen was very kind. The song up for review was one called “Disconnected” I had recently had it remastered and mostly always had a very soft spot for it. The tune was mostly liked, he liked the poetry in it, loved the verses (thank u v much) questioned some of the word choices and encouraged some thoughts about the choice of the chorus .

Some which I agreed on but will not change, some which I disagreed on,…and will not change…but it was good to hear where how it sat with his ears and how he’d actually like to hear the song again and some more. That broke my happy metre.

There were other things he brought up about the song that made me rethink some songwriting decisions but mostly, it wasn’t bad and the man was gracious and kind and probably understood that right then, I was squirming like a nematode under a microscope.

More importantly the song survived. I didn’t feel like I needed to destroy it in the end which is also an uber step forward for myself as a songwriter.

It was nice and warm and fluffy to hear that my process of songwriting was somewhat similar to his where he mentions that he first writes the titles to songs, then works out the stories then writes the songs….my newly cerebral songwriting methods salute his very cerebral songwriting methods.

My only regret was that somehow the recording got wrongly sampled by those running the panel, and Stephen got to hear an awful recording where my voice that got pitched up an octave as a result. I only wished he got to hear the better version, but heh…I survived..so did the other songwriters whose vocals got chipmunked by a wrong sample rate. No matter, I sent a ninja his way and who promptly delivered my CD into his hands. Hope he gets a listen.

Sacha Skarbek’s songwriting panel

I enjoyed the panel. Good to see the writer behind many songs I try very hard to hate…but cannot. For an idea he wrote “You’re Beautiful” with James Blunt. Though it got killed to death by overplay in then end, that’s really hardly his fault. I remember liking it before gross repetition killed the love.

Sacha came across as a little bit of a shy performer although it seemed to me that he had a bloody good voice and a rollicking sense of humour. I was enjoying his panel quite a bit…until….he announced that he was working on the soundtrack for Chuck Palahniuk’s Lullaby with Starsailor.

I am Yunyu’s broken heart
I am Yunyu’s seething green serpent of envy

If you slow motion the reading of this sentence, you could probably pin point the exact moment my heart split in two

Because lullaby is one of my favourite horror/comedy story. Read it here.

and I want to write the culling song that features in the tale.

I already hear the culling song in my head…except I promise no one dies, though the effects might be convincing..

and I believe that when it comes to death put to music, I have a little bit of an authoritah on that.

No matter. I’ll get there. I’ll finish the bloody album, get the word out, then badger screen people to use some of my dead people music.

Still it hurts…because I want to write music on Lullaby.

Meanwhile…yoohoo Sacha. Can I write a culling song with you? I’m great at death, I would have loved to speak with you, but post panel, it seems most panel speakers are harder to seek than unicorns. I’m not sure where they go, and I was looking.

So there, Sacha, if you google yourself and find this, I want to write that culling song, I also want to work with you and learn from you. Meanwhile I’m sending the word out on how to bloody hell find you…so I can write THAT culling song.

I has your website
http://www.sachaskarbek.com/
I see your management contacts … and will write to your gate keepers or keymasters.
but I rather write to you. Artist to Artist. Songwriter to songwriter.

Minions, if you know Sacha Skarbek, send on my love, and my need to write the culling song and that I want to work with him.

Minions…you has mission. Find the man.Find Sacha. Find him with your twitter, ask your friends, ask your enemies, send for your psychic pets, post on facebook. send word. Now. Get his email, get his number.

Find Sacha Skarbek.
Find him.

BRING. HIM. TO. ME

Go

Go Now.

Fly my pretties…fly.

can you tell I’m obsessed?…with the culling song?

Day 2 of Song Summit – Would you bittorrent your mate?

25 June 2010 Tags: , , , , , , , , , , Yunyu

“Feeling better?” Ready to take on the hard music industry?” Lee, my manager says as he chucks a coffee in my sleep deprived direction. It is day 2 of Song Summit and I’ve been trying to put my new site up…just in case we speak to anyone interesting.

First panel up “Would you bittorrent your mate?” Curious and curiouser, I am interested, I’m nursing a vague hope that the industry has stopped trying to police pirating efforts by now and has moved on to more constructive approaches that involve working with the technological environment and not against it.

Nope. Nooo such luck. Here goes a summary/ thought piece

“Would you bittorrent your mate?” 

Basically  they’ve got MIPI (Music Industry Piracy Investigations) talking about possible ways to deter this from happening.

Then there’s the explanation that there is misinformation that musicians are making money from gigs and hence don’t need album sales because they are rolling in it. I agree. Of course, only the top layer of the gig industry can command fees that make for comfortable living…I get that, but policing data is not the way to go. But you know…I’m still listening.

There was some mention of France’s Data Protection agency and how Australia isn’t catching up and how dissapointed we all are etc etc because the government is not protecting the musicians and France is.

Then there are complaints about lost album sales because 485000 people downloaded a certain artist and only 8000 people bought the album.
I’m sorry, but in the world of file sharing, we covet because we can, not because we want. You’ve got to know the difference. Those figures you listed mean nothing. They don’t mean 400000+ lost sales, they mean that 485000 people were curious enough to check out the album, 8000 people of the lot..valued it enough to buy it. There, end of story. Get over it.

Gosh I’m bored and dissapointed — after all these years we haven’t moved beyond these very boring and ineffective thoughts on data policing?!

