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The Week In Music Publishing 2.17.12

With the untimely death of Whitney Houston, album sales of her music are set to bring in millions of additional dollars over the coming weeks. Whitney's biggest smash hit I Will Always Love You is likely to net songwriter Dolly Parton another big chunk of change, having reportedly already earned Parton $6.3 million in royalties since the release of Houston's version.

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LyricFind CEO Darryl Ballantyne On Geographic & Digital Expansion

LyricFind recently announced a partnership with The Echo Nest to bring lyrics to the Rosetta Stone Platform and also announced global licensing agreements with all four major music publishers. I spoke with CEO Darryl Ballantyne who filled me in on the bigger picture and updated me on such earlier initiatives as Lyrics For Free. In the process I developed a picture of a company that might be described as making chess moves but may actually be engaged in a territorial game of Go.

SESAC Is For Sale, #3 U.S. Performing Rights Firm Could Fetch $500 Million

SESAC, the for-profit alternative to non-profit performing rights collection organizations ASCAP & BMI, is for sale. A number of marquee artists including Bob Dylan and Lady Antebellum use the company to negotiate licenses with radio stations, TV networks, film studios and performance venues.

The Week In Music Publishing 2.3.12

Members of Sister Sledge along with a songwriter and Oscar-nominated actress have filed a class action suit against Warner Music Group alleging that Warner has cheated the group, and others, out of millions of dollars in royalties due to a an improper calculation of revenue of digital track sales.

Songs Publishing CEO Matt Pincus Cries Foul: "VEVO pays us nothing."

Is a recent interview, VEVO boss Rio Caraeff revealed that after just 2 years the music video provider had generated $150 million in revenue in 2011. In fact, Caraeff envisions $1 billion in revenue within a "short period of time". But independent publishers and songwriters have not received any payments at all, according to Songs Music Publishing CEO Matt Pincus.

The Week In Music Publishing 1.27.12

There may be trouble afoot for EMI and its two separate businesses - recording and publishing - are heading towards merger with Universal and Sony respectively. With EMI set to meet with lenders in New York City to discuss the $1.8 billion loans needed to support the Sony Corp acquisition, there are rumblings that of a battle with independent labels to halt the deal - Universal's acquisition of EMI would give them near 40% market share of the recorded music industry. If Universal loses this battle, it may effect both Universal and Sony's ability to merge with the branches of EMI.

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This Week in Music Publishing: Jan 20, 2012

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a ruling this week to afford copyright protection to international works once considered 'public domain'. The ruling is a blow to a group of artists, film archivists and educators - backed by Google and others - who wheeled out the Constitution's 'Progress Clause' to try avoid the need for royalty payments on the works in question.

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Show Your Opposition To SOPA Today With #BlackoutSOPA

This post is written by Brenden Mulligan, technology entrepreneur and founder of Onesheet and ArtistData. Follow him on Twitter at @mulligan.

You've probably read about the heated debate around the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). It's a very important debate for musicians, as it could have a major effect on distribution channels and discovery platforms that many musicians rely on every day.

TuneRights: A Stock Market For Future Hit Songs

TuneRights made the cut for January's music tech pitch competition at midemlab. It's essentially a financial services platform that allows musicians to post singles and investors to buy in for a future share of the revenue. TuneRights is in beta and is open for signups.

Top 20 Songwriters Of 2011

The artists who perform hit songs are common knowledge to even the most casual music fan. In some cases, the same artists who dominate the airwaves are also responsible for penning the songs we know and love. However in many instances, the world’s most popular music is made possible by songwriters who often go unnoticed by the fans of their music - until now.

The Songtrust Top Songwriters Chart

This Week In Music Publishing 12.3.11

Spotify is making the leap from music streaming service to music platform with the launch of Spotify Apps. Launch partners like Rolling Stone, Pitchfork and Last.fm are trying to help solve one of Spotify’s biggest problems, music discovery, with apps designed to better highlight new music. Spotify also announced huge growth in its customer base, which we’re hopeful is a sign of good things to come – and more royalty payments.

