Who knew that the people running book publishing empires were far more forward thinking than your average music exec? After all, they are still, for the most part, peddling paper. But Amazon's new deal to licence some of publishing's most popular franchises, and enable writers to make money selling fan fiction, served as a reminder of how much the music industry remains stuck in the stone age.
Fan Fiction Authors Are To Books What DJs Are To Music
Peter Gabriel co-founded CueSongs, a one-stop music
licensing hub for online and digital media, today announced a partnership with Audiosocket. Audiosocket’s music
catalog will now include CueSongs’ roster of established artists, and will be
available in early June to its customers which include Vimeo, Associated Press,
Monster Energy and others.
The International Songwriting Competition (ISC) has announced the
winners for the 2012 edition of the contest. ISC's Grand Prize was
awarded to Joshua Hanson of Irvine, California, USA, for his song
"Monsters With Misdemeanors," which was entered in the
Folk/Singer-Songwriter category.
Music rights management company BMG has announced it has completed
their acquisitions of the recorded music catalogues of the Mute and
Sanctuary record labels from Universal Music Group. The Mute catalogue includes master recordings from such artists as
Depeche Mode, Nick Cave, Goldfrapp and Yazoo. The Sanctuary Records
catalogue of 170,000 recordings contains works by the likes of Black
Sabbath, Motörhead, Megadeth, The Kinks and Uriah Heep.
Starting last June, Big Machine (Taylor Swift, Tim McGraw and others) and several other large independent labels struck precedent-setting deals with Clear Channel that bypass ASCAP, BMI, SESAC and SoundExchange. In exchange for smaller payments on digital play now, for the first time ever, these labels and their artists are directly participating in terrestrial radio revenue.
(UPDATED) ASCAP announced the results of its biennial election for the Board of Directors. Twelve writer and twelve publisher members have been elected to serve on the Board for a two-year term starting April 1st. Newly elected writer member in the at-large field is composer Alf Clausen.
Danny Rogers, manager of Gotye and The Temper Trap, has teamed up with Adam Tudhope, manager of Mumford & Sons, to form And Publishing. The new venture will have offices in both London, where Thomas Child will handle A&R; and Sydney, where A&R duties will be handled by Travis Banko, theMusic.com.au reported. Kobalt Music Group has been brought aboard to provide administrative services.
Music treaming service Rhapsody has tapped The Harry Fox Agency (HFA) to handle rights management support for its international expansion to Germany and the UK, as well as, in the U.S. Via their Slingshot service, HFA will provide end-to-end licensing support, including license issuance and administration, data management, royalty calculations and publisher payments for its U.S.-based offering. As well, HFA will administrate Rhapsody's direct licensing agreements with international collection societies, including PRS, GEMA, IMPEL and CELAS.
Independent artists can make more money than ever before. The walls of major label distribution have crumbled, and have been down for a decade. Social
networks make promotion to fans easier and cheaper. Add in home recording, crowd-sourced artwork, and other cost cutting maneuvers and DIY musicians can be
financially successful.
MediaNet, b2b provider of music catalogs and metadata is expanding its offering to include rights administration, reporting and payment for mechanical and performance licenses, as part of a suite of white label master and publishing rights administration tools.
In the perennial lyrics vs. music debate, I am what you might call a lyrics-freak: I listen to the words first, have to know correct ones, and endlessly
analyze and interpret their meanings. When I bought my first iPod, I engraved David Bowie lyrics on the back where you’re supposed to put your name. My AIM
buddy profile, MySpace, and early days of Facebook were filled with face-palm worthy lyric quotes. I still have a short Fiona Apple lyric in my Twitter bio
now.
Just last month Pandora was in Washington asking for lower rates. Now comes a report that they've agreed to pay more. Music publisher Sony/ATV has independently negotiated a 25% increase in royalties from Pandora, according to the New York Post. The result is likely to be more publishers demanding higher rates.
