The “early-bird” $100 registration fee has been extended until the end of May. For more information, including a list of the songwriters and top industry representatives expected to attend and to register for the Festival, visit kauaimusicfestival.com. Unlike many other expos and conferences, registration to the Kauai Music Festival is limited to allow our small group of registrants more personal attention.  As a result, it will fill up quickly... so early registration is strongly suggested to guarantee participation.

The staff of songwriters and executives participating are among the best in the business, including multi-platinum writers who have penned hits for Christina Aguilera, Rascal Flatts, Hinder, Avril Lavigne, Daughtry, Faith Hill, Brandy, Meredith Brooks, N'Sync, Joss Stone, and Jojo, plus executives from Interscope, A&M, Atlantic Records, peermusic, BMI and more. BMI is proud to support the festival, which will feature Jason Blume, Charles Brotman, Barbara Cane, John Cruz, Beau Dozier, Adam Gorgoni, Brian Howes, Tony Kilbert, Michael Laskow, Myles Lewis, Steven Melrose, William G. Meyer III, Mollie Moore, David Pack, Shelly Peiken, Jeff Peterson, Jeffrey Steele, David Tickle, Harry Witz and more.

Although the company name, peermusic, eschews capitalization for an underplayed lower case style, this firm deserves headline-sized capitals for its impact on the international music scene. Launched as Southern Music in 1928 by Ralph S. Peer, famed for finding seminal talents in neglected genres and markets, the independent publishing company has hit the mile marker of 75 successful years -- and counting.

Ralph Peer II with Roni Stoneman, Janette Carter, June Carter Cash and Patsy Stoneman

On a 1927 safari for songs, Peer ventured from New York City into the southland, scouting artists for the Victor label. He found blues, jazz and country. In Bristol, Tennessee, he recorded the first sessions for the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers while gaining valuable copyrights. South of the border trips led to the explosion of the Latin American market, thriving to this day with such peermusic standards as "Perfidia," "Brasil," "Granada" and multiple Latin Grammys and BMI Latin Publisher of the Year titles.

Peer's penchant for discovering diverse, often-overlooked creators preceded a quantum leap in that area in 1939 when BMI was formed, a blessing for writers and publishers on the fringes of mainstream music. Peer's philosophy fit perfectly with the new performing rights organization.

Later acquisitions and talent development in Europe added to its stature, but not at the expense of foretelling U.S. trends, as the company signed Buddy Holly and other rock & roll pioneers.

After Peer died in 1960, his wife Monique led the company for the next 20 years before their son Ralph Peer II expanded the family tradition of exploring new opportunities.

"We have to be very conscious of respect for the roots of music and at the same time work very hard to keep ourselves contemporary," he explains. "By being players in the contemporary music markets around the world, we do the best job of serving our repertoire and the composers and heirs of the repertoire."

Keeping abreast of technological advances is a key to success, stresses Peer, who presides over a global operation with 32 offices in 27 countries, and an immense catalog of some 300,000 songs. "It was the technology of the Victrola that really spearheaded my father's introduction of country music to a broader public. And I've always been very proud of the fact that he was involved in the first recordings of black people singing the blues. He knew there were genres of music and audiences that weren't being fulfilled out there."

Kevin Lamb, Vice President in charge of the Nashville office, succinctly observes, "While everybody zigged, Ralph Peer was zagging."

The zagging has resulted in a catalog that has yielded hits for such artists as Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Celine Dion, Nat King Cole, Hank Williams, Rod Stewart, Willie Nelson, Ray Charles, Edith Piaf and Julio Iglesias. Among the company's songwriters are producer/writer David Foster, Grammy-winning new age artist Kitaro, BMI multi-award winner Stewart Harris and Shelly Peiken, who has crafted compositions for Christina Aguilera and Meredith Brooks.

Beyond the airwaves and record sales, peermusic spices TV series, commercials and movies. O Brother, Where Art Thou? featured six of its songs on the soundtrack, selling more than six million copies in the U.S. alone -- the best-selling country soundtrack in history.

Providing gems for the hottest chart-topping acts from rock to Latin while mining gold and platinum from the catalog prods peermusic into the forefront as a modern day publishing giant. Significantly, the O Brother evergreens were a back-to-the-future gift from the copyright collage assembled by Ralph S. Peer when he made that historic trip to Tennessee. His son saluted the achievement, hosting a private dinner in Bristol commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Bristol sessions, with invitations sent to all the living relatives of the Carter Family, Jimmie Rodgers and the Stonemans.

"It's not often that you get 75 years of relationships between a publishing company and its composers and heirs," Peer points out. "It was that relationship that we were celebrating and holding up as a standard which we strive to attain."]]> 2003-10-22T18:00:00-05:00 http://www.bmi.com/news/entry/233844 Artists, Aguilera, Christina, Brooks, Meredith, Peiken, Shelly, Urban, Keith, Musical Styles, Pop, Urban Like most songwriters, Shelly Peiken lives a life of uncertainty. "I never take anything for granted, never assume there will be another hit, " she said.  

