The Week In Music Publishing 2.3.12

A two-year legal battle between the Radio Music License Committee and ASCAP re: royalties paid on an annual basis has been settled. The new agreement scales back payments by 3%, which will lighten ASCAP's coffers by $8OM in 2012.

• GOP candidate Newt Gingrich found himself running afoul of the music biz when he received a cease and desist notice from Canadian music publisher Third Side Music publishing who objected to his use of How You Like Me Know? by British band The Heavy.

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• Universal and Sony are likely to face a harsh battle in their pursuit to acquire to EMI's recording and publishing companies respectively. Warner Music Group's former Chief Executive and outgoing Chairman, Edgar Bronfman Jr. has publicly vowed to fight the sale as it would give Universal and Sony too large a piece of the market.
• LyricFind, the worlds largest legal lyric solution, announced this week that they had become the first to sign up the global rights for song lyrics from all four major music publishers.
• UK music publishing company Snapper Music Group signed a new rights management deal with the Harry Fox Agency, helping to streamline the licensing and royalty collection process for Snapper's US efforts.
• Online music subscription service RaRa has signed a pan-European deal with PRS for Music giving RaRa the ability to pay out royalties to around 85,000 songwriters, publishers and composers.
• Peermusic has announced a new joint venture in China called Shake Music which will act as a 360 degree entertainment company.
• David Rose Publishing announced a sub-publishing deal with Centrifuge Publishing (Australia), a new three-year deal with Universal Music Group (UK), and extended its administration agreement with Warner/ Chappell Music also in the UK.
• Bob Dylan has waived the publishing rights to his entire catalog for artists to cover his song in celebration of an Amnesty International Golden Anniversary record.
• Pitbull is to receive the top Latin gong, presented to artists who have 'distinctly and profoundly influenced the entertainment industry'.

This music publishing roundup is posted weekly by Songtrust – royalty collection for all songwriters.