Scam Busters
Stick with me kid, I’ll make you a star! Nashville is a town full of important people that can help you build your career. It’s also a town where a school of sharks ominously circle just below the surface of Music Row, waiting for fresh meat to jump into the waters of the Music Business.  In this session, we’re going to reveal many of the most commonly used scams designed to dupe aspiring singers and songwriters. We’ve gone undercover to expose actual frauds on Music Row! If you take anything from this panel, let it be, “NEVER sign anything without a lawyer.”

The Road

Hit the road, Jack! To keep fans coming back, you’ve got to have a great live show, and our panelists know what it takes to make your performance an event that will not only grow your fan base, but also have promoters lined up to book you for concert appearances. Performing live generates a large part of most recording artist’s income, and if you do it well, it’s the part of your career that will continue on long after your songs have left the charts.

What Do Record Labels Really Want

It’s the million dollar question, and our panel of record company executives is here to give us the real answers! From the best ways to get record companies to listen to your music, to the ways that other artists have made their voices heard, we’ll discuss what most artists do wrong, and what the few who succeed do right to get the attention of record companies, and get their shot at the big time! This was by far our most popular class last year, and we’re bringing it back with another great panel of music industry leaders.

Management

Everybody needs a manager…or do they? Most aspiring singers want a manager to help them become a star, but it’s amazing how many don’t really know what a manager does, or more importantly doesn’t do. The value of having a great manager to help guide your career to superstardom can’t be underestimated, but we’re going to clear the air in this session. We’ll discuss the right time to get manager, and what to expect from your manager when you’ve got one.

Marketing and Publicity

JC Penney is doing it right…Nike’s just doing it.  It’s creating brand recognition for a product through effective marketing and publicity. It’s why companies spend millions of dollars to buy TV time during the Super Bowl, and it’s also why Natalie Maines conveniently makes shocking statements that grab headlines just before the new Dixie Chicks album hits stores. When you’re a country star, your product is you, and our panelists are among the best at creating the buzz for countless country stars that have come before you. They’ll share their stories and give you ideas that will help you make your product stand out from the crowd.

Making the Record

Long before the “record” button is ever pushed on a recording session, hundreds of hours of work go into the making of a major label album. With a team that includes A&R people, producers, engineers, musicians, oh yeah and of course recording artists there’s a lot of plotting and planning that must be accomplished before the first note of music is ever played. In this class we’ve assembled some of those team members to shed some light on how the process works and to give you tips on how to make your recording sound better on a tight budget.

Songwriting and Publishing

God bless the boys that make the noise on 16th avenue. Lacy J. Dalton immortalized the unsung hero’s of country music in this hit song, and we’ve gathered together a stellar panel of songwriters and publishers responsible for some of the greatest songs created on Music Row. Without hit songs, there would be no superstar artists. In this class you’ll learn how music publishers and songwriters work to not only get hit songs to recording artists, but how they work with writers and artist/writers to help them develop their talents.

Group Therapy

At CSU, you learn a lot about those that have come before you, and the things you need to do to turn your passion into a profession. Let’s face it, there’s a lot to be learned from hearing the stories and heeding the advice of our experts, but you really come to CSU to further your career.

This year you decide who performs at CSU LIVE. In Group Therapy, we will split all CSU attendees into small groups. Each group member will have the opportunity to sing 60 seconds of a song acapella and be rated by the other members of his/her group.
Score sheets will be tallied, and the member of each group with the highest score will perform live at CSU Open Mic Night .Each Open Mic Night performer will be rated by all CSU attendees, and the grand prize winner will take home an amazing prize package!