Screenshot of a session during the March 2021 debut of YouTube Songwriters Presents Well Versed.
When Epic Records artist Kah-Lo, a staple on the electronic dance music scene, dropped her first EP a few weeks ago, the new collection packed an interesting songwriting collaboration. The track Candy was created during YouTube’s first virtual writing camp.
A pandemic-pivoted incarnation of a music industry staple, YouTube Songwriters Presents Well Versed, held from March 23-26, brought together 29 writers and five artists—all from the Epic Records roster for its first incarnation—for 19 sessions conducted primarily via Google Meet.
The camp not only yielded the Kah-Lo song, which she created with writers Jin Jin and Dan Gleyzer, but three tracks on the new record artist John K is releasing June 25.
“We only had 75 percent of the album done and would have never finished it if it weren’t for YouTube,” says John K. “They put together a virtual camp with some of my favorite writers and producers and we ended up getting three amazing songs for the album and most likely the lead single. It could not have come at a better time.”
“This is absolutely not typical,” says Joey Arbagey, EVP of A&R at Epic Records, of both the “super-fast” collaborative bounty, and the overall experience. A self-professed writing camp skeptic, Arbagey is effusive in his praise for Well Versed, which he says established the right vibe at the right time to create these songs as well as additional compositions still in the works for label acts including AJ Mitchell, Rence and Annika Wells.
“I was passing in and out of the rooms, and the energy was just so positive and everyone was so light and having fun,” he says. “Maybe it’s doing it over Zoom, or these [camps] just not happening over the past 14-15 months, but people were really open to it. Everyone was in the right state of mind.”
Well Versed is the new home for all of YouTube’s songwriting camps, and its debut outing in virtual form turned out to be even more auspicious than anticipated. While virtual writing camps are unlikely to eclipse in-person assemblages, the trend has been growing during the past year and is on track to flourish as remote sessions sponsored by the likes of record labels to Grammy Camp to schools including Berklee College of Music continue to stack up.
“Lockdown made it harder to connect with new people to make music, but with the YouTube Well Versed sessions, I was able to get in digital rooms with people I wouldn’t have otherwise met and make some incredible stuff I’m really proud of,” says Kah-Lo. “I went back in to work with some of those new collaborators, like Dan Gleyzer and Natania, even after the sessions ended.”
The writers and producers who attended the YouTube camp—including Wendy Wang, Marcus Lomax, Violet Skies, and Captain Cuts’ Ryan Rabin and Ben Berger—represent a swath of publishing interests including Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony Music Publishing, Warner Chappell, BMG and Kobalt. Some are unsigned and operating independently, by design.
“So many of our participants were already so comfortable with the idea of virtually writing. And based on the caliber of the songs that were created at this camp I don’t believe that virtual sessions are a barrier to entry to creating a hit record,” says Jenna Rubenstein, songwriter relations lead at YouTube.
“Songwriters are at the bedrock of our music ecosystem. So the more space we can give songwriters and producers to create, the better it is for the entire music landscape,” she adds. “Of course we can’t re-create the magic of in-person, but given geographic barriers alone, I wouldn’t be surprised if virtual collaborations stuck around and became a permanent part of co-writing culture.”
It’s a sentiment shared by David Gray, co-head of A&R at Universal Music Publishing Group, to which UK-based Jin Jin is signed.
“Now as people are starting to go into rooms and write with each other again, there’s an advantage of Zoom,” says Gray. “She’s a great writer from the UK, and she wouldn’t have had the option of participating before. The Zoom camps will be helpful to have more people who wouldn’t geographically be able to be there, which we never thought of before. It used to be, ‘We’re doing a writing camp in LA and if you can’t be there we’ll get someone else.’ Now, it’s like, ‘Well actually you can be there.’”
As with many reinventions of the past year, the virtual sessions diminished some of stresses that can travel along with getting to in-person events and quash creativity.
"Collaborating with a number of talented, creative artists from different countries in this particular session was productive as it enabled not only inclusivity, but a sharing and merging of creative ideas, mixing several genres of music, whilst broadening my own network of talent,” says Jin Jin.
“As well as the obvious health benefits of working from home, this approach was also advantageous in other ways,” she notes. “Although in different time zones, it was cost-effective in terms of reducing travel time and potentially costly accommodation bills. This also removed the cost of hiring studio space. Whilst there are some well-known challenges to virtual working, such as possible technology issues and the lack of person-to-person interaction, this has been an extremely valuable resource for myself, in enabling continued productivity and collaboration."
Gray, a former songwriter, recalls the logistical stress of trying to get to camps. “There’s no fighting traffic, no finding a parking spot, finding your people. All that anxiety that happens before a session is gone, so you’re really fresh for a session and ready for what you want to accomplish.”
Reflecting back on past in-person experiences, Arbagey adds, “I remember you’d get to the studio and everyone’s getting a little nervous to play what they’re working on and being a little tense—and that didn’t exist in this class.” Other camps, he notes, “have felt kindof forced. You’re putting people in rooms that maybe aren’t vibing with each other. Never in the past have many songwriters gotten the best results out of doing it that way.”