EMI Publishing Promotes Creative Staffers

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EMI Music Publishing Nashville has promoted three of its A&R team to new roles, it was announced today by Executive Vice President & General Manager Ben Vaughn.

“Big” Tom Luteran moves from Senior Director to Vice President of A&R, marking the latest step up in his fifteen year career on Music Row. In a parallel move, Josh Van Valkenburg is promoted from Manager to

"Big" Tom Luteran

Director of A&R. Both Luteran and Van Valkenburg will focus on discovering and nurturing new country songwriting talent, as well as managing EMI Music Publishing’s hit songwriter roster including Rhett Akins, Dallas Davidson, Jamey Johnson, Kelley Lovelace, Tom Shapiro, Jeremy Stover and Chris Young.

Hannah Williams has been promoted to the newly created position of Manager of Creative Resources. In addition to assisting the Nashville A&R team and songwriters, Williams will act as a liaison with EMI Music Publishing’s New York-based Music Resources sales and licensing team with a focus on finding new synchronization revenue and catalog opportunities for Nashville writers.

Josh Van Valkenburg

The moves follow the appointment of Vaughn to lead EMI Music Publishing’s Nashville operations in April this year.

“Big Tom, Josh, & Hannah are talented and driven people that care deeply about furthering the careers of EMI songwriters,” Vaughn says. “I’m proud to announce the next steps in their careers as music publishers, and I look forward to continuing to work with them as part of the EMI family.”

Luteran began his career on Music Row in 1995, before moving into music publishing in 1996 as Creative Director at Zomba. After a brief spell at Acuff-Rose, Luteran moved to EMI Music Publishing in August 2002. Both Valkenburg and Williams launched their careers in music publishing at EMI.

Hannah Williams

EMI Music Publishing is the world’s leading publisher of popular music, representing more than one million copyrights including some of the best known songs ever written. Recent hits from EMI Music Publishing Nashville include “Water,” “That’s How Country Boys Roll,” “In Color,” “Start A Band,” “Gettin’ You Home,” “God Love Her,” Gimmie That Girl,” & “Need You Now.”

Chrysalis Music Signs Jim McCormick

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Chrysalis Music Executive Vice President Dale Bobo has announced the signing of Nashville songwriter Jim McCormick to the publishing company. The day after McCormick signed with Chrysalis, the songwriter received the good news that new Columbia Records artist Joanna Smith had cut his song, “Georgia Mud.”

(l-r) Patricia Wittmer, Emily Byrd, Jim McCormick, Dale Bobo, Abbe Nameche, and Jersey Ross.

Magic Mustang Inks With Big Loud Bucks

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Magic Mustang Music has signed an exclusive worldwide administration deal with Big Loud Bucks Administration & Information. Under this new partnership, Big Loud Bucks will also be responsible for the administration of master recordings on behalf of Broken Bow Records and Stoney Creek Records.

The current roster at Magic Mustang consists of Jason Aldean, Rob Hatch, John Edwards, Westin Davis, Garrett Parris, Angie Broberg, Ash Bowers, Blake Wise, Sherrie Austin and Thompson Square.

(L-R): Craig Wiseman, Owner, Big Loud Bucks/Big Loud Shirt; Heather Buresh, Dir. of Publishing Administration, Big Loud Bucks; Jill Napier, Exec. VP, Big Loud Bucks; Juli Newton Griffith, Creative Director, Magic Mustang Music; and Benny Brown, CEO/President, Broken Bow Records.

Friday Photo Flash: Cody ‘n’ Curb

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Curb Music recently held a writing retreat at Blackberry Farm in Walland, TN to write songs for upcoming projects from Heidi Newfield (Curb), Thompson Square (Stoney Creek) and J.T. Hodges’ (Showdog-Universal). Pictured L-R: (Back) Joe Leathers, Heidi Newfield, Drew Alexander, Bobby Tomberlin, Vicky McGehee, J.T. Hodges and Brian Davis; (Front) Shawna Thompson, Keifer Thompson and Westin Davis.

