Belmont Prepares For Debate ‘08

Sarah Skates – 10/06/2008

Belmont University has spent about $3 million preparing for tomorrow’s (10/7) Presidential debate. The Associated Press reports a significant part of that was used to build a temporary media facility on the soccer field, which in turn caused most of the school’s soccer games to be off campus this season. Other changes at Belmont include increased security, a change in fall break scheduling, and temporarily allowing alcohol on campus for the first time in more than 50 years.

Among the related events:
On Wed. (10/7) John Rich will appear live from Nashville on CBS’s Early Show (10/7) between 7-8 AM/CT.

A block party will take place from noon- 6:30 PM tomorrow (10/7) on campus at Belmont Boulevard. “Issue Alley” will host live music, food vendors, and a chance to interact with the media. Bomshel will perform at 4:45, MSNBC will host two live broadcasts of Hardball with Chris Matthews, and Christian rock band Downhere will perform at 3:15 PM.

CNN’s ‘Election Express Yourself’ will be at Centennial Park tomorrow from 6-9 PM, getting citizen reactions and viewpoints. The customized Airstream trailer includes touch-screen polling stations, video recording kiosks and more.

Among the free, public, bipartisan viewing parties are "Our Party Is Your Party," to be hosted by talk radio/television political analyst Steve Gill at the Union Station Hotel from 6-10 PM. During the same time, the Encore! Condominiums will host a free event but reservations are required by calling 877-469-5509 or visiting TicketsNashville.com.

Third Quarter Sales Slide Continues

David M Ross – 10/03/2008

The third quarter quietly passed with hardly a murmur, overshadowed by weighty issues such as the $700 billion plan created to save us from a global financial meltdown. However the music industry, and country music in particular, nonetheless felt the heat in the form of falling sales and ski slope graphs. Looking at the industry overall, album sales (including digital) are off 12% YTD. Digital albums are up 32%. Country music has fared about 30% worse finding itself down 16.6% YTD. Country digital album sales are up 22%, climbing from 5.2% to 7.6% as a percentage of total albums sold (physical & digital).

Downloading our attention to the digital tracks list, the top country song downloaded last week was Taylor Swift’s “Love Story” which sold 113,000 copies. Country debuts included Randy Rogers Band (17,435), Old Crow Medicine Show (10,231) and lone Lonestar veteran Richie McDonald (2,585).

Glenn Peoples of Coolfer.com, a Nashville-based industry blog, points out that sales dropped sharply in September, “The year-over-year decline for the four full weeks of September was 20.4%. From January through August, the average decline was only 9.3%,” he notes. Peoples adds that four weeks is not necessarily a trend, “Not much can be read into any single four-week period. A number of factors could be involved. Since the mid-year point, album sales had been faring well compared to 2007. But the recent drop is noticeable and merits close attention.”

Mobile Listening Options Continue to Expand

Sarah Skates – 10/03/2008

SIRIUS XM Radio is now offering "Best of Both" and A La Carte programming options. Best of Both lets XM subscribers add select SIRIUS channels to their existing service, and vice versa. These packages are available for $16.99/month, which is only $4.04 more than the cost of a monthly subscription to one of the services. Most subscribers can add the premier programming without purchasing a new radio.

XM subscribers can add "The Best of SIRIUS" which includes Howard Stern, Martha Stewart, NFL, NASCAR, and Playboy Radio. Among "The Best of XM" channels is Oprah & Friends, The Virus (irreverent/comedic hosts), XM Public Radio and other sports channels.
•••••
Nokia will debut its Comes with Music digital entertainment service on Oct. 16 in the U.K. For about $231, customers will get a Nokia 5310 XpressMusic handset, one year of unlimited access to the 2 million songs in the Nokia Music Store, and will be able to keep all the music that they have downloaded at the end of the year.

EMI Music, UMG, Sony Music Entertainment, and Warner Music Group are on board with the program, as are many independents such as The Orchard, Beggars Group, IODA, the Ministry of Sound, PIAS and Pinnacle. In related Nokia news, the company has hired former Sony BMG Sr. VP/GM U.S. Digital Sales Adam Mirabella for a similar role.
••••••
AT&T has launched an Online Experience Store, allowing shoppers to experience and purchase wireless devices and services online. The digital storefront introduces a 3-D shopping model, giving customers interactive demonstrations and tutorials in wireless products including: music, phones/devices, video/Web, messaging, and e-mail/productivity.

