{"id":153835,"date":"2023-05-04T13:31:21","date_gmt":"2023-05-04T12:31:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/?p=153835"},"modified":"2023-05-04T13:31:21","modified_gmt":"2023-05-04T12:31:21","slug":"we-need-to-find-a-fair-way-to-compensate-songwriters-because-we-cant-survive-well-i-can-survive-but-im-terrified-for-the-next-generation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/we-need-to-find-a-fair-way-to-compensate-songwriters-because-we-cant-survive-well-i-can-survive-but-im-terrified-for-the-next-generation\/","title":{"rendered":"‘We need to find a fair way to compensate songwriters, because we can\u2019t survive. Well, I can survive, but I\u2019m terrified for the next generation.’"},"content":{"rendered":"

MBW\u2019s World\u2019s Greatest Songwriters series celebrates the composers behind the globe\u2019s biggest hits. This time out Liz Rose discusses how she moved from publisher to writer (whilst never leaving publishing), her creative partnership with Taylor Swift and why she’s worried for writers just starting out. World\u2019s Greatest Songwriters is supported by AMRA<\/a> \u2013 the global digital music collection society which strives to maximize value for songwriters and publishers in the digital age.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/figure>

Liz Rose calls herself \u201cthe accidental songwriter.\u201d<\/p>\n

If so, it must have been the happiest accident of all time.<\/p>\n

After all, Rose herself acknowledges that she\u2019s been enjoying one of the most \u201cawesome and busy\u201d years of even her stellar hitmaking career.<\/p>\n

Last year, she had a huge sync with Caitlyn Smith\u2019s The Card You Gamble<\/em>, the theme song for the country music drama series, Monarch<\/em>. In February, she was at the Grammys with co-writer Taylor Swift as All Too Well<\/em>, the stone-cold classic song they originally penned for Swift\u2019s 2012 Red<\/em> album, found a new lease of life in its extended, re-recorded 10-minute version, hitting No.1 on the Hot 100 and scoring a belated, but extremely well-deserved Grammy nomination for Song of the Year.<\/p>\n

And in June, she will be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in New York in her first year of eligibility (I\u2019m honored, humbled and shocked,\u201d she grins. \u201cOf course, you say that for all awards, but I really am!\u201d).<\/p>\n

Nor are such accolades new to Rose. She downplays her role in assisting Swift\u2019s genius, but her other Taylor co-writes such as You Belong With Me<\/em>, Teardrops On My Guitar, Tim McGraw<\/em> and White Horse<\/em> certainly helped propel Swift on her journey to Nashville prominence, en route to becoming the greatest star of the 21st century.<\/p>\n

<\/div>
<\/div>
<\/div> <\/div> \n

Rose is also part of the successful Love Junkies co-writing trio with Lori McKenna and Hillary Lindsey, and has previously triumphed at ceremonies including the Grammys, Country Music Association Awards and Academy of Country Music Awards, picked up SESAC Songwriter of the Year and co-written country classics with the likes of Maren Morris (Hummingbird<\/em>), Little Big Town (Girl Crush<\/em>), the Eli Young Band (Crazy Girl<\/em>), Carrie Underwood (Like I\u2019ll Never Love You Again<\/em>), Miranda Lambert (It All Comes Out In The Wash<\/em>) and even Kylie Minogue (Golden<\/em>).<\/p>\n

But, despite all this, the woman that no one knows as Elisabeth Wagner is absolutely correct when she points out that, for a very long time, none of the above looked even remotely on the cards.<\/p>\n

Indeed, Rose was in her forties by the time she had her first real hit (Gary Allan\u2019s Songs About Rain<\/em>). Before then, she was well-known amongst Nashville\u2019s close-knit music community as a publisher and song plugger for King Lizard Music, Encore and other companies. And she had no designs on becoming a creative, until people she worked with convinced her she should give it a try.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never thought of being a songwriter,\u201d she insists, noting she still can\u2019t really play an instrument. \u201cI was just working with songwriters that said, \u2018Why don\u2019t we try and write a song?\u2019 That\u2019s what\u2019s so great about this town. No one says, \u2018Let me see your songwriting degree before we write,\u2019 they\u2019re just like, \u2018Hey, you\u2019re fun to be around, wanna hang? Let\u2019s see if we can write something\u2026\u2019 And I just happened to be OK at it, kept doing it and got better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even then, Rose resisted.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t want people to say, \u2018She\u2019s a great song plugger and publisher\u2026 Oh, now you want to be a songwriter?\u2019\u201d she laughs. \u201cThat\u2019s like somebody in the band who\u2019s playing bass, saying \u2018I want to be the star now\u2019 \u2013 of course you do!\u201d<\/p>\n

But a star is what Rose became and she has since returned the mentoring favor to several generations of fresh Nashville talent (Swift credits her as being one of the few writers prepared to do sessions with a then-unknown teen), and supported many more with her own highly successful publishing company, Liz Rose Music, home to the likes of Joe Fox, Cameron Bedell, Cassidy Daniels and Rose\u2019s daughter, Caitlin Rose, a successful singer-songwriter in her own right.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019d love to see if there are a couple of artists that would benefit from the way I do things.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Rose Senior is still keen to push her own songwriting limits. Having renewed her publishing deal with Warner Chappell Music<\/a> and forged a JV with music rights finance house Open On Sunday (selling part of her catalog at the same time), she recently attended a successful song camp in Brazil and, having met with some pop stars around the Grammys, is now keen to explore working with artists outside of Music City.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d love to see if there are a couple of artists that would benefit from the way I do things,\u201d she says modestly, as she takes a break from packing for her imminent house move to FaceTime MBW<\/em> (although she\u2019s only moving within Nashville).<\/p>\n

