SCSC Newsletter Dec 2017

Connecting Songwriters Throughout Northeast Ohio

News & Updates

Volume 1 Issue 8

December 2017

A Note From The Top

What Works For You?

Don Henson, President

When our monthly meetings began, we wondered what day of the week would be best to hold our gatherings. We thought about it and considered several options. (Get it…"several"…days of the week? lol) We decided Fridays and Saturdays were out because those were the nights our members had gigs. Then there was Bob Wood’s Open Mic Night at the Riverfront Coffee Mill on the 1st and 3rd Wednesday of the month. Other Open Mic Nights and events filled the other days of the week and Sunday and Monday seemed to be the only nights that were open for the majority of songwriters.

It didn’t take long to eliminate Sunday as a meeting night so Monday became the day. Specifically, the 1st Monday of the month. This would make it easy to remember and we would get a couple of months off per year with Labor Day and our annual 4th of July Picnic.

I think it is time to re-evaluate this decision. Is the first Monday still the best night to meet? There are Open Mic Nights and other events on Mondays evenings now so the

question is, do we keep our meeting on the 1st Monday or do we re-think and consider other options. Is there one day of the month that works better for you? Please send me your input and opinions about the day we meet. Express your thoughts and suggestions by

Your Board At Work In October

Dave Waldeck

As always, our Board of Directors meeting in early October touched on many topics of import to our members.

In line with our move to update our public image we are developing a new Songwriter Summit logo through input from various sources including area graphic artists, members and others. Your suggestions are welcome.

We decided to occasionally use Facebook Messenger in addition to email to communicate between meetings to keep important ideas and concepts better organized.

It was noted that newsletter feedback has been minimal, but generally favorable. Comments, positive or negative, are always welcome.

In line with our goal to promote our group in the local community we will be printing and distributing copies of a

quarterly version of The Bridge to various local venues.

We are currently revising our mission statement to better describe our organization and to better reflect our recent conversion to a 501(c)(3) Tax-Exempt Organization.

Using our former member and guest email list we will be contacting people to encourage them to attend our monthly meetings, to learn how we’ve grown and what we have to offer these days.

We will have more on this at a later date but Officer Elections are coming up in 2018 and Songwriter Summit will entertain members’ suggestions for 2018 board nominations.

Finally, we made plans for our Holiday party on Monday, December 4, at 7 PM at Cuyahoga Falls Elks, 2555 State Rd. Check out the details in the Area Sightings section of this issue.

Meet Our New Vice President

Ken Moody Arndt

I first joined what was then the Summit County Songwriters Circle in March of 2008. My love for making music had been reignited in recent years, and I was using every minute of such spare time as I had to pursue a passion to become the best musician I could be. My profession had taken me to a place where my only contact with music was playing alone in my room in those spare moments. I simply wanted and needed to be around other musicians.

I came across an article in the Akron Beacon-Journal about this group that met in a community center in Cuyahoga Falls, sharing and offering positive critique of songs written by members. That community center was about 15 minutes from where I then lived. I had written a song or two that no one had heard but me. I figured, why not? I went.

And I’ve been going ever since — even though life and a demanding profession took me far from Summit County a few months after I’d joined. That first night presenting to a large group of active listeners, with positive feedback from all — most memorably, on that first night, from Dave Hershman and John Hutchens (both of blessed memory) — led me to a commitment to regular songwriting that has grown in the years since. SCSC presentations at our own Showcases, workshops, and at Tastes of various upscale suburbs have given me a confidence in performance that I simply could not have gotten anywhere else — open mics are great, but they just can’t offer the always-constructive criticism and ongoing encouragement that I have found in Summit County Songwriters Circle, soon to become Songwriters Summit.

As I take on the role of Vice President, this is what I hold before me. I don’t ever want to lose sight of what our mission-in-action has done for me — assisted me, in ways I can’t enumerate, in that initial and on-going goal of becoming the best musician I can be. That is what I want to give back to the group. That is what I want us to continue offering any who take those first hesitant steps through our doors.

Area Sightings

SCSC Members can be found all over the area performing, teaching and sharing their music. You could be listed here!

Add your next gig or event to our calendar. Send your information to the .

HOLIDAY PARTY WITH US ON THE 4TH

Please join your fellow songwriters on December 4th as we celebrate the Holiday Season and some of the great music we have created this year. Dinner is on us and there is a cash bar at the Elks Club. If you’re planning on attending - and feel free to bring significant others to the event - no later than November 25th so we can get an accurate count when we order dinner from Guido’s.

