Elevation and Wide Open Join Forces

/by

Elevation Music Publishing and Wide Open Music Group have announced a new alliance between the two Nashville-based music publishing operations.

Through a shared services arrangement, Elevation Creative Principals Mike Molinar and Martha Earls are joining with Wide Open’s creative team to provide catalog and songwriter representation, as well as creative consultation. Elevation will also relocate to Wide Open’s headquarters at 54 Music Square East, Ste. 390, Nashville, TN, 37203. Phone number and e-mails contacts will remain the same.

“Martha and I are very excited to begin Elevation’s next chapter as a creative partner for Wide Open,” says Molinar. “We are looking forward to representing Derek George, Chuck Jones and a quality team of songwriters that are a perfect complement to Elevation’s fine roster and catalog.”

Wide Open Music Group President, Derek George adds, “We at Wide Open are extremely excited about joining forces with Mike and Martha! They are two of the very best at what they do creatively. Along with Wide Open Creative Director, Keithan Melton, we have a true triple threat, and we look forward to a bright future!”

NMPA Honors Sen. Lamar Alexander

/by

The National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) will present its 2010 President’s Award to U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee.

“As a Senator representing a state that’s home to both the country music and the blues capitals of the world, Senator Alexander is particularly attuned to the value of music as a cultural and economic force in America,” said NMPA President and CEO David Israelite. “The songwriter and music publisher community is honored to recognize his distinguished leadership and friendship throughout his lawmaking career with the 2010 President’s Award.”

“Music has been a great source of joy in my life since my mother took me to my first piano lesson as a child,” Alexander said. “I am grateful and honored to receive this award from an organization that also celebrates the important role music plays in people’s lives.”

While Alexander’s home state is closely associated with the country and blues genres, his personal experience also extends to the classical – he is a trained pianist who, while governor, traveled the state performing with symphonies and community orchestras. More recently, he performed during the Memphis in May concert series in 2008 and at the 75th anniversary of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park in 2009, as well as at a Grand Ole Opry concert in Nashville this month when the history music venue was flooded and moved to another location after a series of devastating storms hit the area. Alexander is co-chair of the Senate Songwriters Caucus. In 2005 he sponsored legislation – now law – that provided capital gains tax incentives for songwriters.

The President’s Award is announced each year in conjunction with the NMPA’s annual gathering of songwriters and music publishers in New York City.

The NMPA established the President’s Award in 2005 to recognize an individual who has been a leader on issues of importance to music publishers and songwriters, and who works diligently to strengthen intellectual property protection. The award will be presented in Washington, DC, later this month.

Court Rules Against Peer-To-Peer Site LimeWire

/by

Online news network CNET is reporting that a federal court has found the company that operates file-sharing service LimeWire liable for copyright infringement.

On Tuesday (5/11), U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood granted summary judgment in favor of the RIAA’s claims that Lime Group, parent of LimeWire software maker Lime Wire, and founder Mark Gorton committed copyright infringement, engaged in unfair competition, and induced copyright infringement.

The court decision could represent the biggest threat to online file sharing in years. According to a survey by the NPD Group, Limewire users account for 58 percent of the people who said they downloaded music from a peer-to-peer service last year. In the last week alone, the software was downloaded nearly 340,000 times.
The next step by the RIAA is to get a preliminary injunction and force Lime Wire to cease LimeWire’s file-sharing functionality.

The RIAA has said it is entitled to the maximum statutory damages, which is likely in the millions.

Swift To Receive Hal David Starlight Award

/by

Hal David, Chairman/CEO of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, has announced that Taylor Swift will be the recipient of the prestigious Hal David Starlight Award, to be presented at the 2010 Songwriters Hall of Fame Awards dinner on Thursday June 17 at the New York Marriott Marquis Hotel.

At the young age of 14, Swift signed a publishing deal with Sony/ATV Music and in 2006 she released her self-titled debut CD on Big Machine Records. At the age of 17, with “Our Song,” she became the youngest person to ever single-handedly write and sing a No. 1 country single entirely on her own. With her debut, she also became the first female solo artist in country music history to write or co-write every song on a platinum-selling debut CD. In addition, Swift wrote or co-wrote every song on her blockbuster Fearless album, released in 2008. Fearless has sold more than 5 million copies, fueled by the multi-genre domestic and international success of chart-topping singles including “Love Story” and “You Belong With Me.”

Swift has sold more than 13 million albums and has numerous awards and accolades to add to her long list of accomplishments, including being the top-selling digital artist in music history, receiving the Artist of the Year Award at the American Music Awards, having the No. 1 best-selling album in any genre of music in both 2009 and 2008, and to be the first female solo country artist to ever win the all-genre Grammy award for Album of the Year. This year alone she took home four Grammy awards. In addition to Album of the Year, she was honored for Country Album of the Year, Best Country Song and Best Country Female Vocal Performance.

