Live Report from the Westin!

[jazzstan]

Hope y'all had safe trips back home after the Rally. It was GREAT to meet you all. Having been to a number of prior rallies it was a whole different experience to be one of the 'dots'. Thanks to all who participated. The other amazing thing is that over the years there has been an incredible improvement in the quality of the songs played at the listening sessions. There used to be the one or two songs that were SOOOO bad, it made me feel awfully embarrassed for the writer/singer/et al. But this year there were NO such "cringers." Kinda wonder if someone pre-screened 'em.Anyway .. for anyone who didn't make it this year - we missed ya!

[Casey H]

Nov 9, 2008, 11:08pm, jazzstan wrote:Hope y'all had safe trips back home after the Rally. It was GREAT to meet you all. Having been to a number of prior rallies it was a whole different experience to be one of the 'dots'. Thanks to all who participated. The other amazing thing is that over the years there has been an incredible improvement in the quality of the songs played at the listening sessions. There used to be the one or two songs that were SOOOO bad, it made me feel awfully embarrassed for the writer/singer/et al. But this year there were NO such "cringers." Kinda wonder if someone pre-screened 'em.Anyway .. for anyone who didn't make it this year - we missed ya! Morn... Wow... 6 hours sleep in my own bed felt like a million bucks! Of course, my sad sorry butt (with a big dot on it, thanks friends! ) is still dragging... I guess it won't be my most productive day in the word of writing software! Great meeting you too, Jazzstan! For those of you who don't know, Stan has been a taxi member for a VERY long time... I think he joined when Michael was about 9 years old.... There was some very good material played at the listening panels. Others, for me, were obvious 'returns'...The most interesting panel for me was one of the label A&R panels where you hear how label execs listen and just how picky they are. That wasn't new info for me, but it really reinforces the concept of a high-bar on certain types of listings. It also further reinforces how important the first 30-60 seconds of a track are. Some that were played had intros that were 20-30 seconds. Most of us know this but need to be reminded about: You need to give the listener a compelling reason to keep listening. Open with your best- musically and lyrically... Are the first 2 lines of the song "moon/June" lyric cliche rhymes? Your chorus will be dissected for differentiation, lift, lyrical hook, etc... After a track is turned off will the listener even remember what your hook was? The label folks often mentioned that.More later.... More coffee... Casey