Ticketmaster has teamed with Amazon for a new Alexa skill that allows music fans to discover new concert events and buy event tickets from Ticketmaster.

Fans can order tickets from Ticketmaster’s inventory of live events with Alexa-enabled devices, including Amazon Echo and Echo Dot, using their voice. The service is currently only available to U.S. users, though it will soon expand to other countries.

To start, fans can say “Alexa, open Ticketmaster” or “Alexa, ask Ticketmaster to find events this weekend.” Fans can then search for an artist or team name, city, and date range such as, “find concerts in Los Angeles” or “find Miami Heat tickets”. From there, fans finalize their order details and purchase tickets by linking their Ticketmaster account to Alexa.

“Ticketmaster has the largest ticket inventory in the world, and our team is always looking to leverage it along with our open platform to reach new fans,” said Dan Armstrong, SVP and GM of Distributed Commerce at Ticketmaster. “This new integration with Alexa will offer yet another avenue for fans to access the best live events, allowing them to discover and buy tickets using only their voice. We’re excited to be working with Amazon Alexa and look forward to seeing fans utilizing it to see the artists, teams and events they love the most.”

The move expands on Ticketmaster’s focus on expanding where tickets can be discovered and purchased, by integrating with streaming services, e-commerce sites and global social platforms, including Facebook, Spotify, Groupon, BandsinTown, Samsung, and YouTube.

In February, the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board formally issued the final rates and terms for songwriter mechanical royalties, determining the amount labels and digital services are to pay music publishers. The rates represent a rise of 44 percent to be issued to songwriters. As reported today by Variety, digital service providers Spotify, Google, Pandora and Amazon have each filed a notice of appeal for the ruling.

A joint statement issued from Spotify, Google and Pandora says:

“The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB), in a split decision, recently issued the U.S. mechanical statutory rates in a manner that raises serious procedural and substantive concerns. If left to stand, the CRB’s decision harms both music licensees and copyright owners. Accordingly, we are asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to review the decision.”

NMPA President & CEO David Israelite and Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) Executive Director Bart Herbison have issued their own response to the actions of the digital service providers. The NMPA is set to file its own notice of appeal.

“When the Music Modernization Act became law, there was hope it signaled a new day of improved relations between digital music services and songwriters,” said Israelite. “That hope was snuffed out today when Spotify and Amazon decided to sue songwriters in a shameful attempt to cut their payments by nearly one-third.

“The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) spent two years reading thousands of pages of briefs and hearing from dozens of witnesses while both sides spent tens of millions of dollars on attorneys arguing over the worth of songs to the giant technology companies who run streaming services. The CRB’s final determination gave songwriters only their second meaningful rate increase in 110 years. Instead of accepting the CRB’s decision which still values songs less than their fair market value, Spotify and Amazon have declared war on the songwriting community by appealing that decision.

“No amount of insincere and hollow public relations gestures such as throwing parties or buying billboards of congratulations or naming songwriters “geniuses” can hide the fact that these big tech bullies do not respect or value the songwriters who make their businesses possible.

“We thank Apple Music for accepting the CRB decision and continuing its practice of being a friend to songwriters. While Spotify and Amazon surely hope this will play out in a quiet appellate courtroom, every songwriter and every fan of music should stand up and take notice. We will fight with every available resource to protect the CRB’s decision.”

Herbison stated:

“It is unfortunate that Amazon and Spotify decided to file an appeal on the CRB’s decision to pay American songwriters higher digital mechanical royalties. Many songwriters have found it difficult to stay in the profession in the era of streaming music. You cannot feed a family when you earn hundreds of dollars for millions of streams.

“Spotify specifically continues to try and depress royalties to songwriters around the globe as illustrated by their recent moves in India. Trying to work together as partners toward a robust future in the digital music era is difficult when any streaming company fails to recognize the value of a songwriter’s contribution to their business.”

Pictured (L-R): Austen Adams (Dickinson Wright); Shannan Hatch (SESAC); Carla Wallace (Big Yellow Dog Music); Christy McDonald; Lauren Funk (Big Yellow Dog Music); Alex Stefano (Big Yellow Dog Music); Jacee Badeaux (Big Yellow Dog Music)

Big Yellow Dog Music has signed Christy McDonald to a publishing deal.

One of the writers and the featured vocalist behind Grammy winner Robin Schulz’ “Ha Leh Lou Ya,” McDonald’s music has been featured on iTunes’ World Chart, Billboard, Nivea’s global campaign, and more. She is an active participant in the Country Music Hall Of Fame’s “Words & Music” program, working with children to help develop songwriting skills. To start off her new deal, McDonald is currently on a two-week writing trip in Amsterdam and Stockholm collaborating with European EDM/dance DJs, producers, and artists.

“I was blown away when Christy showed me what she had been working on,” said Big Yellow Dog Music’s co-owner and CEO Carla Wallace. “She has an incredible voice!”

BMI has partnered with Ultra Music for a series of global songwriting camps, providing its songwriters, composers and producers an opportunity to collaborate on an international scale.

Currently through March 8 Ultra and BMI are hosting a week of sessions at TEN Music Group’s six newly-renovated studios in Stockholm with a playback party to close out the camp.  Some of the BMI affiliated songwriters, artists and producers participating include Neil Ormandy, Mack, Karra, Lostboy and Kris Eriksson of Violet Days, as well as songwriters from our partner societies, such as Lily McKenzie, Sondr, Kelli Leigh, Karen Harding, Cassandra Stroberg, Shy Martin, Shy Nodi, Robert Habolin, Louise Lindberg, Philip Holmgen, Sam Crow, Jonathan Blom, Life of Elephants and more.

The first camp of the year, the UltraViolet Trailer Camp, recently took place in Palm Springs, California with BMI songwriters Neil Ormandy, Koda, Grabbitz, and Martin Wave.  The next one will be in Copenhagen on March 11-March 14, with additional camps to take place throughout the year in Los Angeles surrounding Coachella (April), Atlanta (April), and in Amsterdam during ADE (October), with more to be announced.

Previous BMI songwriting camps and initiatives have produced chart-toppers such as Panic! At The Disco’s “High Hopes,” Nick Jonas’ smash “Chains,” Prince Royce’s “Stuck on a Feeling,” Zedd’s “Daisy,” and most recently “Perras Como Tu” by Farina featuring Tokischa from the Miss Bala soundtrack.

“BMI prides itself on the unique and specialized creative services that we provide for our affiliates,” said Samantha Cox, BMI’s Vice President of Creative, NY. “As a result of our songwriting camps and other networking initiatives, we’ve fostered numerous successful collaborations which have generated chart-topping singles and commercial favorites. We’re thrilled to partner with Ultra to expand this initiative and build on our previous successes here in the US.”

“Ultra has been building a network of powerful writing camps, specializing in combining writers from different cultures and musical backgrounds for amazing results,” said Patrick Moxey, Founder and President of Ultra Music. “We welcome the involvement of BMI and their excellent writers. The song placement results have been extraordinary across camps in the US, UK, and Internationally and we look forward to the next level of growth for Ultra’s writers at the Ultra and BMI 2019 camps.”