“Taylor Swift is one of the brightest musical talents to emerge in recent years, and represents the true epitome of the Starlight Award,” said David. “She possesses an undeniable talent as a songwriter, expressive singer and performer, and we are proud to present her with this well-deserved honor.”

The Hal David Starlight Award, created in 2004, was renamed in honor of the SHOF Chairman for his longtime support of young songwriters. Award recipients are gifted songwriters who are at an apex in their careers and are making a significant impact in the music industry via their original songs. Swift joins the prestigious company of Rob Thomas, Alicia Keys, John Mayer, John Legend, John Rzeznik, and Jason Mraz – the past recipients of the Hal David Starlight Award.

Inductees at this year’s event include Leonard Cohen, Jackie DeShannon, David Foster, Johnny Mandel and Earth, Wind & Fire’s Maurice White, Philip Bailey, Verdine White, Larry Dunn and Al McKay. The prestigious Johnny Mercer Award will be presented to Phil Collins and the Howie Richmond Hitmaker Award will be presented to Phil Ramone.

Newsweek Thrown Into Shopping Cart

/by

Newsweek has been put in play according to Chairman Donald E. Graham who said the venerable news entity “might be a better fit elsewhere.” Newsweek’s parent, The Washington Post Co. has retained Allen & Co. to explore the publication’s sale. Pricing and potential suitors are still to be determined. Business Week sold recently for under $5 million.

Anne McDaniel, Newsweek managing director and Sr. VP at the Washington Post told Ad Age, “As a public company, we must pay attention to the return to our shareholders. But there are two other extremely important criteria—one, a good home for Newsweek and Newsweek.com, and two, a good home for the employees for Newsweek.”

One issue that will weigh on the sale process is Newsweek’s obligation to its existing subscribers recently reported as an average of 1.9 million. If the publication were to be shut down and not sold, Washington Post might be liable to refund money to subscribers that have already paid. Moving that liability to another party may actually be a large part of what is expected in the sale process.

“That would be the main reason to put it up for sale rather than shutting it down,” said Reed Phillips managing partner at media investment bank DeSilva & Phillips. “The issue with shutting it down, for a company like Washington Post, would be that they have to refund money to subscribers who already paid. I think their primary objective is not to see any objectives from the sale but to off-lay the subscription liability to someone else.”

Read more here….

[AdAge story]

[Newsweek story]

Black River Signs Osborne, Sebastian Consults For ole

/by

Black River Music Group Publishing has signed Kentucky native Josh Osborne to a publishing agreement.

“I’m very happy to be working with Josh and I believe he will prove to be an important writer and a name we will all recognize inthe not to distant future,” says Celia Froehlig, Black River Music Group’s Vice President, Publishing.

Osborne has had songs featured in shows on the Fox network and his song “Stay Away” was featured in the Hallmark movie, Every Second Counts. He’s also had songs that charted on the Texas and Americana charts.

(l-r seated): Celia Froehlig, Josh Osborne; (Standing l-r): Jimmy Nichols, President BRMG, Tonya Ginnetti, Vice President, Director of Artist Relations

In other publishing news, Mike Sebastian, formerly VP/GM for Blacktop Music Group, has been hired on as a consultant at ole, the publishing company that recently acquired Blacktop. Sebastian will continue to pitch the Blacktop catalog as well as work with ole/Blacktop writers Marty Dodson, Jimmy Yeary and Matt Nolen while also helping ole assimilate the Blacktop company into their system.

Sebastian can be reached at 615-327-2605 or at  mike_sebastian@olemm.com

ole Unveils Online Admin Web Portal

/by

Jennifer Beavis

International, independent publisher ole, with offices in Toronto, L.A. and Nashville has launched “adminow,” an online resource for the company’s administration clients.

“It’s akin to online banking,” explains Jennifer Beavis, Senior Director, Administration. “It complements ole’s expert, global customer service, and delivers the immediate transparency ole’s clients have come to expect from mainstream financial institutions.”

According to ole, the company has customized an end-to-end royalty accounting system that includes the automated reconciliation of royalty and accounting systems. The newly unveiled “adminow” improves on the system by offering clients the ability to securely view their detailed account histories, song registrations, splits and royalty income per song, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Additional analysis tools are also on the way to assist clients in managing their businesses. Included will be access to instant advances on pipeline income that they will also be able to track online as it is earned. Clients will also be kept well-informed with news relevant to the world of copyright and music publishing.

