Adapting to New Norms as Songwriters - Writing and Recording Remotely with Virtual Sessions

Photo by Omar Prestwich on Unsplash

So, it’s the 23,000th day of April 2020. On another note…

In the midst of the coronavirus disaster, I’ve been keeping weekly Zoom virtual meetings with my clients.

On that note - I wanted to take a very important moment to talk about adapting. And this post is going to be broken into 4 sections - all centered around virtual recording and collaboration.

(And by the way, if anyone reading this has any amazing solutions to virtual recording and collaborations - feel free to hit me up. Seems there is a lot of developer / app / software and hardware progress that needs to be made here ASAP).

Murder, She Wrote: A Virtual Murder

Part: 1 Adapting and The Future

Songwriters are great at adapting – and those who’ve been in it for decades (and artists too), know how to adapt. If it’s Madonna or Max Martin or Pharrell or Tiesto, etc. – they’ve been doing this gig for 30+ years – and stay at the top of their game.

Spinnin’ Records

So, if it was 1977 and you were the very best disco producer – and then the 80s arrived and you kept doing your disco music – guess what? You were S.O.L. in having a career in a few years and the royalties dried up (unless you were Moroder or Barry Gibb).

Bee Gees “Stayin’ Alive”

Part of this adaptation is happening - right now. And this new adaptation is this: remote and virtual songwriting.

Some of you reading this - have taken the leap and jumped right on it, which is exciting. On the other hand, I’ve gotten some vibes back like “nah thanks - that’s just not my style.” Or – “nah, I’m really not into writing to tracks” - or whatever.

On the other extreme, a few writers/producers in my circle already have high def audio / tie lines into their studio, which is great, no latency etc.

I hate to tell you – but in my opinion, it’s exactly the story from 1977 (or the hair metal guitar player in 1988 aka me, wishing 90s grunge would go away, etc). It’s the story of the songwriter/producer who didn’t see the writing on the wall and just kept “willing” disco music to happen. In hindsight - it might be easy to have seen - but the truth is, it’s an environment that had already - closed the door.

Nirvana “Smells Like Teen Spirit”

And yeah – we might be out of the woods in 2 months. And maybe kinda back to normal. Maybe not.

But make no doubt - things will have changed. And this is an opportunity, imop, and what we’re doing as a company, to jump ahead and skip some spaces forward in the line to the top … in multiple ways I’ll mention below.

Look at this as a TEST RUN but happening in real time.

Forrest Gump

I say test run because at the MINIMUM it’s what I see coming on the future horizon as far as not just “our” business - but world business is conducted. And fortunately, that last sentence is not intended to reference extended pandemics.

No – it’s time to get used to the future right now … adapting for short term benefits today and in the future reaping the long term benefits. So let’s time travel to 2022 where the idea of a pandemic is a thing of the past and you just came back from an epic Coachella.

You see, in the future you will show up for your London session as your hologram or enter your session virtually as your avatar. This is real and it’s coming. Or simpler, you’ll just do the session over Pro Tools with an Audiomovers or custom Zoom plug in (please tell me this is in development).

Yes, the idea of even going - say to NYC for a round of meetings to take a 15 hour flight to Korea for an in-person meeting to get those K-pop placements, is going to be “optional.”

In other words – in the future – it won’t be a requirement to show up, as Peter Diamandis calls it, your “meat” body. (And who is Peter Diamandis? Besides Ray Kurzweil, he’s the biggest “futurist” on the planet, Elon’s partner in Space X and leads the Abundance 360 program, where I’ve been fortunate to be a member).

Or here’s another scenario:

The idea of coordinating 3 people to physically get together in the same room - for an ASAP “2 hour label” request rewrite – will be ridiculous.

Instead, in the future – that will all happen on some virtual platform, and some audio interface manufacturer / software developer will release the right hardware and software - to make Zoom and Pro Tools live look like ADATs (remember those?).

So, look at this as your opportunity to seize this time to get out of your comfort zone and start scheduling your remote sessions. Because it’s coming - regardless.

“Nothing great ever came from comfort zones” - said somebody.

Part 2: What You Can Be Doing Now?

Ok we’re back to our present day shit storm.

I don’t want you to be left behind – 1) not in this new environment and 2) not in your “song inventory” getting depleted nor 3) left behind with the future technology coming - whether you like it or not.

And, by the way - some of you are 100% writers – Great!

I think this is also a great time to also “refill the well” of ideas, song starts, ideas, song titles, even if you’re not a 100% writer. So, that’s another idea over the next 60 days.

Make no doubt - what we’re going through now will change everything and make remote meetings, remote songwriting sessions etc. more of the norm.

As a publishing business – we’re doing this right now. We’ve had a paid Zoom (which I love) business account for over a month now, with 2 daily internal virtual meetings.

We’re also scheduling our first international virtual meetings / pitching sessions with other executives this week.

Like I mentioned, at the very least, use this time to get used to the new technology that will make it optional for you to be somewhere in person.

Another analogy could be – you want to be a social media influencer – but you’re only starting your Instagram account in 2020. Hmm.

Omer Studios

As it applies to songwriting – throwing this out there … some ideas you could look at for the short term future - and maybe even come out better and more strongly positioned on the other side:

Part 3: Remote Session Tools

Now - speaking of steak, we’re now just really getting to the meat of this post. And I’m introducing Arielle here who works with me - who did a ton of research and assembled some more great ideas, as far as remote session tools and writing. Take it away, Arielle.

“OK thanks, BG” (she didn’t say that for real but that’s the best here I can do for a segway).

There are a couple of tools that can make collaboration from afar a little easier. It seems like across the board, they all run smoother with a blazing internet connection. That being said, check out this list of tools to help your session.

It’s Benjamin now back to wrap up the post. And by the way, just so y’all know, DAW = Digital Audio Workstation.

Lastly, speaking to some of my writers - the feeling seems to be that “one on one” collaborations with songwriters, who can play an instrument - is a lot more realistic that 2 top liners writing to a producer “beat maker”... just from logistical stand points i.e. if there are changes to a track, then the producer needs to make a new bounce, email it to everyone in the online session etc. Just sayin.’

Part 4: Last Words: Don’t Be A Rick Dees “Disco Duck”

We’re all in the same boat here. I get it. Long distance, virtual songwriting and collaboration will be awkward and uncomfortable for everyone. But it’s a lot better to be awkward and figure things out - than being left behind.

Especially if you’re a newer songwriter, this is actually probably a GREAT time to “level up” your collaboration circles and look to “get in a virtual room” with that new collaborator or artist a few notches above yourself. Especially if you can bring a great “start” into the room. (For a strategy on that idea, please reference a previous post “Getting Your Foot in the Room with Inaccessible Artists”).

Ultimately, it’s a requirement, virtual collaborating or not, to keep your supply and inventory of songs on the shelf “well stocked.”

As a company and as a publishing executive, myself and our crew are still getting songs placed and cuts are still happening! We (and you) have an inventory – but that won’t be forever.

In closing, it’s been my experience that surprisingly, a good percentage of people – are super resistant to change. And it’s maybe those same people who, as an analogy, forever love disco and want to dearly believe the year will always be 1977.

It isn’t.

2020 is the new 1977. (Of course – all that goes out the window if anyone can write a song as good as Barry Gibb).

Lastly as mentioned previously in the post, if you’re reading this and you personally have virtual collaborating / recording solutions and experiences worth sharing - that’s worked for you - feel free to hit me up!

You know where to find me. I’m not going anywhere for a second.

Updated 06/17/20