The Recording Academy, whose members determine the Grammy Awards, has announced a new "community driven" membership model, as part of an an effort to increase diversity and build a more relevant organization. But could new professional recommendation and peer review requirements have the opposite effect, turning Academy membership and The Grammys into an insider's game?

Enacted on October 11, the Music Modernization Act will have vast impact on the music business and how it is conducted in the US. Here we look at exactly what sort of changes this new legislation will bring about.

Just under 50,000 have already signed a Change.org petition calling for Maroon 5 to drop out of performing as part of  the Superbowl halftime show in February. The band are rumored to have accepted the gig even after Rihanna turned it down in support of former NFL player Colin Kaepernick and other players.

While in days of old stadium shows were dominated by rock stars like The Rolling Stones and The Who, these rock performers are beginning to percolate out, making way for the new titans of pop.

TUESDAY 11.20.18

Music Business News From Around The Web

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Taylor Swift has once again used her power to help hundreds of other musicians.  Universal Music Group will share profits from the sale of Spotify stock with artists that have not recouped their advances.  While this almost unprecedented payment promise will match Sony's Spotify payments, the real person to thank for UMG's largesse is Swift.

In this 2nd edition of our continously updated Business Of Indie compendium of independent  music news, we share stories on Taylor Swift's exit from indie Big Machine to UMG, Glassnote's switch from UMG to AWAL (Do they cancel each other out?), changes in Recording Academy membership to increase diversity and much more. As always, you'll find it under our INDIE tab here. 

While radio stations have provided compensation to songwriters and music publishers, they have never never paid record labels, artists, or producers, something which, Richard James Burgess of A2IM believes, it's high time to change.

This week the Music Biz Weekly podcast tackles the topic of SEO - Search Engine Optimization. Don’t be afraid of this episode, they bring the topic of SEO down to a level that we call all understand. 

Just a month after becoming a free agent, Taylor Swift has announced a global deal with Universal Music Group and its Republic Records imprint. The superstar has been with indie label Big Machine since 2006, selling more than 32 million albums in the US alone.  As part of the new deal,  Swift will own her own masters going forward.

Making a living as an artist can be hard, and having to keep down a day job while still working to fulfill your musical potential isn't a juggling act everyone can keep up. For a fortunate few, however, there are fellowships and grants that can give you the opportunity to live comfortably and massively expand your creative abilities at the same time.

In this follow up to a previous series exploring traditional songwriter and music publisher relationships, we look at some less well-known contractual agreements between these two parties, including co-publishing, sub-publishing, and administrative agreements.

Spotify honored behind the scenes music makers at the Secret Genius Awards Friday evening in Los Angeles. Held at the Ace Theater, the award show was hosted by Ne-Yo.

Indie label Glassnote Music has shifted its digital and physical distribution to Kobalt's AWAL, after years at Universal Music Group.  Glassnote artists include Mumford & Sons, Phoenix, CHVRCHES, Childish Gambino, The Strumbellas, and Jade Bird.

MONDAY 11.19.18

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Picking up the mic for reasons other than singing this week, we have an interview with viral rapping sensation Wynne, an explanation of why posting duplicative content on YouTube is a terrible idea, Neil Young slamming Trump over CA wildfires, and more.

Our tips and advice for those independent artists trailblazing their own path this week covered a comprehensive breakdown of effective email marketing, how to gather your first five thousand followers on SoundCloud, a beginners guide to building an audience, and much more!

This week on MusicThinkTank, contributors shared articles on the future of remote music collaboration, the ways in which millennials are changing the music industry, how to find the right mixing engineer for your project, and more.

As we flip back through essential music industry news and events from the past seven days, we're revisiting the full list of Latin Grammy Award winners, determining whether the CD is really dead, looking at some of this years big winners in Country Music, and more!

This week, a few pieces climbing to the top of the charts included ways to legally increase your plays on SoundCloud, whether music industry Titan T-Swift will choose to exercise the nuclear option, why followers on Spotify are preferable to pre-saves, and more!

Cartoonist Tommy Siegel shares a cynical and amusing, but all too true, look at four types of musicians roaming the music industry jungle in 2018. 

58.4 million people in the US use Spotify in 2018. That's 20.8% of internet users, according to eMarketer estimates.

But who are they?

Conventional wisdom is that an artist has to be on a major label to have major success in the music industry. But these 11 top artists are proving that the major label paradigm has shifted, Indie is in. 

Artists have been finding ways to game the system since the digital age began, often in the form of purchasing likes or subscriptions, but streaming isn't immune either. Here we look at the tactics employed by some artists to dramatically boost their streaming numbers.

Millennials are thirsty for music and are constantly immersing themselves in at every opportunity, to the point where it is fundamentally altering the music industry, impacting both traditional retail sales of music and digital streaming.

In an effort to improve the methods by which royalties are calculated, Chris Castle theorized something known as the "ethical pool". Here he takes a deeper dive, taking a look at a new study on the topic and how it compares more conventional royalty calculations.

Two Spotify alumni involved in the creation of Discovery Weekly, have raised a $4.5 million seed round from Matrix to release an app that offers music, film and other recommendations based on user preferences, but without sharing data with Spotify, Netflix, Facebook or anyone else.

Revenue at Universal Music Group grew 13.5% year of year last quarter, according to financials reported by corporate parent Vivendi. But on everyone's mind were Vivendi's plan to sell a 50% stake in the world's largest music group.

The winners of last night's 2018 Latin Grammy Awards came from a broad spectrum of styles and genres. The awards were televised on Univision from the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas. 

FRIDAY 11.16.18

Music Business News From Around The Web

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