Billboard.com is reporting today (8/6) that licensing talks have broken down between MTV and Universal Music Group (UMG), resulting in the removal of videos of “most” of UMG’s artists from MTV’s online outlets, including CMT.com.

UMG had been licensing music directly to MTV for years, but is now directing all licensing negotiations to the Vevo joint venture, which also includes Sony Music Entertainment as a stakeholder, while EMI licenses music to Vevo.

According to Bilboard’s sources, MTV’s existing licensing deal with UMG had expired and Vevo was leading the renegotiation process. But an unspecified “hang-up” scuttled the talks and UMG responded by pulling its content. The impasse does not affect videos on MTV’s cable network channels, only online properties. Some UMG videos are still up, such as for those artists nominated for MTV Music Video Awards.

MTV issued the following statement when contacted by Billboard:
“For almost 30 years, we have enjoyed long and colorful partnerships with all the music labels, including UMG and their talented roster of artists on MTV, VH1 and CMT. As the industry evolves, we continue to seek out new and innovative ways to connect artists with their fans that are mutually beneficial to everyone. However, during our recent discussions with Vevo, we were unable to reach a fair and equitable agreement for rights to stream UMG artists’ music video content. As a result, UMG has elected to pull their music videos from our web sites. We are disappointed by this move and sincerely hope that UMG will work with us toward a fair resolution and allow their artists to once again connect with the millions of music fans who visit MTV.com, VH1.com and CMT.com every month.”

A UMG statement reads:
“MTVN has been unwilling to negotiate a fair syndication deal with Vevo to carry our artists’ videos and consequently our videos will not be shown on their online properties. We believe that using Vevo as our online music video syndication platform is the best way to maximize revenue for our artists, our songwriters and ourselves, while bringing our videos to the widest possible audience. In less than 8 months since its launch, Vevo has already become the web’s #1 rated video network with over 49 million unique visitors monthly, dramatically eclipsing those on MTV’s online properties, while attracting scores of major advertisers and tens of millions in advertising dollars. As a result, our artists are enjoying tremendous exposure on Vevo on YouTube and Vevo.com, and will enjoy even more as Vevo continues to complete syndication deals supplementing the existing arrangements with leading destinations as AOL and CBS Interactive.”

Vevo CEO Rio Caraeff said talks remain ongoing. “Vevo has been in negotiations with Viacom, including BET and MTV, as a syndication partner,” he says. “We are still in negotiations with them. We hope to one day power videos we have under license for MTV properties just like you can with CBS or AOL or YouTube.”

If Vevo and MTV can’t come to an agreement, Sony may pull its content as well, although there’s no indication yet that will happen.

The standoff comes only weeks after MTV finalized a deal to sell ads around music videos owned by Warner Music Group. That deal gives MTV exclusive rights to all of WMG’s ad inventory, including that on YouTube, WMG websites, and MTV. That deal also means that all WMG video spins will be counted as MTV traffic, regardless of where the views take place.

WMG is the only major label not participating in the Vevo venture, and sources say there’s no sign that the label will capitulate anytime soon.

Read the complete Billboard.com article here.

The National Radio Hall of Fame (NRHOF) has announced the results of its national online balloting process for induction into America’s only National Radio Hall of Fame, and Nashville broadcasting legend Ralph Emery is on the  prestigious list. In inducting Emery the NRHOF had this to say:

“A country music icon, Emery began his career as the late-night disc jockey on country music’s flagship WSM/Nashville. The station reached much of the southern and central U.S. and the show became a launching pad for promising country artists. Emery left his overnight duties to concentrate on television, hosting the syndicated Pop! Goes the Country and Nashville Now on The Nashville Network. He also hosted a morning show for WSM Television and is the author of two best-selling books featuring his favorite memories from the shows.”

Being inducted alongside Emery are Chicago disc jockey Terri Hemmert, NPR broadcaster Carl Kasell, Radio One founder Kathy Hughes, Sun Records founder Sam Phillips and Music and the Spoken Word featuring the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

Westwood One Radio Networks will produce and distribute the live two-hour induction broadcast on Saturday November 6, 2010 at 9:00 PM CT from The Mayne Stage in Chicago. Promotional support provided by American Airlines, the official airline of the National Radio Hall of Fame.
Ticket pricing for Radio’s Biggest Night of Year will be announced in a few weeks when tickets go on sale at www.RadioHOF.org.

Red Lane

The Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum will spotlight prolific songsmith Red Lane on August 28 as part of the its programming series Poets and Prophets: Legendary Country Songwriters. Lane will treat guests to a rare performance and an in-depth interview at 1:30 PM on August 28. The program, which will be held in the Museum’s Ford Theater, is included with Museum admission and free to Museum members. The program will also be streamed live at www.countrymusichalloffame.org.

