“I Create Music” week

There was a collective sigh of relief at ASCAP this week as we came to the close of “I Create Music Week.” It kicked off on Wednesday, April 9th with the 2008 Pop Music Awards. This was the twenty fifth annual ceremony of Honoring the most popular ASCAP members of the past year. In addition they gave out two Golden Note awards for ASCAP members who have been successful throughout their entire career. This years recipients were Lionel Richie and Steve Miller. There were great performances as well, opening with Sara Bareilles playing her single “Love Song”, and closing with The Steve Miller Band playing a few favorites. We spent the day preparing and running back and forth between the awards and the expo. It was great to see how these types of shows are set up, and how they run. As we got closer to the start of the show, we took our places at the entrance. This turned out to be the most stressful part of the show. Once everyone was in, I was pulled backstage to be a runner in case anyone needed anything. It seemed to go by very quick and before I knew it everyone was on their way to the after-party. It was all in all a pretty extravagant event.
Without much of a chance to breathe, we were back the next morning setting up for the start of the expo. For the past few years, ASCAP hosts what the call the “I Create Music” Expo. It is designed to give ASCAP members information about songwriting, publishing, copyright, and basically anything else an up and coming songwriter might want to know. For three days there were panels and interviews followed each night different musical showcases. For a few hours each day I worked their merchandise booth and the rest of the day I was able to attend panels. Among the speakers were Steve Miller, Desmond Child, Jackson Browne, Butch Walker, Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora. I also attended panels about Production, Copyright, and a new performing rights organization called Sound Exchange. The expo also gave me a chance to meet some of the employees from the New York offices, which are much larger (450 people as compared to LA’a 30). ASCAP also used these events to help promote their position paper about music copyright in a digital age. It is an important aspect of a songwriters career and may be going through a drastic change, anyone interested in reading more about it can at ascap.com Overall the expo was a success and although it was great to be at, it is a relief to know it’s done.