Songwriting & Music Publishing

The Week In Music Publishing 2.17.12

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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.

MORE:

  • Kenny Rogers has filed a lawsuit against Capitol Records claiming the company has failed to pay him for royalties of his music sold as digital downloads or ringtones.
  • Warner Music Group reported digital revenue increased by 36% due largely to rapidly expanding music services Spotify and Deezer.
  • Long-lost social networking giant Myspace touted some encouraging numbers this week, claiming to have gained 1 million users in the last month due to their new, Spotify-like streaming music service. Myspace boasts a catalog of 42 million songs, as opposed to Spotify with over 15 million.
  • In Canada, multiple organizations representing musicians are lobbying in Ottawa to reverse a 15-year-old 'subsidy' that allows some 600 commercial radio stations to pay far less in royalties back to the artists than they should be.
  • In Australia, the Federal Court ruled that radio stations must only pay once for the right to broadcast a piece of music - even if that includes a simulcast of the music online as well.
  • ASCAP-founded monitoring service Mediaguide has announced that they will be ceasing radio monitoring operations.
  • Singer Tyrese Gibson has inked a new deal with Peer Music Publishing, who will be the exclusive publisher for Gibson's latest album as well as all music written during the terms of the contract.
  • EMI Music Publishing has entered a joint venture with award-winning songwriter Plan B to launch a new publishing company called Tempermental Music.
  • Finally, a very happy 98th Birthday to ASCAP! The Performance Rights Organization founded in New York City in 1914 by 100 members, now has grown be one of the largest PROs in the world and represents over 425,000 members including some of the world's most famous performers.

SongtrustCourtesy of Songtrust the easiest way for songwriters and bands to register songs and collect royalties.

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