Unlike most songwriters, she is building on a brief history of commercial success. She co-wrote "What A Girl Wants" and "Come On Over Baby (All I Want Is You)" which reached the top of the charts for Christina Aguilera. She co-wrote "Bitch" with Meredith Brooks, and the single spent four weeks at the #2 spot on the charts. She also has songs on albums by Celine Dion, Taylor Dayne, Mandy Moore and country stars Keith Urban and LeAnn Rimes.

The insecurity of her profession has been compounded by widespread internet downloading without compensation for copyright owners, Peiken said. "It's a big grey cloud over the songwriting community that feels as if we're being stolen from," she said. "I feel the impact emotionally on songwriters. Our hands are tied. We don't want to wave our fingers at young people and feel we're disciplining them, but we don't want to do nothing because we're responsible to ourselves."

She said she never made deliberate plans in her youth to be a songwriter; the profession simply chose her. "I never woke up and decided I want to do this," she explained. "It's just something I did since I was a little girl."

To the contrary, Peiken planned on a career in fashion design. After graduating from the University of Maryland, she began working in New York's garment district. "I watched people dragging racks of clothes through the street during August and imagined myself doing it. It was a reality check," she said. "I realized that business wasn't me."

Her yearning to be closer to music led her to Bleeker Street in New York, where she found work performing in clubs and waiting tables. "It was a long time, six or seven years, until I was able to really earn a living solely from music," she recalled. "For years, I never had more than $500 in savings. It was month to month paying the rent." Along the way, she partnered with Adam Gorgoni, also a songwriter, and moved to Los Angeles. Peiken was pregnant with a daughter in 1997 when Meredith Brooks released "Bitch" as a single. When her check for songwriting performance royalties arrived from BMI, Peiken thought cautiously of the future. "The first thing I did was open a college account for our daughter. We were very conservative in living below our means."

Most aspiring songwriters fail to achieve even one big hit, and often complain about difficulty in getting their songs heard by artists, producers and record companies. Peiken said those doors were opened to her by fearlessness and the relationships she established early in the business.

"Maybe I overestimated myself," she said. "I had no fear. I cold-called the labels, told them about scraps of songs I had that I felt had promise. They sense your confidence. I tried to write with people who weren't afraid to get out there. I built relationships with producers, managers -- even mothers and fathers of artists -- anybody who would listen."

She said she currently writes about 50 songs per year. Among those, in due time she estimates half will be recorded; eight will be released as singles; three will receive enough radio play to make the charts. Hopefully, she said, "one will be a big hit."]]> 2003-09-14T18:00:01-05:00 http://www.bmi.com/musicworld/entry/233605 Artists, *NSYNC, Aaliyah, Aguilera, Christina, Brandy, Brooks, Meredith, Peiken, Shelly, Musical Styles, Pop, Rock, Musicworld, Hitmaker, Type, International A Grammy-nominated songwriter, Shelly Peiken has proven to be one of the top female songwriters in the pop and rock world. Having written or co-written songs with or for Meredith Brooks, The diVinyls, Christina Aguilera, Brandy, *NSYNC and The Pretenders, Peiken is one of the new players in the pop songwriting world.

Describing herself as always being a songwriter, Peiken's first big break came in the mid-'80s when Taylor Dayne recorded "Carry Your Heart." Though it wasn't a single, it did appear on Dayne's multi-platinum album and kick-started Peiken's career. Since then, Peiken has gone on to cross musical genres, writing or co-writing for artists including Celine Dion, Curtis Stigers, Abra Moore, Kelly Price and Reba McEntire, as well as international recording artists Viktor Lazlo (East West France), Ivan Matais (Arista U.K.), Louise Hoffsten (BMG Sweden) and Elisabeth (BMG Denmark).

Her most public songwriting breakthrough came with the song "Bitch," which she co-wrote with Meredith Brooks. "Bitch" became a gold single, received a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Song, was a #2 single on Billboard's Hot 100 chart, a #1 video on MTV and VH-1, and catapulted Brooks to pop/rock stardom.

Since then, Peiken has co-written with Brooks on her latest CD, as well as writing "Under My Tree" and "I Guess It's Christmas Time" for *NSYNC; the Grammy nominated "Almost Doesn't Count" for Brandy; the single "Human" for the Pretenders; the current #1 Billboard single "What A Girl Wants" for Christina Aguilera; and "Turn The Page" for Aaliyah for the Music of The Heart soundtrack. Coming up, she has tracks being used by Mark Wills, Aguilera, Brandy, Innocence (RCA), M2M (Atlantic), Devon (Sony), The Young Americans (Qwest), Colapsis (Cherry/Universal), Nobody's Angel (Universal), Vocal Point (Dreamworks) and Josh (RCA).