The ASCAP Expo - A Weekend in LA.

This past weekend was the ASCAP "I Create Music" Expo, which I attended for the first time. It was a hefty price (even after my West Coast Songwriters discount it came to 3 whopping hundreds) but totally worth the cash.  Myself at 1,400 other music-loving folk spent 3 full days, as in 9am til midnight, talking about everything in the world of music creation.  I was definitely overwhelmed at times, being surrounded by such beautiful, talented and driven musicians, but the biggest takeaway for me was inspiration.

Among the many panels, a few stand out for me; Linda Perry offering her critique and support of the audience's original songs, meeting Marc Wood (manager for Imogen Heap), Listening to A Fine Frenzy and Ariel Hyatt of CyberPR discuss the ever changing world of social media and online networking, and even meeting Jill Sobule - the woman who trail-blazed the fan-funding of an album, directly leading me to launch the "Be A Part of Whitney Nichole's First Record" campaign (which is still running, and we've already raised almost $1,000!  Truly a weekend full of pioneers in this new music industry we all find ourselves in.

If you can believe there were bigger names, I also saw John Mayer, Jason Mraz, Tricky, Ludacris, Quincy Jones, Justin Timberlake and Bill Withers speak.  Yes, John Mayer is exactly as cocky as you think he is - even using the term "bangin' hot chicks" in his interview.  Jason Mraz is surprisingly tough looking, until he opens his mouth and a tween's voice comes out.  It was interesting to learn that Justin Timberlake is immensely humble, and I found him to be way more experienced and mature than his SNL skits lead on.  My absolute favorite celebrity speaker was Bill Withers, and if you don't recognize the name, shame on you. One of the greatest songwriters alive, and he was down to earth, hilarious, hopeful and inspring.  Among Bill's gems: 

"When you're 3 feet tall at 18 years old, a basketball just ain't the right gift for ya."

"A&R stands for antagonistic and redundant. Some people just don't get it."

"Allow yourself to feel, and you just might get lucky and be a conduit for something profound."

In reference to a question to JT about being sexy, "Now wait a minute, how come you gotta talk to him about sexy?"

Lucky there were some wonderful bloggers at the event, so even if you couldn't make it, you can check out videos and articles here.