No need to bring 20 copies of a song to the event, but do bring an instrument, your voice and a favorite song or two. The Holiday Party is a bit like an open mic and we jam with favorite songs of the season.

We hope to see you at 7PM at the Elks Club, 2555 State Road in Cuyahoga Falls. Park in back and enter through the covered door. The party will be straight ahead.

David Palomo

The topic of copyright comes up regularly at our meetings. Recently, I’ve discovered some YouTube talks by Jeff Price that are the most thorough discussions I’ve ever come across. A good place to start is this talk given at Belmont University in Nashville.

His talk goes beyond what we heard from Nashville songwriters Jamie Floyd and Steve Bogard at the 2016 songwriting workshop at the Civic. Steve and Jamie explained how you become the copyright holder the second you put your song into tangible form. Jamie keeps a record of this by setting up a separate email account solely for her songs and emails her work tapes and lyrics to that email address. Steve Bogard helped found a company called Mywerx where songwriters could securely upload their songs so that there is a record of when it was put in tangible form. Steve and Jamie also pointed out that recording artists that they work with usually don’t apply for a copyright with the US Copyright Office until they are sure a song is going to be released.

Jeff Price goes beyond this discussion by detailing the six copyrights that are created when you put your songs into tangible form:

• Reproduction

• Distribution

• Derivatives

• Public Display

• Public Performance

• Digital Transmission

He goes into detail about the different situations to which these copyrights apply and how they are tracked (or not!) and how they are paid (or not!)

The problem for songwriters has to do with the Digital Transmission copyright when it comes to online streaming services. As Jamie and Steve explained to us last year, streaming services such as Spotify, Napster, Google Play and

others are obligated to pay a fraction of 1% (something like $.0005) instead of the $.0925 a songwriter gets if the song is covered on a CD or downloaded on iTunes or Google Play. This was the subject of the documentary film, The Last Songwriter featuring Jamie Floyd.

Although Jeff does not have a solution to this problem of the miniscule fraction songwriters are being paid by streaming companies, he goes into detail about the complex problem of tracking the various copyrights in the digital age and how his company, Audiam, is coming up with solutions to begin to address the problem.

If you want to go further down the rabbit hole, Jeff has another talk about how you can get around this problem of fractional pay using YouTube. Be forewarned: it has to do with having a big following and having something another company might want to use in a marketing campaign. You can see Jeff’s three part lecture on YouTube here.

Spoiler: if you have something popular that another company wants to use, you can cut a deal with YouTube to license it directly with the company rather than license it to YouTube.

Final note: Jeff points out that part of the problem is that the six copyrights often have not been properly recorded in existing databases. The streaming companies just throw up their hands and say it’s your problem if you don’t make sure your copyrights are recorded properly. Jeff’s company Audiam is developing computer tracking programs and databases to sort all this out. They’ve already recovered significant amounts of money for their clients. I’m hoping that in time they will have developed an infrastructure that will enable songwriters to be paid for digital distribution as they have been paid for other forms of use of their work in the past.

Need Some New Gear?

Audio-Technica is holding it’s annual warehouse sale on December 8th and 9th at their Stow location. This could be your chance to get some great deals on microphones (wired and wireless,) headsets, turntables and more. Our members have found some great bargains at these sales in the past. Maybe this year you can score just the right piece of tech to complete your studio or road collection. Sale is 9-7 on Friday and 9-1 on Saturday.

Leo Kottke Meets Dylan

What do you do in the presence of a legend? Some fawn. Some stare agog. Some just ignore the aura of fame and act like the celebrity is nothing special. How you react is a function of the esteem you hold for the individual. Take a few minutes to see how the amazing guitarist Leo Kottke reacted when he met Bob Dylan in the studio where “Blood on the Tracks” was being recorded. You just might find it…uh…amusing.

When Collaboration Works

One of the often overlooked benefits of being part of Summit County Songwriter Circle is the chance to work with other like-minded individuals. Here’s an example of that principle. Don Henson wrote the music that he took to Chuck Picklesimer who wrote lyrics and then brought in Diane Dudek to finish “Dancing With Surprise.” As with most successful collaborations this is proof that the whole is greater than the sum of it’s parts.

Grace Notes

Our Next Meeting...

We meet next on December 4th at the B.P.O.E (Elks) at 2555 State Road in Cuyahoga Falls at 7:00 PM. Our December meeting will be more like an open mic in that we will not have presentations of songs for discussion and review. See the Area Sightings section above for details on the Holiday party.

Visit Our Website

While you’re browsing the web drop in on our site for member lists, open mic suggestions, and so much more. You can find it right here.

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