I would have liked to hear more about  the following:

1) what you are going to do with Russian websites that are illegally selling mp3s for 1 cent. – namely allofmp3s and their replacement sites

 – I think it’s all well and good that MP3s are being shared for free between friends and over the net, because I do know from personal experience that when people like something enough, they’d buy it. I know my minions do. My minions also spread the word by giving my music away for free for other listeners who sometimes become fans too. Not all bad there. Sites like allofmp3s are different.
They make nothing, and when money is earned, give nothing back to the industry. The arbitrary price they set on music is not discussed with neither the label or the artist, yet they profit from it. They must be annhilated, like all other parasite industries. But no…no discussion there, no way, we’re too concerned with killing bittorrent.

2) I would have liked to hear how they might work with ISPs on possibly profiting from the bittorrent technology somehow. Maybe through clever subscription models possibly inbuilt into our monthly broadband bill, or working out a plan where they have a slice of bittorrent’s advertorial profits. Possibly, hopefully, fostering the belief that we can all make money together and paying money for lawsuits and lawyers get us nowhere. Nope…no such thing, we’re WAY too concerned with killing bittorrent.

3) I would have liked to hear what we are going to do about the ongoing trend that itunes is pretty much the monopolising platform for all digital media and if this trend is healthy for the economy in the long run because Monopoly sucks and Absolute Monopoly sucks absolutely. Nope, we’re too concerned with killing bittorrent.

This was made worse when the forum was put to the floor and some songwriter comes up to suggest that viruses be placed in songs…so that you, my dears, your iphones will blow up if you share music.

In the real world, your royal madness has no ninjas, but if she could, she’d very much like to nuke the panel for gross lack of insight and for encouraging it with a nice shiny mix of nunchucks and sais. No your Royal madness did not go up to the panel to speak her mind because…she knows a lost cause when she sees one. And these people, who are still sprouting stuff like that at THIS time…are a lost cause.

Panel Conclusion: Pirates are bad, they must be neutered, we must strive to be better internet nuns, and yes minions if you tell your friends  about my music by letting them have it for free:

1) I’m supposed to tell you that you have been bad 
2) I must spank you and educate you on the value on my music because by sharing it around for you have been naughty minions.

What absolute horseshit.

Moving along. Next up: my song review. – where I squirm in a very public / microscope and realise that being analysed isn’t going to kill me.

Delayed Broadcast from Song Summit and outside of Supanova

23 June 2010 Tags: , , , , , Yunyu

So Song Summit. I had received questions from mates at Supanova about how it all was ranging from a smart arsed “How was Hill Song Convention?” to a more demanding/scary “Where are you?! Why are you not here at Supanova????!!!HELLOOOOO???!!!”

This is rather the first year I have missed Supanova. The fact that it’s held on the same weekend as Song Summit peeves me greatly because Supanova is my once a year all time favourite gathering place where I catch up with my all time favourite human beans.

All was not lost though, I managed a dinner catch up with the beloved Coolshite guys who essentially do a very good job hosting supanova. Great to see that everyone was well and had projects coming up

In case you don’t know in all the other times of the year the coolshite guys host a pop culture podcast that reviews all things in the film, tv, literature, comics universe. If you haven’t been there already, you should check their work out. I’ll know if you didnt. 🙂

Bruce from Coolshite, who is so very clever with wordpress, gave me a crash tutorial at a pub involving napkins and pens. Napkins….ah the very fabric of civilisation I’m telling you.

Snuck a 7.45am breakfast with the lovely and talented Marianne De Pierres about a secret project we both hope to be announcing soon. Good to see that she’s been well, her hair is now purple (it was pink last month) and that her humorous crime fighting novel “Sharp Shooter” is doing well on the Angus and Robertson charts at #1 under the non-scifi pseudoname of Marianne Delacourt. Check her work out here

Her usual hunt of science fiction novels are http://www.mariannedepierres.com/books/ Dark space was a fun read for me.

So on to song summit…

Song Summit is a music industry gathering hosted by APRA | AMCOS + the NSW Government. 3 days of music commerce stuffed full of songwriters, agents, managers, publishers and labels. I thought it might be good to share this with the minions of what goes on backstage…the stories are long so I’d do it over a few posts.

The first night was was mainly celebratory with lots of speeches, claps and I find myself perking up at Peter Garrett’s speech about the visual arts Resale Royalties scheme. I thought it was a novel idea that basically says that if you were Van Gough and you sold your sunflower painting for a mere 5 bucks first round and it sells for 20 mill later. Well you get a cut if you didn’t cut your ears off and was still among the living.
Read more http://www.petergarrett.com.au/175.aspx?print=Y
That’s promising…and a reason to keep breathing Nothing to do with music on a cursary look,but if you did write your music on paper and that got traded around abit, I’m imagining that this would apply somewhat?

I had spent the night before coding CSS (or attempting to) so by 9pm my neurons had pretty much congregated into a large, throbbing purple boil just above my hippocampus and leaked out through my ears. The “no longer news” doom and gloom speeches about the music industry didn’t really help. Early home time. I need energy for the next 48 hours. Maybe that’s why they put red bull in the gift packs. Thoughtful but I have to keep that ox bile away from me. I’m already a stranger to sleep. More on the next day coming up.

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