In the meantime, she\u2019s been working with country hotshots such as Alana Springsteen and Parker McCollum and hints there may yet be more undiscovered Swift-Rose gems unearthed during the on-going Taylor\u2019s Version<\/em> project.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou just never know what\u2019s going to happen in this business,\u201d she grins. \u201cThat\u2019s why you get up every day and do it, and then six months or a year down the road, something happens with that song.\u201d<\/p>\n

Somewhere out there, another classic Liz Rose songwriting accident is waiting to happen\u2026<\/p>\n

\n
DO YOU HAVE ANY REGRETS THAT YOU DIDN\u2019T START WRITING SONGS EARLIER IN LIFE?<\/h6>\n

No. I have no regrets, because that means things would have been different \u2013 and I can\u2019t imagine them being any better than they are.<\/p>\n

\n
DON\u2019T YOU WORRY YOU MISSED OUT ON SOME GREAT SONGS?<\/h6>\n

No. There was totally no plan whatsoever. I never even wrote a poem or in a journal, I was too scared somebody would see it.<\/p>\n

\n
HOW DOES IT FEEL THAT EVERYBODY CAN SEE \u2018IT\u2019 NOW?<\/h6>\n

It feels real good! I was very lucky because I was surrounded by some of the greatest \u2013 Stephony Smith wrote with me in the very beginning. Kim McLean, Mark Narmore, Pat McLaughlin. Taylor Swift came along and trusted me \u2013 it was pretty amazing! The community of Nashville just embraced me, they were so kind and so encouraging, it was incredible.<\/p>\n

And luckily I was pretty good at it, plus I got to write with great songwriters at the beginning. I\u2019m sure I have some bad songs, but they were never the really shitty, \u2018songwriting-101-oh-my-God-you-need-to-not-do-this\u2019 songs that so many songwriters have to do before they get there. It was a long time before I went, \u2018OK, I\u2019m a songwriter\u2019. But I will say it out loud now.<\/p>\n

\n
WHAT\u2019S YOUR PREFERRED METHOD OF WRITING SONGS?<\/h6>\n

You have to read the room and figure out who you are in that room; I\u2019m the person in the room that digs for the story. It\u2019s probably the only time I shut up, because normally I talk way too much. The key question is not \u2018What do you need for your record?\u2019, but, \u2018Hey, what\u2019s going on in your life? You got anything you need to get out today?\u2019 Not, \u2018Do you need an up-tempo, do you need a ballad?\u2019 Of course, we have to ask those questions, but I also like to ask, \u2018What have you not said? If you have one more song in you and you want people to know something about you, what do you want to say?\u2019 I can do it the other way, but I would much rather find your feelings.<\/p>\n

\n
IS THAT MORE DIFFICULT WITH THE MODERN TREND FOR MULTIPLE CO-WRITERS?<\/h6>\n

Co-writing is wonderful. But it\u2019s getting a little out of control for me \u2013 this four or five-way co-writing is bullshit and I\u2019m the first one to bitch about it. Well, I don\u2019t mean I\u2019m the first<\/em> one because we\u2019re all<\/em> bitching about it, but it\u2019s funny, because when I get in there, I go, \u2018Why in the hell am I writing with four people?\u2019 But then it\u2019s so fun and you look at the song and say, \u2018That\u2019s what it took today and that\u2019s OK\u2019. For some reason, before I walk in the room, I think I can\u2019t adapt and the second I walk in, I adapt. I\u2019m very fortunate that I can.<\/p>\n

\n
COULD COUNTRY EVER END UP LIKE POP WITH A DOZEN WRITERS ON A HIT?<\/h6>\n

Well, that\u2019s not really how the song gets written, that\u2019s how they do business. Sometimes there are three people that wrote that song but, by the time they start adding their engineer, the producer, the artist and their cousin and little brother and the guy that dropped off coffee, that\u2019s just what happens. But that\u2019s OK \u2013 they make a lot more money in pop, so there\u2019s a lot more to spread around. I\u2019m not going to judge anything because, as soon I say I ain\u2019t doing that, it\u2019s going to happen, so I\u2019m just going to shut up!<\/p>\n

\n
IS THE GAP BETWEEN POP MUSIC AND COUNTRY MUSIC WRITING GETTING SMALLER THOUGH?<\/h6>\n

Yeah, because everybody\u2019s got a story to tell. It\u2019s just we tell them differently.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Taylor<\/figure>YOU WORKED WITH TAYLOR SWIFT WHEN SHE WAS A TEENAGER. BACK THEN, DID YOU THINK SHE\u2019D BECOME THE BIGGEST STAR IN THE WORLD?<\/h6>\n

No, but I knew she was going to do something amazing. I knew she would be a huge country artist, but beyond that, I had no idea. Who knew? Well, she did probably. When she was 15, I was calling her superstar, before she even put a record out.<\/p>\n

I just love her energy, I love the songwriting genius, the storytelling genius and I can never say enough about her. She always had something to say, and it was so easy. It was so fun to be part of her stories and watch her musical brain work.<\/p>\n

\n