“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.

From the Beginning

Things seem to go very fast here. The people, the lifestyle, the conversations, the time, basically everything except the traffic. Pete and I arrived about a month ago and I’m stuck wondering where the past four weeks went. We decided to drive out here and all in all, the three days on the road went by surprisingly quick. We pulled into the city and in less than an hour of being here, we were greeted by the Los Angeles McNallySmith Alumni along with our fearless leaders Debbie and Charley. We were treated to a great dinner and although it was great to see everyone, what we were really looking forward to was a good nights sleep.

The first week was filled with mixed emotions. It took a bit of adjusting to get a feel for what life was going to be like but it didn’t take long. The 70 degree weather helped. I had a good amount of time before my internship started so I spent the beginning exploring the different areas. The first of which Pete and I decided should be the beach. Within the first week we had visited Santa Monica beach, Venice Beach, and Hermosa Beach, all of which were beautiful but with very different characteristics. After a mix up on the bus our trip to santa monica turned into a ten mile walk but after doing nothing but driving for three days, we could use the excercise.

After the second week of exploring and hanging out, I was more than ready to start my internship. I am working at ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers) which is one of the main performing rights organzations in the U.S. It is an organization that was created and is run by it’s members. Their job is to protect the rights of it’s members by licensing and distibuting royalties for the public performance of their songs. I’m in my third week of interning there and am mainly working for two people. One works in the Pop/Rock department dealing with new and existing members. We process new writer and publisher contracts that come through, and monitor the royalties that are paid out to those members. The other works in that same area as well as in the Marketing Department. We help promote events that ASCAP is hosting, as well as advertise about the company itself. My tasks vary on a daily basis. Some common things include searching through an artist’s database of song to make sure all of the songs have been paid out in full so there aren’t royalties buried somewhere that should have been distributed, or helping to put together care packages for bands that play at an ASCAP event. Now we are starting to prepare for the ASCAP Pop Awards as well as the annual “I Create Music” Expo which is a huge songwriting convention that ASCAP hosts every year.

I have to cut it off here, seeing as how we don’t have internet in our apartment so my blogging time is limited to coffee shops and my computer is about to die on me. I’ll have more later.