Marc Emert-Hutner’s roll at ASCAP involves the recruitment and retention of songwriters and publishers, as well as nurturing songwriters’ abilities and helping create opportunities for them in the industry. Prior to this, Marc was a professional songwriter, musician, performer and producer for over 21 years. He will be moderating the A Beginner’s Guide to Music Publishing: All the basics one needs to know and was afraid to ask about music publishing, presented in a easy to understand session panel at South by Southwest on Wednesday, March 14 from 5:00PM to 6:00PM in the Austin Convention Center, Room 12AB.
What was your interest in creating this panel and how does it relate to your background?
Having been a songwriter for many years, I can empathize with how confusing the world of publishing can be. It wasn’t until I started working at ASCAP that I finally understood how the pieces of the puzzle fit together. It’s a complicated subject at the micro level, but it’s easily digestible at the macro level, which is my goal with this panel.
Who else is on the panel and what do they bring to the subject?
David Hoffman (Shapiro Bernstein Publishing), Jake Ottmann (EMI) and Jeremy Yohai (Downtown Music Publishing). Each of them have interestingly different backgrounds as people, and the three publishing companies they work for will present a nice variety of styles/topics/issues.
Why is this panel important to musicians?
It’s important to musicians, but songwriters primarily. Publishing is a vital part of earning a living as a songwriter. I feel it’s as important for a songwriter to understand it as it would be to chef to understand the restaurant business. Each could technically work in either respective field without a good understanding of it, but it would certainly benefit them greatly if they did.
What do you hope people will walk away with after attending this panel?
I’m sure they won’t retain everything, but I’d like them to learn a few key things, and mostly to just realize that publishing isn’t physics, and can be understood if the right person is guiding the conversation.
Best way for people to contact you?
memert-hutner@ascap.com