CMT Radio Live with Cody Alan on Tour made its first tour stop at Billy Bob’s in Dallas, TX with radio station KPLX-The Wolf on June 30. LeAnn Rimes and Lee Brice were special guests for the tour’s first of six stops across the country. CMT Radio Live affiliates can vote now for the tour to stop in their city with Eventful’s “Demand it!” service. (L-R) Cody Alan, LeAnn Rimes, Lee Brice and Mark Phillips, KPLX PD.

Sherrie Austin Rejoins Magic Mustang

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Magic Mustang’s Creative Director Juli Newton- Griffith has announced the signing of singer/songwriter Sherrie Austin to a publishing deal.

“I am thrilled to have such a talented and respected writer back on our team,” explains Newton-Griffith. “Sherrie has a unique approach to writing and we are very excited about her return to Magic Mustang.”

Magic Mustang’s current roster of writers includes Jason Aldean, Rob Hatch, John Edwards, Westin Davis, Garrett Parris, Angie Broberg, Ash Bowers, Blake Wise and Thompson Square.

(l-r): Broken Bow Records CEO/President Benny Brown; Austin; Magic Mustang Music Creative Director Juli Newton-Griffith.

John Simson To Exit SoundExchange

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John Simson

Last month, Executive Director John Simson announced to the SoundExchange Board that he would be leaving the role he’s held for the past ten years in order to return to his creative roots. The Board has requested that he remain in his current position until a successor can be found and Simson said he would he would be pleased to assist in the
transition to new leadership.

“After ten years of working with digital services, we’ve achieved many of our important goals,” Simson says. “We’ve established fair rates for performers and labels and built the largest performer and recording label society in the world. It is time for me to return to different creative pursuits that I‘ve been putting off these past few years. This has been a thrilling journey, blazing a brand new path, but I know I’m leaving a strong organization poised for continued success.”

Simson also informed the Board that the second quarter distribution would be the largest in the organization’s history.

“In the past 10 months we’ve distributed over $220 million to artists and labels and this will only continue to grow in the coming months and years,” Simson adds.

“For the last ten years and more, John Simson has been a critically important force for uniting artists, session performers, indie labels and major labels as we worked together for our common good,” says American Federation of Musicians International President Thomas F. Lee. “We are grateful to him for all his pioneering work.”

Simson, the first full-time employee of SoundExchange, was hired to launch the new collecting society in 2000. As a manager in the 1990’s, Simson had assisted in the lobbying to pass the Digital Performance Rights in Sound Recording Act of 1995 and a terrestrial performance right has been a key goal all throughout his career working as an artist manager.

“We are hopeful that we will finally get what’s rightfully owed to America’s recording artists and copyright owners,” Simson says. “I’ve told the Board that I will be there to finish this task whenever required.”

Simson was instrumental in making SoundExchange an independent, free-standing non-profit trade association governed by a Board of 18, an equal number of artist and label representatives.

“John and his team have built from nothing, the first true coalition of artists and indies and majors working towards the same goal,” said Tom Silverman, founder of Tommy Boy Records and SoundExchange Board member. “The many hurdles they have overcome and the momentum that SoundExchange enjoys are a tribute to his hard work and vision.”

ICE Slams Movie Pirates

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In a high profile crackdown, federal authorities seized the domain names of nine websites accused of illegally distributing first run movies such as Toy Story 3 and The A-Team. All nine sites had domain names that were registered via U.S. registration services according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. Some computers used to run the sites were located in Colorado, Florida, Illinois, however others were stored in Germany, the Netherlands, the U.K. and the Czech Republic.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency announced it had seized assets, funds and equipment in what it termed an ongoing investigation. ICE Assistant Secretary John Morton admitted that the foreign based websites might reappear at different addresses. Sites included in the shut down were TVShack.net, Movies-Links.tv, Filespump.com, ZML.com, Now-Movies.com, ThePirateCity.org, PlanetMoviez.com, NinjaVideo.net and NinjaThis.net.

Business models for the non-licensed sites were not all download based. Some of them featured streaming and sold advertising. Morton told the WSJ that distribution technologies like BitTorrent that do not not store copies in a central location are much more difficult to control. “It’s a challenge,” Morton said. “There’s a level of sophistication government can’t always match. I don’t think we’ve stopped Internet piracy in a day, but this is going to be a sustained effort.”

