Songwriting Beyond 50
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Songwriting Beyond 50

Don’t let this youth heavy music business make you feel like there’s no room for you any more. MAKE room. Tell the universe what you want. Believe you can have it. It’s never over. In fact it just may be beginning. Again. 💜

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Never Underestimate The Power Of  A Girl & Her Pen
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Never Underestimate The Power Of A Girl & Her Pen

Although this piece shines a light on poet laureate Amanda Gorman, WriteGirl — whose motto is “Never underestimate the power of a girl and her pen“ — plays a significant role in her journey. And Lord knows with all the ‘likes’ and ‘ums’ overtaking conversation, the brevity of messaging, not to mention the vanishing of punctuation we could use all the young poet laureates we can get.

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Songwriters Vs. Spotify
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Songwriters Vs. Spotify

Spotify strokes the creative community with writing camps and lavish parties. They blast our faces on Sunset Boulevard Billboards proclaiming us a Secret Genius for writing such big hits and host award shows in our honor. Very nice. But what they don’t want to do…is pay us.  

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NAMM
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NAMM

The first booth I encounter is a dude demonstrating a new vocal auto-tuning technology. He explains to onlookers that the singer riffing into the mic, whose voice is being “auto-corrected,” might accidentally ‘discover’ a melody she didn’t even mean to sing. And ta-da! Hit song by accident. Imagine that! I want to raise my hand and ask, what about an idea? Doesn’t a song need an idea? 

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Spotify Secret Genius Awards
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Spotify Secret Genius Awards

In light of Spotify coming to the table and negotiating a more equitable distribution of income with the songwriting community, Michelle Lewis and I, after receiving personal invitations, decided we’d go to the awards show this year. She called a babysitter, I got eyelash extensions, and off we drove to the Ace Hotel for what turned out to be an interesting evening… 

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We Did It
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We Did It

If music delivered to us by an invisible digital stream was here to stay (and don’t get me wrong, I love streaming—it’s versatile, convenient and an all-you-can-eat buffet), then laws had to change to bring digital royalty distribution into a digital age. But how?

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Happy Birthday, Kay Hanley
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Happy Birthday, Kay Hanley

Age is relative. I have friends who are 70 who are younger than others who are 40. They never lose their sense of wonder, curiosity and the capacity to be inspired. Their imaginations are alive and well. They’ll be young forever, at least at heart. I want to be one of them. Like Kay!

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For Love Or For Money
Uncategorized Shelly Peiken Uncategorized Shelly Peiken

For Love Or For Money

There’s plenty of talk about how the music business is thriving and worth billions. It's all true except that those billions aren’t making their way to the pockets of the writers who create the product that make a music business possible. 

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Her Name is Diane
Uncategorized Shelly Peiken Uncategorized Shelly Peiken

Her Name is Diane

In any profession there’s always a force that must be reckoned with. That someone makes us better simply by the virtue of us always having to catch up with them. For me, that someone was, still is, Diane Warren.

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Songwriters Are Artists Too
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Songwriters Are Artists Too

We songwriters are just as noteworthy as the pop-stars who record our material. We need each other. We are partners. We'd be nowhere without someone to deliver our message. And that someone, if they're not a contributor themselves, would be nowhere without us. We are the Unsung hero. The Unfamous. The Unfamiliar. The Unknown. Just because we’re behind the curtain doesn't mean we should have a lesser title. 

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A Songwriter's State of the Union
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A Songwriter's State of the Union

There is much work to do and it’s not going to be easy, but if we don’t try we can forget the idea of a next generation being able to make music and earn a living like many of us did. And then music will be written by amateurs, imposters, and the uninspired. 

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Dear Santa...
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Dear Santa...

We don’t need material gifts, Santa….just some shift in the Universe that gives musicians faith in the idea that we, and the young people who will come after us, will be able to sustain ourselves and keep giving the world what they can not live without: music.

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Come Together
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Come Together

When it comes to deciding who should go to DC to represent the creative community it is my view that no single group will be as influential or effective as we can be in a united front. 

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Confessions.