When customers enter the Online Experience Store at http://www.att.com/onlineexperience, they will see a 3-D representation of an AT&T store layout, complete with a simulated Microsoft Surface unit. They can choose a guided video tour from AT&T "representatives" or explore independently.

New Royalty Rates Draw Enthusiastic Industry Reaction

Sarah Skates – 10/03/2008

NSAI Pres. Steve Bogard.

Click photo for HFA’s detailed schedule of mechanical rates and rates for limited downloads and on-demand streams.

The Copyright Royalty Board last week (10/2) announced new mechanical rate terms for physical products (9.1 cents), and for the first time set rates for permanent digital downloads (9.1 cents), ringtones (24 cents), on-demand/interactive streams, and limited downloads. Each will be subject to an overtime rate. Furthermore, music publishers will have the right to seek a 1.5 percent late fee, calculated monthly. These rates will be in effect after final publication in the Federal Register until Dec. 31, 2012.

David Israelite, President and CEO of the National Music Publishers’ Association—which represented songwriters and music publishers before the Board—hailed the decision as a positive development for all songwriters and music publishers.

NSAI President Steve Bogard represented songwriters and copyright holders as the second witness during the Copyright Royalty Board trial. After yesterday’s ruling, he said, “I feel like I just climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro. What it means going forward is the music industry can now work together. If this had been any kind of decisive defeat or victory for either the labels or the songwriters and publishers then there would have been months of litigation and protest. But as it stands, it is a beautiful compromise that gives us some stability in the physical and straight downloads and gives us a great leg up on future royalties. And, really, what it lets us do is go to Congress in a unified way, writers/publishers and labels, and ask for new royalties and try to make the U.S. a leader in royalty compensation.”

Though not directly involved in negotiations, BMI issued a statement agreeing that this “is a positive step for copyrights.” It continued, “By concluding that one transmission can trigger both performance and mechanical rights, this agreement also supports our long-held position that one transmission can embody multiple copyrights.”

Dailey & Vincent Named Entertainer of the Year at IBMA Awards

NASHVILLE, TENN. (October 3, 2008)—“It’s a pretty good night to be named Vincent,” quipped Vince Gill as he took the stage to present the Entertainer of the Year award at the sold out 19th...

IBMA Awards Tonight!

Sarah Skates – 10/02/2008

The 19th Annual International Bluegrass Music Awards Show will be held on October 2 at the Ryman Auditorium at 8:30 p.m. and hosted by Del McCoury. Awards will be handed out in 17 categories recognizing excellence over the past year. The Dan Tyminski Band has been added to the star-studded lineup that includes performances by The Grascals, Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder, The Del McCoury Band, The SteelDrivers, The Infamous Stringdusters, Dale Ann Bradley, Blue Highway, Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, The Steep Canyon Rangers and Dailey & Vincent. Tickets are available for purchase by calling the Ryman box office at 615-889-3060 or Ticketmaster at 615-255-9600. The awards show will be broadcast live on XM Satellite Radio on Bluegrass Junction (Channel 14) and syndicated to more than 300 stations across the U.S. and around the world.

Industry News Friday (10/3/08)

Just a week away from the release of Tim McGraw Greatest Hits 3, the superstar reels in his forty-second career top ten country single with "Let It Go.” It is his twenty-fourth top...

CRB Leaves Mechanical Rate Unchanged

Sarah Skates – 10/02/2008

The Copyright Royalty Board announced today new mechanical rate terms for physical products (such as CDs), permanent downloads (such as iTunes) and ringtones. Songwriters and music publishers will be paid a rate of 9.1 cents for digital downloads. The CRB judges also ruled that the rate for physical products will remain at 9.1 cents. Each will be subject to an overtime rate. The CRB judges also established for the first time a rate of 24 cents for each ringtone subject to the Section 115 mechanical license. Furthermore, music publishers will have the right to seek a 1.5 percent late fee, calculated monthly.