According to TorrentFreak.com, a blog “dedicated to bringing the latest news about BitTorrent and everything that is closely related to this popular filesharing protocol,” movies-links.tv is already operational under the new domain name of watch-movies.tv.info and TVshack.net has now moved to TVshack.cc.

The piracy shutdown and reopening is reminiscent of the cat and mouse game which authorities have played with illegal music downloaders and copyright pirates which to date have failed to stem the growth of illegal downloads. According to the IFPI Digital Music Report 2010, illegal distribution of TV content is growing faster than music and movie piracy. Los Angeles manager Simon Renshaw is quoted in the study saying, “The music industry was hit first, but now with increased broadband you have a situation where all the creative industries are at a tipping point. You can see it in the collapsing DVD market; you can see what’s going on in TV, newspapers and magazines. And now we’re seeing the same thing in the book publishing business. You’re going to start seeing piracy of novels and reference books.”

The MPA, which represents movie studios, estimates that illegal streaming and film downloads—digital piracy— now accounts for 40 percent of of its piracy  problem by volume and is growing.

Universal Ups Forman to Sr. Creative Dir.

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Cyndi Forman

Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) today announced the promotion of Cyndi Forman to Senior Creative Director, Nashville. Forman was previously Creative Director.

Reporting directly to Pat Higdon, President, UMPG Nashville, Forman will focus on furthering artist and writer development and finding key opportunities for UMPG writers both past and present. Forman has secured many cuts and was responsible for the recent signing of 18 year old artist Hunter Hayes. The writers she works with include recent Nashville Songwriter Hall of Fame inductee Matraca Berg, Jimmy Melton, and Andrew Dorff.

“We are very pleased to have the opportunity to offer Cyndi this well deserved promotion,” commented Higdon. She is one of Nashville’s most respected songpluggers and has definitely earned the respect of her peers.”

After obtaining her Music Business degree from Belmont University, Forman became Creative Director at Balmur Entertainment. In 2002, she joined Almo Irving Music which became part of UMPG in 2003 where she assumed the role of Creative Director.

UMPG Nashville continually delivers hits for country music’s most elite artists including Reba McEntire, Brad Paisley, Gretchen Wilson, Trace Adkins, Lee Ann Womack, Keith Urban, Taylor Swift, Tim McGraw, Carrie Underwood, Rascal Flatts, and many more.

Kobalt Music Upgrades Digital Services

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Nashville songwriters and content owners will soon be able to take advantage of Kobalt Music Group’s latest advancement in transparent copyright administration.

This week Kobalt is officially rolling out its next version of its online tools – Next Generation Portal Digital 3.0 – which offer clients unprecedented access to detailed information on collections in digital music sales and performance royalties and other digital revenue streams. Additionally, the system offers expanded access to data on products tracked and audio visual performance royalties collected from licensed content in global film and TV productions.

In making the announcement Willard Ahdritz, CEO and Founder of Kobalt, said: “Kobalt has developed the most unique digital collection platform available which will give clients complete transparency and access to a breakdown of revenue detail from nearly all digital sales outlets available in each territory, as well as extended synch licensing and performance revenue detail listed by licensee and by territory.”

Kobalt’s collected data will include full transparency in tracking per licensee for digital performance rights and downloads, ringtones, and streaming. In addition to digital collections data, clients will also be able to view specifics not only on the status and amount of every synch license, but also the status of receipt of film and TV performance revenues listed by licensee and by territory.

Kobalt’s online system, which was first launched in 2002, is being used by more than 900 clients in a wide spectrum of content owners including music publishers, rights licensors, songwriter/producers and management companies.

MusicRow Readers Name “House” Song of the Year

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Bobby Karl Works The Room, Chapter 341
Photos: Alan Mayor

Chris Young

Host Clay Bradley has the magic touch: He actually got the capacity crowd of schmoozers to shut up during the presentation of the MusicRow Awards in the notoriously loud BMI lobby on Thursday (6/24).

Anthony Smith, Frank Myers, Trisha Walker-Cunningham, Alan Kates, Chuck Thompson, Preston Sullivan, Phil Sweetland, Richard Fagan, Doak Turner, Melanie Howard and their pals were models of good behavior this year. This, by the way, was the incredible 22nd year of the event.

