ASCAP Teams With Room In The Inn

Pictured (L-R): Room In The Inn’s Melanie Barnett, ASCAP’s Kele Currier, Aaron Eshuis, Joe Clemmons, and Room In The Inn’s Maggie Sananikone and Wendy Smotherman

Inspired by ASCAP writer and Country Music Hall of Fame member Don Schlitz, who performs each week at Room In The Inn, ASCAP will feature songwriters to perform at the shelter once per month in 2018, while ASCAP staffers will volunteer to serve the guests. The series launched in January with songwriters Aaron Eshuis and Joe Clemmons, while ASCAP’s Kele Currier and Robert Filhart were on hand to serve guests alongside Room In The Inn staffers and volunteers.

Room In The Inn aims to provide programs to emphasize human development through education, self-help and work in the community.

Pictured (L-R): Songwriters Aaron Eshuis and Joe Clemmons perform at Room In The Inn

 

AIMP Holds Publishers and Artist Development Panel

Pictured (L-R): Brad Peterson, Regions Bank; AIMP Nashville Executive Director John Ozier, ole; Adam Zinke, Black Box; Livia Tortella, Black Box; AIMP Nashville Board Member Ree Guyer, Wrensong Music; Brian Popowitz, Black Box; Kari Barnhart, Regions Bank; AIMP Nashville Board Member Tim Hunze, Parallel

Association of Independent Music Publishers (AIMP) held a panel yesterday in Nashville, titled “How Publishers Will Fill The Artist Development Gap In Nashville’s Music Industry In 2018.”

Kalie Shorr Celebrates New EP Release

Pictured (L- R): Blake McDaniel and Brad Bissell, agents at CAA; Kalie Shorr; Todd Cassetty of Cassetty Entertainment, Zach Farnum of 117 Entertainment

Kalie Shorr and her team gathered to celebrate the release of her new EP Awake at The Back Corner on Thursday evening in Nashville.

Mary Chapin Carpenter’s new album, Sometimes Just The Sky, (Lambent Light Records via Thirty Tigers) will be released March 30. A celebration of her 30-year recording career, the project features new versions of some of Carpenter’s most beloved songs as well as one new song, the title track.

Produced by Ethan Johns (Ryan Adams, Paul McCartney, Ray LaMontagne), the 13-track album was recorded live at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios outside Bath, England. Joined by long-time collaborator Duke Levine on guitar and a handpicked band of Johns’ favorite musicians, Carpenter reimagined one song from each of her 12 studio albums along with the title track.

“I read a beautiful interview with Patti Smith in which she said that you don’t have to look far or wide, and it doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive or madness in order to find things to soothe you in life, or to be happy about,” explains Carpenter about the title track. “Sometimes just the sky makes everything fall into perspective.”

The leadoff track from the album, “Heroes and Heroines” is out now.

Pictured (L-R): Bart Herbison (NSAI Executive Director), Congressman Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Songwriters Bonner Black, Tom Douglas, and Claire Douglas

Songwriter Tom Douglas, a longtime member of the Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI), testifies Friday (Jan. 26) at a U.S. House of Representatives Field Hearing to be held at Fordham University in New York City.

Douglas will support the “Music Modernization Act of 2017” during his testimony. Known as one of the most moving speakers among American songwriters, Douglas has been an active part of NSAI’s advocacy efforts including visits on Capitol Hill.

Read Douglas’ testimony below:

Chairman Goodlatte, Ranking Member Nadler, and Members of the House Committee on the
Judiciary:

Thank you for this opportunity to testify about the Music Modernization Act of 2017, which I
will refer to today as the MMA. This legislation is critically important for songwriters,
addresses multiple areas of the music licensing ecosystem and is a bi-partisan bill supported by
an unprecedented collection of songwriter groups, other music industry groups and the digital
services themselves.