David Israelite, President and CEO of the National Music Publishers’ Association – which represented songwriters and music publishers before the Board – hailed the decision as a positive development for all songwriters and music publishers. He said, “These events will bring clarity and order to an environment that for the past decade has been hampered by litigation and uncertainty on all sides.”

The announcement is the culmination of a trial that began in January, and marks the first time the Board has established mechanical royalty rates for songs distributed digitally.

The Board also adopted the terms of an historic industry settlement on rates for two other types of services – interactive streaming (such as some Napster services) and limited downloads (such as Rhapsody To Go). Details of that agreement between NMPA, the Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI), the Songwriters Guild of America (SGA). the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Digital Media Association (DIMA) were announced last week.

The music publishers and songwriters were represented in the trial by the NMPA, along with NSAI and SGA.

Steve Bogard, NSAI President, said, “The United States, the source of so much of the world’s great popular music must lead the way in compensating creators for their work and making it possible for our publishing partners to continue to invest in the nurturing and development of great young songwriting talent. NSAI believes that in the long run this decision is in the very best interests of consumers, digital media content providers, and the entire music industry.”

Disney Expands Music Labels With Carolwood Imprint

Sarah Skates – 10/02/2008

Disney has started a sister imprint to its Lyric Street Records called Carolwood Records. Both labels will be located in the offices occupied by Lyric Street at 12th and Demonbreun in Nashville. When making the announcement, Lyric Street President Randy Goodman explained the need for a new imprint. “With singles lasting 30-plus weeks it is apparent we need another calendar within which to schedule all our music and to insure a consistent product flow and thus the second imprint became an imperative. I’m extremely optimistic about this move.”

As part of the promotional imprint, Carolwood staffers will report to Lyric Street VP of Promotion Kevin Herring. “We’re trying a bit of a different model as we want to grow with our successes and so we’ve decided to load ourselves on the National side,” explained Herring. The National duties will be co-led by a team including Chris Palmer, current Lyric Street Records NE Regional, and John Ettinger, former Mercury Records VP Promotion. Stephanie Keshe, current Lyric Street National Coordinator, will make the move to Carolwood as Regional alongside Dave Collins, formerly in the programming department at KMLE/Phoenix. Recent MTSU graduate Katie McCartney will be Carolwood’s National Coordinator.

The remainder of the Lyric Street Records Regional Promotion team will remain intact under the continued leadership of National Senior Director Renee Leymon. The search for Palmer’s replacement in the northeast region is underway. Jackie Schwarz, most recently with Rascal Flatts’s management company Turner/Nichols, will join Lyric Street as Promotion Coordinator.

All other aspects of Lyric Street will remain as is: Doug Howard, Senior Vice President, A&R, and Greg McCarn, Vice President Marketing, Sales and Media, will continue to provide oversight for both imprints. Lyric Street Vice President, Promotion Administration Dale Turner will take on a new role as Vice President, Radio Marketing for both Lyric Street and Carolwood.

The name Carolwood has historic connections to Walt Disney as it, like Lyric Street (Avenue), was a residential address for Disney but became famous as the name he gave to his five-acre backyard railroad, The Carolwood (Pacific Railroad). The labels’ offices are also near railroad tracks in Nashville.

Sony BMG Becomes Sony Music Entertainment

Sarah Skates – 10/02/2008

Sony Corporation has completed the acquisition of Bertelsmann's 50% stake in Sony BMG, in a deal worth about $1.2 billion. The music company, to be called Sony Music Entertainment Inc. (SMEI), is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America.

Sony and Bertelsmann merged music divisions in 2004. Sony’s intent to buy out Bertelsmann’s half was announced on Aug. 5.

SMEI is comprised of music labels including Arista Records, BNA Records, Columbia Records, Epic Records, J Records, Jive Records, RCA Records, and Zomba. Among Sony’s Country artists are Kenny Chesney, Martina McBride, Alan Jackson and Carrie Underwood. Other key recording artists include Celine Dion, Alicia Keys, Bruce Springsteen, Justin Timberlake, and Usher.