Michael McCarty, ole president says, “ole is committed to staying on the leading edge of both technological and client service innovations in the music publishing industry. The slogan “transparent technology.powered by people” is intended to convey the true ole difference – even though we have great technology, quality music publishing service comes down, in the end, to personal service.”

Water Pressure Closes BMI Row Office; Staff Remains Online

/by

“BMI’s Nashville office remains closed for the second consecutive day due to a lack of water pressure in the 6-story Music Row building, home to over 400 employees,” reports VP Writer/Publisher Relations Jody Williams.

“As a result, scheduled events including the Jason Blume Songwriting Workshop have been canceled. However, most executives are still readily accessible by email. BMI computer systems are operating normally, and writers and publishers can access their online accounts for royalty information, catalogs and new works registration as they always do.”

Up to date information on the status of the BMI offices will be available at bmi.com.

Flooding At Soundcheck, Schermerhorn, CMHF

/by

Country Music Hall of Fame, Photo by Jude Ferrara for The City Paper

Everyone here at MusicRow hopes that our readers experienced minimal flood damage, but if you have any news, photos, stories or updates you would like to share, please email us at news@musicrow.com.

BMI’s Nashville chief Jody Williams tells MusicRow that BMI is closed today. A full update is coming soon.

Wrensong Publishing and AristoMedia are two of the latest on the Row to report flooding in their offices.

Water is receding at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, which suffered flooding up to the third row of seats in the Ford Theater last night. Today the Museum remains closed and without power. None of the artifacts were damaged.

The Bridgestone Arena is also without electricity.

The basement of the Schermerhorn Symphony Center was filled to the ceiling with water, severely damaging many items including the symphony’s prized $2.5 million pipe organ. The Nashville Scene’s Jim Ridley reports that the enormous pipe organ’s operating mechanism and console were stored in the basement and suffered damage but the full extent won’t be known until the waters recede.

Schermerhorn Symphony Center, Photo by Chris Ferrell for The City Paper

Soundcheck Nashville, the music rehearsal, storage and rental facility located on Cowan St. near the Cumberland River, is flooded. The company’s Ben Jumper reports that no one is allowed inside the building until government officials give the okay, which will probably be when the Cumberland is below the flood stage of 40′. Rehearsals have been canceled until further notice. Jumper and Jan Greenfield are handling calls on their cell phones and updating a blog daily at 9 AM, noon, 4PM, and 9 PM.

Soundcheck from the river looking towards I-24. Photo by Amanda DeAngelis

Publishers: Stout Hearts And Big Pocketbooks

/by

Wally Wilson

“Publishing is like the canary in the coal mine,” smiles Skyline Music Managing Partner and publishing veteran, Wally Wilson. “Even though we have a shrinking industry, people have been thinking, ‘We’re ok, publishing is safe.’ Now we realize, after seeing the big changes at Sony and the closing of Lyric Street, if those large entities aren’t safe, then maybe nothing is. And radio is also shrinking, in many cases there’s one person operating an entire station. Just like the economy affects any other business, it will also be reflected in what happens to publishing.”

“It’s all about singles, that’s where the big money is,” says Noble Vision Music Group President Hal Oven. “The talk about performances shrinking is not good news. And the fall in mechanical income has been devastating for both the independent and major publishers. But even with those revenues shrinking, getting a Top 5 single is still what creates the big money. If we can get a few of those Top 5s, we’ll be fine. As an indie we don’t have a whole lot of leverage, so you just try and increase your number of cuts and hope that some of them emerge as singles. I hate to admit it, but getting my writers to write with artists is also important. We try to do that and present the best songs we can.”

Hal Oven

“What is troubling and has caused us to change our model,” says Wilson, “is we see on the charts now that all but 5-10% of the songs are written or published by the artist or producer. It’s always been a game to be played, but now it’s such a large share of the business. The old traditional songwriting staff therefore has got to change and the values of publishing have to adapt because the business has changed underneath us. I am expecting to see performance royalties shrink in the near future, but I don’t expect it to be so terribly dramatic that people start jumping off buildings or anything. But clearly publishing remains a game for people with stout hearts and big pocketbooks.”

“We had three staff writers until recently when a deal ended,” says Oven. “We’ll definitely be watching carefully to see if/when we can add a third writer again. Due to all the recent consolidations, there’s a lot of great writers out there looking for deals.”

“One strategy is going to be to sign some artists,” says Wilson. “Also, the writers we have and/or are looking for will need to have great relationships with artists and the creative forces such as producers and A&R execs. Unfortunately, some of the creative staff we’ve all relied upon will get left behind. The songplugger has to change their business model. It can’t just be about breeding great songs by bringing top writers together. That was a good plan in the mid-nineties; now you have to be ready to get on the bus and find both the baby and the big acts.”