The songwriting craft is a complex one. While some artists have no problem drawing up the words to their music, the progression can be painfully slow and difficult for others. Late last week, a bevy of songwriters, composers, and producers convened in Hollywood, CA for the 8th annual ASCAP Expo to discuss and connect on this intense process.

The conference had an interesting blend of deep industry insiders and major pop names lined up to speak. The first day was a great example as one of the early panels was a YouTube revenue discussion followed by a keynote conversation with Katy Perry in the afternoon.

Along with three Expo-described “YouTube personalities,” the company’s West Coast Head of Artist Label Relations Ali Rivera got into the specifics of how to increase plays on uploaded video content and collect on that income. It was heavy on the technical jargon and definitely not for the average music fan.

“Believe it or not, they had to find the lord. It was death or God,” Perry said about her pastor parents who raised her. Perry’s highly entertaining conversation with ASCAP EVP of Membership Randy Grimmett started with some history on early exposure to what she called “secular music.” Perry started out in Christian music, singing Gospel at age 9 and recording and touring on religious songs at 15.

The focus then turned to her creative process and her early struggles breaking into, what she called, the “secular music” industry. Perry was signed and dropped by two different labels before she settled (and built quite the hit catalog) at Capitol Records. “I hand-picked my team and brought over my favorite people from Columbia too,” she said. The singer also shed a little light on her next album saying that it’s going to be “schizophrenic” and has been working “a lot” with singer-songwriter Sia.

Big Sean detailed his gutsy move as a young rapper to approach Kanye West at a Detroit radio station in the next conversation between him and mega DJ/producer Diplo. “(Kanye) said ‘you’ve got 16 bars – one verse’,” Sean said, “I kept on rapping until he almost walked out the door, then he stopped.” Moderated by Billboard Editorial Director Bill Werde, the two shared their similar paths to stardom through hustle, grit, and determination. Diplo even offered a taste of the philosophy around his dancehall/reggae Major Lazer project. “Live DJing is actually pretty boring,” he said, “We wanted to make Major Lazer a full-blown circus.”

Later in the day, pop star Ne-Yo and hotshot production team Stargate (a last-minute sub for Lionel Ritchie, who was slated to appear) held their keynote conversation led by SVP of A&R, Island/Def Jam Chris Anokute. Spending a bulk of the hour on their major hit “Let Me Love You,” the group went into depth on their creative process and earned quite a bit of praise from Anokute. "You can quote me on this, Stargate is the humblest production team I’ve ever worked with.

“Working with a rapper really changes your perspective and helps you step outside of yourself for a moment,” said international producer RJD2 about some of the beat work he’s done. He wouldn’t name whom he was specifically talking about, but he says the genre helped him develop as a composer and producer. In this Friday morning talk with Ken Jordan of The Crystal Method, the two shared mutual concern that the quality of music as a whole is suffering. "The old studios priced themselves out of existence, Jordan said. “The price of making a record went from $300,000 to $30,000.”

The last day-and-a-half of programming was highly digital-focused and culminated with a songwriter collaboration event on Saturday. One of the more interesting panels was “Music Supervision in the Digital Age.” Five different music supervisors offered their advice on placement, pitching, and the process for an artist. KCRW host Jason Kramer used Malaysian singer-songwriter Yuna as an interesting case study of someone who hasn’t had much chart success yet, but counts 800,000+ Twitter followers as one of her triumphs.

Saturday afternoon’s “Interactive Master Session” put about 100 attendees in small groups to come up with songs and some of the best ones were played before the whole group. Part jam session, part learning experience, it was certainly one of the more experimental periods of the entire event.

This Expo is not for the faint of heart. It’s a full-on, three-day songwriting boot camp that’s as overwhelming as it is educational. There’s a lot of pitching going on and even more SXSW-style-panelist attention grabbing. The ASCAP team, however, have put together a program that oozes opportunities for collaboration and one of these days should pump out a major hit. Once it does, this Expo will find its rightful place
on the music conference map.