• Meanwhile, Spotify board member Sean Parker’s original baby, Napster gets killed off (CNN Money)
• The battle between UMG and Grooveshark heats up (Hypebot)

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Indie Publishers Can License YouTube Via NMPA, HFA

The National Music Publishers’ Association is teaming up with the Harry Fox Agency to offer independent music publishers an opportunity to opt into a direct licensing agreement with YouTube. The deal lets indie music publishers grant the necessary rights for the synchronization of their musical works with select videos posted by YouTube users.

Full Text Of Citi Statement Announcing Sale Of EMI Publishing To Sony/ATV Group

Investor Group Including Sony Corporation of America Enters into Definitive Agreement to Acquire EMI Music Publishing from Citi

New York, London and Abu Dhabi – An investor group comprised of Sony Corporation of America ("SCA"), in conjunction with the Estate of Michael Jackson; Mubadala Development Company PJSC; Jynwel Capital Limited; the Blackstone Group's GSO Capital Partners LP; and David Geffen (the "Group") announced today the execution of a definitive agreement, whereby the Group will acquire EMI Music Publishing from a wholly-owned subsidiary of Citigroup, Inc. ("Citi") for total consideration of $2.2 billion.

Wu Tang Clan's Ghostface Killah Sues Universal Music For Royalties

Ghostface Killah, aka Dennis Coles, has filed a lawsuit to collect  royalties for his work with hip hop legends Wu Tang Clan. The suit, filed August 10 against Universal Music Group, alleges that the label violated a contract by claiming a 50% stake in Wu Tang's songs, instead of a the 25% that Coles asserts they are entitled to.

Music Publishers Association Names New Board

The National Music Publishers’ Association announced the results of its biennial election of its Board of Directors on Wednesday. The list includes many veterans of music publishing:

EMI Pulls Digital Rights From ASCAP In Radical Plan To Streamline Licensing

In a radical shift, EMI Music Publishing today announced that it is taking back the responsibility for licensing digital rights in North American from ASCAP. The performance rights society will continue to license EMI’s performance rights for traditional media services, including television and radio stations. 

As digital music innovation has picked up pace, bundled rights and one stop licencing has become the mantra of music tech startups and academics.  But until today, no major player had taken real steps to make streamlined licensing a reality.

Limelight Answers Prince On Cover Songs [VIDEO]

Last week on the George Lopez show, Prince declared is distaste for other artists covering his songs. Despite the millions of dollars that he's made from people covering his hits, Prince believes there should only be one version of his - or anyone else's - song.  As you might imagine, the team at song clearance service Limelight disagree and share why in this short video:

Click To Pay Sync Licensing Platform For Music

Need indie music for your film or video game, and fast? Meet Splother. The service allows full access to music via "click to pay" sync licensing and product marketing. Since it's no longer cost-effective to enter into elaborate negotiations for every type of sync, the company is aiming to speed up the process and provide a simple, iTunes-like solution for the long-tail of sync licensing.

ASCAP Revenues Fall 6%

A report just released by ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) shows a 6% drop revenue in 2010 to $935 million. Despite the decline ASCAP paid out $845 million in distributions to members, a decline of just 2.1%.  They blamed the fall in revenue on the slower economy and court setbacks which lowered certain royalty rates.

Piracy At Billboard? Magazine Publishes Ex-Warner Exec's Blog Post Without Asking

It's probably a honest mistake, but I had to chuckle when Techdirt's Mike Masnick noticed a tweet from former Warner Brothers Records digital executive Ethan Kaplan that Billboard had republished one of his blog posts without ever asking permission.  Ethan wasn't really upset, but the incident was particularly amusing at Hypebot central because Ethan's really good about answering his email.  I know that because we'd republished another post "The Death of the Album and Birth of Release" by him a week ago with his full consent.  Here, however, is the bigger question: