Roger Faxon, chairman and chief executive of EMI Music Publishing since 2007, has been put in charge of the company’s recorded music division.

EMI announced the appointment today as part of an overhaul designed “to enable the company to reposition itself as a comprehensive rights management company that can take full advantage of all global opportunities in all markets for music.”

Many of EMI’s biggest acts, including Coldplay, the Beatles and Lily Allen, will still be signed to other publishers. But EMI clearly believes the more stable publishing side of the business can do more to help shore up the recorded music operation.

In a statement, Faxon said “the two divisions working in concert with one another as a global rights management business, can and will deliver for the artists and songwriters that we are privileged to work with now and in the future.”

Faxon will maintain responsibility for EMI’s publishing business as well as taking over the recorded music division.

“We need to bring the fun back into the music business,” Faxon told staff in an email obtained by Billboard.biz. In the email, Faxon outlined his plans further, stating that “we must be unswervingly focused on championing our artist community, and providing them with the help they need to achieve their maximum potential.”

He also stressed the company’s commitment to discovering new music, leveraging the company’s deep catalog and being “passionate about providing world-class service and services to the many and varied music users and retailers across the globe. We need to be the most trusted and effective partner to them, while also providing fans with the products that they demand. .
Our joy and enthusiasm for and about music is our greatest tool in building EMI.”

Faxon told staff he feels “fortunate to be joining EMI Music after it has really started to come alive again as a player in the recorded music business. Over the last year or so you have had some striking great successes both in new music and catalogue. And not unimportantly, the company has made great financial progress.”

Faxon, an American, will be the first Group chief executive since Eric Nicoli left in 2007 and EMI’s first New York-based chief executive.

Eight members of the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) today (6/16) filed a lawsuit against LimeWire for copyright infringement of their musical works on a massive scale. NMPA President and CEO David Israelite announced the action today at the NMPA’s Annual Meeting in New York City.

The plaintiffs – EMI Music Publishing, Sony/ATV Music Publishing, Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., Bug Music, MPL Music Publishing, Peermusic, and The Richmond Organization – filed the action against LimeWire LLC, Lime Group LLC, LimeWire CEO Mark Gorton, former COO and CTO Greg Bildson, and M.J.G. LimeWire Family Limited Partnership in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The publishers seek both equitable relief and damages for LimeWire’s knowing facilitation of copyright infringement through its web application.

Similar action by the Recording Industry Association of America against LimeWire and its executives has resulted in a recent court decision holding the company liable for, among other things, inducing copyright infringement. The publishers’ suit is filed as a related case.

“The pervasive online infringement facilitated by LimeWire and others like them has consequences for everyone in the music chain,” Israelite said. 
 
“Operations like LimeWire must understand the songs that make their illegal venture lucrative don’t appear out of thin air. Behind every song is a vast network of people – a songwriter, a publisher, a performer, a record label. They have robbed every individual in that chain by selling their site as an access point for music and then refusing to properly license the music. It is a scheme the U.S. Supreme Court spoke on five years ago in its landmark Grokster decision, and a scheme that the U.S. District Court ruled was a violation of copyright law in the record labels’ hard-fought case.”

Songwriter/producer Jimmy Ritchey has announced a new collaborative venture, Vibe Room Music. A newly-established Music Row assembly located at 38 Music Square East, 2nd Floor, Vibe Room Music is made up of Ritchey, publishing veteran Jeff Carlton and a variety of multi-talented songwriters. The company is poised to introduce a library of compositions in a variety of styles suited for a multitude of formats.

Ritchey has also announced the signing of Pam Tillis to Vibe Room Music. Over the course of her 30-year career, Tillis has enjoyed top ten hits including her co-written “One of Those Things” and “Mi Vida Loca (My Crazy Life).” She was named the CMA’s Female Vocalist of the Year in 1994. Her songs have been recorded by an assortment of artists including Chaka Khan, Dolly Parton, Martina McBride, Gloria Gaynor, Conway Twitty, Lorrie Morgan, Holly Dunn, and Sweethearts of the Rodeo.

