Music Business

Music Publishing News Weekly Roundup 3.14.2014: Doug Morris, Michael Dell, Neil Young & More

Ny-sxswDoug Morris will receive the Hitmaker Award from The Songwriter’s Hall Of Fame. Morris began his career in music in the mid 1960’s as a songwriter and producer for the publisher Robert Mellin and Laurie Records. During this time he wrote hits for The Chiffon and Brownsville Station. Later, in the 1970’s Morris moved to the business side of the industry and started the label Big Tree Records which was eventually acquired by Atlantic Records. Following this, he served executive roles at Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group, and Sony Music Entertainment. Morris was also the founder and former chairman of Vevo, the leading music video on demand service launched in 2009. He will receive the award at the Annual Induction and Awards dinner on Thursdsay, June 12.

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Michael Dell's private investment firm MSD Capital has invested in a 9.9% stake in Kobalt. Michael Dell is the founder and chief executive of Dell computers. Kobalt Music group launched 13 years ago and currently represents song catalogs of Max Martin, Dr. Luke, and Dave Grohl. With the new found support from MSD, Kobalt plans to the increase listener base they monetize from 300 Million to 1.5 Billion in the next 12 months.

Neil Young has raised over $2.5 Million on Kickstarter in support of his new startup company, Pono Music. His new Pono device he plans to release in October 2014 will allow users to listen to and store high quality FLAC file songs in a device that fits in your pocket. Along with the device, Young plans to release PonoMusic, an online store for high quality music. The announcement comes with support of his famous friends Dave Matthews, Elton John, Arcade, Fire, Dave Grohl and many others that appeared in his Kickstarter testimonial video. 

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