The Harry Fox Agency has announced a tie-up with Google and their Google Play distribution platform to offer rights management for music and other intellectual property. HFA’s rights management service, Slingshot will allow Google to access HFA's rights database and publisher relationships to license music for its music locker and music store.
Private equity firm Rizvi Traverse is is close to acquiring an equity stake in Nashville-based performing rights organization SESAC, according to an FTC filing that provides few specifics. SESAC represents Bob Dylan, Neil Diamond, Lady Antebellum, Mumford & Sons and hundreds of songwriters using a for profit model, unlike it's non-profit competitors ASCAP and BMI.
We last reported on BeatStars back in June,
and since then, the company has seen a good amount of traction. The music production licensing platform has now partnered with leading digital distribution
company INgrooves Fontana, giving songwriters and producers on the platform a
presence on Ingrooves’ Client Console.
This partnership gives INgrooves' label and artist partners
direct access to BeatStars production services and artists.
Hey, look, some band released an album. Why should you care? Maybe you shouldn’t, but sometimes you do. If this happens to you, this whole “caring about an album a lot” thing, the 33 1/3 series of books from Bloomsbury (see also: the blog) can be an invaluable resource. These small books detail the stories behind many of history’s most legendary albums. The series is still going strong, 86 books in.
Pandora
has taken performance rights organization ASCAP to federal court in hopes of paying
lower rates for the performance of ASCAP songwriters and composers’ works. The lawsuit
comes after the two sides failed to reach an agreement on lower music licensing
fees together, as Pandora found it difficult to reach profitability with the
current payout structure. The Oakland, California-based company is now calling
on federal courts to set more “reasonable” rates for the licensing fees it
needs to pay out in order to stream ASCAP members’ compositions.
Country music's big night delivered for Blake Shelton who took out 'Entertainer of the Year' and 'Male Vocalist of the Year' at the CMAs. His wife Miranda Lambert celebrated with 'Song of the Year' for Over You.
The Internet Radio Fairness Coalition, which has been assembled
by several Internet and broadcast radio services including Pandora, Clear
Channel and many others, officially launched last week. The Coalition comes
together with a mission of urging Congress to support legislation of the
Internet Radio Fairness Act of 2012 (IRFA), which they believe will bring the
royalty system for Internet radio into the 21st century.
Sony/ATV's Rosetta Publishing catalog is going under the hammer as part of its divestment to appease regulators for the $2.2 billion purchase of EMI Music Publishing. The catalog includes hits by Culture Club, Devo, and many more '80s stars.
As music fans continue to have more options in their digital music consumption, the ways that artists and copyright holders get paid continues to become
more complicated and fuzzy – often because of outdated copyright laws and private
negotiations occurring between artists, labels and streaming services. Given
that digital music services like Spotify and Pandora are continuing to see their
user bases grow at the same time that global music sales continue to decline overall, music services need to become transparent
enough so that artists can get a clearer grasp of the viability and sustainability
of their music careers through the usage of their recordings.
Ray Charles' children are in a legal battle with the charitable foundation bearing their father's name. The case revolves around claims to royalties to some of Charles' biggest hits - and whether they were 'works for hire', which impacts on any termination rights.
Michael S. Simon has been promoted to President and CEO for rights management, royalty and licensing company, The Harry Fox Agency. Simon has been with HFA for more than 11 years, serving in a variety of roles, including Senior Vice President of Business Affairs, General Counsel and Chief Strategic Officer.
During the past four months,
Hypebot has been presenting to you bi-weekly episodes of The Upward Spiral
Podcast as a way to turn our daily coverage into deeper conversations;
providing extended insights and discussions around various topics surrounding
today’s evolving music space and how technology aides in its transformation.
Ten episodes in, the show continues to tackle some of today’s major issues within
the music / technology field, while bringing on a number of industry guests to
add smart, passionate and insightful voices to the discussion.
ASCAP now provides a solution for songwriters to receive royalties when their works are performed live in the U.S. ASCAP OnStage allows member to submit their setlists and be compensated fairly for performances at all size venues. Cover songs are also reported and payments are made via normal ASCAP distribution.