“Pam’s reputation speaks for itself,” Ritchey says. “Her name alone gives Vibe the ‘Wow!’ factor. She is one talented lady and represents the Tillis dynasty with poise, grace, wit and tenacity. We’re thrilled to be working with her, and I have no doubt the best is yet to come from Pam.”

A co-writer on George Strait’s current Top 5 single, “I Gotta Get To You,” as well as the title cut from Strait’s latest album, Ritchey was also instrumental in discovering Jake Owen and co-wrote Owen’s latest single, “Tell Me.” He has produced records for Clay Walker, Mark Chesnutt and Tommy Shane Steiner. He is presently working on recording projects with Blaine Larsen, Star De Azlan, and new Sony Records artist Joanna Smith.

Day-to-day operations in the Vibe Room will be handled by Carlton, who will serve as Vice President. Carlton brings 30-years experience to the organization. He has worked with writers including Tony Martin, Lee Miller, Bobby Pinson, Monty Criswell, Erin Enderlin, and Tommy Karlas, as well as Ritchey.

In addition to Tillis, the Vibe Room Music roster of songwriters includes Treehouse recording artist Larsen and artist/writer Sam Hunt. Nancy Tuck is Director of Administration.

The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), a national union of more than 70,000 performers, recording artists and broadcast journalists, and SoundExchange, a non-profit U.S. digital performance rights organization authorized to collect royalties for the digital performance of sound recordings, today announced a new joint initiative to identify and distribute SoundExchange royalties which are owed to AFTRA member recording artists.

Starting today (5/2) AFTRA will begin notifying more than 6,000 AFTRA recordings artists for whom SoundExchange has collected royalties from digital services that have streamed their recordings online. SoundExchange provided AFTRA with a list of artists who are members of the union, but who are not yet registered with SoundExchange. AFTRA will mail letters, send email notices and make direct person-to-person phone calls to all AFTRA member recording artists who are due royalties. As a union representing recording artists, AFTRA is in the unique position to have contact information for many recording artists, and was glad to be a part of the project.

“Increasingly, our world is evolving into the digital age,” said AFTRA National Executive Director Kim Roberts Hedgpeth. “This means more opportunities for AFTRA recording artists to share their creative contributions with a wider audience and more opportunities for our members to earn the income they need, such as the royalties collected by SoundExchange, to sustain their careers, support their families and continue enriching our culture and society through their gift of music. As AFTRA’s National Executive Director and as a board member of SoundExchange, I am very pleased to partner with SoundExchange to identify, to locate and pay AFTRA members their share of the tremendously profitable digital revolution.”

“SoundExchange is constantly reaching out to notify artists about their unclaimed royalties, yet it can be difficult to get them to register,” said SoundExchange Executive Director John Simson. “Many don’t know about the law that entitled them to these royalties, or believe it’s too good to be true. That’s why partners like AFTRA are essential: they understand the value of our work and have existing relationships with those artists who can most benefit from registering. AFTRA is a great resource to artists, and hearing about SoundExchange from such a trusted organization helps reassure artists that these royalties are both real and theirs.”

When sound recordings are played on satellite radio, Internet radio or digital cable services, SoundExchange collects a royalty on behalf of the recording artists and the copyright holder, as directed under U.S. Copyright Law. Since 2001, SoundExchange has collected and processed billions of spins and paid out more than $412 million in digital royalties, unfortunately thousands of music professionals are not yet registered and millions of dollars in royalties are currently unclaimed. AFTRA and SoundExchange have partnered to locate unregistered AFTRA recording artists and ensure the distribution of these payments.

AFTRA is represented by Hedgpeth on the SoundExchange Board of Directors which consists of equal representation between artists’ representatives and label representatives. Legendary recording artist and AFTRA member Martha Reeves also serves as a Board member, though not as a union representative.

Recording artists may register with SoundExchange, free of charge, to receive royalties. New registrants can claim any back royalties collected in their names and they will continue to be paid quarterly, every time they’re owed. For more information on registration, please visit www.soundexchange.com.S