My story is similar to that of most American songwriters. I began writing songs at an early age
while I was still in school. After graduation, I moved to Nashville to try to make songwriting
my profession. After a few years with little success at songwriting and wanting to marry and
raise a family, I had to turn away from my dreams and moved to Dallas to work in real estate.
Attending a songwriter conference in Austin six years later, I handed a cassette tape copy of
one of my songs to a noted music producer named Paul Worley. Thankfully he listened to that
song when he returned to Nashville. That song “Little Rock,” became a No. 1 hit for Colin Raye in
1994. About a man in recovery, it still serves as an anthem for individuals and their families
dealing with substance abuse. And while I was not dealing with substance abuse, I guess part
of the song was really about me adapting to a life without songwriting as my job.
People don’t know the songwriter Tom Douglas, but their lives have been enriched by my
songs such as: “The House That Built Me,” “I Run To You,” “Raise ‘Em Up,” “Grown Men Don’t
Cry” and “Southern Voice.” This is true of all songwriters, especially those who are not
artists. Our songs identify American culture and move hearts and minds across the globe. Our
songs have value. That’s why adoption of the MMA is critical.

The Music Modernization Act includes:
• A new rate standard for songwriters’ digital mechanical streaming royalties. The
Copyright Royalty Board will be able to utilize the willing-buyer, willing-seller rate
standard that should result in more equitable rates because it is based on what my song
would be worth in a free market.
• Song ownership issues are addressed through a new blanket licensing entity called the
Music Licensing Collective. Governed by music publishers and songwriters the
Collective will assume responsibility for finding owners and keeping track of ownership
data. Digital services will be relieved from copyright infringement liability as long as
they adhere to best practices.
• The U.S. Copyright Office mass “Notice of Intent” (NOI) program that created many
burdens on songwriters and resulted in millions of dollars of unpaid royalties, will be
eliminated.
• Songwriters will, for the first time, be legally entitled to at least half of all unclaimed
funds from digital mechanicals to be equitably distributed based on songwriter activity.
• And ASCAP and BMI rate court judges will be randomly selected instead of being
appointed for life. By eliminating Section 114i of the Copyright Act, those judges will be
able to consider market factors like what record labels and artists earn for performances
of the song I wrote.

When my first hit song, “Little Rock,” was climbing the charts, artists sold millions of albums
and broadcast radio was not being challenged by streaming companies yet to exist. My
royalties for record sales or terrestrial radio broadcasts were counted in pennies. When my
song is streamed, royalties are counted in micro-pennies. For songwriters, it is not uncommon
for millions of streams to equal only hundreds of dollars in royalty payments.
For many years songwriters have begged Congress for relief. The entire American songwriter
community is hopeful we will begin finding that relief in the Music Modernization Act.
The MMA won’t immediately or completely solve songwriters’ digital rate woes, but it sets us
on the right path. The present standard of evidence to set my mechanical royalty rates was
established by Congress in 1909 for player piano rolls. Why so long? Because reaching
agreements between songwriters, music publishers, performing rights societies, record labels,
streaming companies and their representative organizations is Herculean. But, the MMA
represents precisely such a compromise.

Congressman Doug Collins should be commended for his ability to navigate the differences
these groups held. He and Congressman Hakeem Jeffries have led our industry into a new era
of cooperation with the introduction of the Music Modernization Act of 2017.
On behalf of American songwriters, I ask the House Committee on the Judiciary to swiftly
adopt this historic legislation.

Brooks & Dunn, Florida Georgia Line, Blake Shelton, Brantley Gilbert and more will take to the stage for the Faster Horses Festival in Brooklyn, Michigan, from July 20-22. Now in its sixth year, the three-day festival will also feature appearances by Cam, Billy Currington, Tyler Farr, Chris Janson, Walker Hayes, LOCASH, Dustin Lynch, Midland, Ashley McBryde, Parmalee, RaeLynn, Morgan Wallen and more. 

Fans descend on Michigan International Speedway each year for the sleepover festival, enjoying amazing music as well as the unique fringe activities offered including the annual “Campsite Contest,” “Faster Humans Fun Run” and first-class vendors.

Passes will go on sale Feb. 9 at 10 a.m. EST at fasterhorsesfestival.com.