“2010 has been an exceptional year for music,” said Clay in greeting the assembled multitude. “We’re proud to represent the greatest creative community in the world. Thank you for coming.”

Clay also announced that BMI is going to match any Music Row flood-relief donations up to $50,000. Go to BMI.com for more info.

Tom Douglas, MR's David Ross & Allen Shamblin

David Ross read a letter from the AFM’s Dave Pomeroy and Craig Krampf thanking the publication for spotlighting session musicians. MusicRow reviewer Larry Wayne Clark is recovering from cancer treatments in Canada. His letter, also read by Ross, was encouraging and concluded with, “We miss the Nashville buzz. But things could be a lot worse.”

Echoing Clay’s sentiment, David added, “I continue to be amazed by the stream of creativity that continues to come from this town.”

Jon Freeman and Sarah Skates presented the Top Ten Album All-Star Awards to the year’s hottest session players. The 2010 winners were Aubrey

Haynie (fiddle), Paul Franklin (steel), Wes Hightower (vocals), Justin Niebank (engineer), Shannon Forrest & Chris McHugh (drums), Brent Mason (guitar), Charles Judge (keyboards) and Glenn Worf (bass).

Artist of the Year Zac Brown Band producer Keith Stegall & Roar Mgmt.'s Matt Maher

Looking every inch the Southern gentleman in an off-white linen sport coat and South Carolina straw chapeau, Robert K. Oermann stated that, “The past five winners of the Breakthrough Artist Award have been Miranda Lambert, Carrie Underwood, Taylor Swift, Lady Antebellum and Jamey Johnson. So this year’s winner is in excellent company.” Accepting for the Zac Brown Band were its producer, Keith Stegall and Roar management’s Matt Maher.

“Producer of the Year has been an annual MusicRow award since 1982,” said Oermann. “This year, we have two winners, the first time a production team has won.” Frank Liddell & Mike Wrucke accepted for their outstanding work with Miranda Lambert and David Nail.

Ross retook the stage to present the Breakthrough Songwriter Award to Chris Young. Chris told of how his
do-or-die hit “Getting You Home (The Black Dress Song)” struggled up the charts. With plaque in hand, he added, “This is going on my wall immediately after I leave here.”

To the delight of one and all, he sang his winning tune. Splendidly.

MR's Robert K. Oermann, Frank Liddell & Mike Wrucke

“We all pride ourselves on being able to hear a hit song,” said Ross presenting the Song of the Year honor. “But if it was that easy we’d all be a lot richer. Regardless, we are all a lot richer for having this incredible song in our lives.” This year’s Song of the Year honor went to Allen Shamblin and Tom Douglas for “The House That Built Me.”

“No one is more surprised than Allen and me,” said Tom. He recalled that it was pitched to Scott Hendricks, who sent it along to Blake Shelton, who gave it to his fiancée Miranda Lambert, who took it on a four-week trip to No. 1. “God’s fingerprints are on all of this,” said Allen. “I like it!” added publisher Troy Tomlinson.

Allen and Tom performed their special composition and mesmerized the crowd, swapping verses while playing guitar and piano, respectively.

Among the many working the room were such fabulons as Gary Overton, Billy Block, Ben Vaughn, Jon Lytle, Allen Brown, Cathy Gurley, Judy Harris, Sherod Robertson, Mike Milom, Michael Martin, Alan Kates, Tom Roland and Wes Vause.

MusicRow Reader-Voted Awards
Breakthrough Artist: Zac Brown Band
Breakthrough Songwriter: Chris Young
Song of the Year: “The House That Built Me” written by Allen Shamblin and Tom Douglas; published by Sony/ATV Tree Publishing Co., Built On Rock Music, and Tomdouglasmusic
Producer of the Year: Frank Liddell and Mike Wrucke

Top Ten Album All-Star Musicians
Bass: Glenn Worf
Drums: Chris McHugh and Shannon Forrest
Engineer: Justin Niebank
Fiddle: Aubrey Haynie
Guitar: Brent Mason
Keyboards: Charles Judge
Steel: Paul Franklin
Vocals: Wes Hightower

Musician winners Charles Judge, Aubrey Haynie, Chris McHugh and Wess Hightower; & MR's Sarah Skates and Jon Freeman. Photo: IzzyNashville.com