Museum Editor Michael Gray will host the 90-minute program, which will be illustrated with recordings, photos and film clips from the Museum’s collection. Immediately following, Lane will sign autographs in the Museum Store.

Red Lane has been composing bluesy, deeply personal country classics for over four decades, penning hits for Eddy Arnold, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Conway Twitty and Faron Young. Throughout the 1970s and ’80s Lane wrote classics such as “’Til I Get It Right” (Tammy Wynette), “The World Needs a Melody” (The Carter Family with Johnny Cash), “Miss Emily’s Picture” (John Conlee) and “New Looks from an Old Lover” (B.J. Thomas). Lane also collaborated with Dottie West (“Country Girl”) and Merle Haggard (“My Own Kind of Hat”). More recently, his songs have been recorded by George Strait (“Tell Me Something Bad about Tulsa”) and Lee Ann Womack (“He’ll Be Back”).

Lane is also a highly regarded session guitarist who has contributed to classic recordings by Bobby Bare, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, Cash, Haggard, Nelson, Billy Joe Shaver, Keith Whitley and more.

Lane was born Hollis Rudolph DeLaughter in Zona, Louisiana, (now part of Bogalusa, Lousiana) in 1939. He spent his childhood hoeing corn and cotton alongside his sharecropper father, who began teaching him to play guitar at age nine. Lane was accustomed to life on the move, as his family was always in search of the next field to harvest. In one year alone, Lane attended four different schools. In 1952, Lane and his family moved to northern Indiana, where he graduated high school and eventually joined the Air Force.

Lane was stationed in Hawaii where he served as an aircraft engine and airframe mechanic. His guitar prowess won him several Air Force talent contests, and he was asked to perform on the famous live radio show Hawaii Calls out of Waikiki Beach. In 1958, after relocating to a base in Omaha, Nebraska, Lane began playing local nightclubs six nights a week. In order to avoid problems with authorities at the Air Force base, he joined the local musicians’ union under the name “Red Lane,” and the new stage name stuck.

Upon his discharge, Lane paid his dues playing in bands around the country, including stops in Indiana, California, Arizona and Texas. He became inspired by Willie Nelson’s songwriting in the early 1960s and decided to take up the craft, primarily as a fail-safe for his career as a guitarist. Justin Tubb convinced Lane to send some of his original songs to Buddy Killen, head honcho at Nashville’s Tree Publishing Company. Killen not only signed him to a publishing deal in 1963, but he also helped Lane relocate to Nashville by scoring him a job as a guitarist and singer in Justin Tubb’s band.

Lane scored his breakthrough hit the following year with Faron Young’s “My Friend on the Right,” which earned him his first BMI songwriting award. Since then, Lane has scored a slew of country hits, and his songs have been recorded by artists spanning several genres, including Ray Charles, Elvis Costello, the Del McCoury Band, Englebert Humperdinck, Wanda Jackson, Loretta Lynn, Roger Miller, Jack Palance, Johnny Paycheck and Dennis Wilson. Beginning in the late 1960s, Lane also fronted Dottie West’s band and co-wrote dozens of songs with her.

Lane went on to work with two of his personal guitar heroes in the 1970s, scripting the Ride This Train segments with Merle Travis for the Johnny Cash Show and recording as a session musician for producer Chet Atkins, who eventually signed him to RCA records. Lane’s unflinchingly honest love song “’Til I Get It Right” was a Billboard No. 1 hit for Tammy Wynette in 1973 and has since been recorded or performed by Solomon Burke, Bob Dylan, Lorrie Morgan, Kenny Rogers, Trisha Yearwood and more. Lane also forged a partnership with Merle Haggard, who has recorded nearly thirty of Lane’s compositions, including “I Must Have Done Something Bad” and “I Didn’t Mean to Love You.” Lane also added his guitar work to many of Haggard’s recordings and live performances, and he occasionally tours with him to this day.

Red Lane was elected to the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1993. He remains active in the Nashville songwriting community.

The Poets and Prophets series honors songwriters who have made significant contributions to country music history. Previous Poets and Prophets honorees include Bill Anderson, Matraca Berg, Bobby Braddock, Jerry Chesnut, Hank Cochran, Dean Dillon, John D. Loudermilk, Bob McDill, Roger Murrah, Curly Putman, Whitey Shafer, Jeffrey Steele and Craig Wiseman.

The Poets and Prophets series is made possible by Ford Motor Company Fund. These programs are also made possible, in part, by grants from the Metropolitan Nashville Arts Commission and by an agreement between the Tennessee Arts Commission and National Endowment for the Arts.