TuneCore and Musicnotes Team for Musicians

Online music distributor TuneCore (www.tunecore.com) has teamed up with online sheet music company Musicnotes (www.musicnotes.com) to provide yet another way for musicians to make money from their music. Starting in May, any TuneCore artist selling over 25,000 songs within 90 days can have at least one of their songs professionally scored, translated to sheet music and made available for sale via paid download at Musicnotes.com, earning money from each sale. The seeds of this innovative partnership were planted at this year’s Leadership Music Digital Summit where TuneCore CEO Jeff Price first encountered Tim Reiland, Chairman and CFO of Musicnotes. Musicnotes.com has sold over five million sheet music downloads since its inception in 2000 at an average price of $4.95. This relationship further democratizes the industry by providing, for the first time in the history of the music and publishing industry, a unique opportunity for artists based on sales numbers, not an editorial filter. “The music industry began in many ways with the selling of sheet music,” said Price. “The irony of the intertwining of digital downloads with sheet music is not lost on both companies.”

NAMM Returns to Music City

NAMM, the National Association of Music Merchants, is getting ready to hold its 2009 Summer NAMM, the second annual gathering of the music products industry which will be held at the Nashville Convention Center July 17-19. NAMM unites its member manufacturers, retailers and distributors under one roof for the summertime musical instrument and products show. Online pre-registration is now open for Summer NAMM. For more information and to register, click here.

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Adkins, Aldean And Bentley To CMT Awards

Trace Adkins, Jason Aldean and Dierks Bentley have been added to the performance line-up for the 2009 CMT Music Awards, which will premiere live on Tuesday, June 16 at 7:00 CT on CMT and CMT.com. Previously announced performers include Toby Keith, Brad Paisley, Rascal Flatts, Sugarland, Taylor Swift, Keith Urban and British rockers Def Leppard.

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Underwood’s African Tour

Carrie Underwood made her second trip to Africa earlier this month, visiting orphanages and health centers near Luanda, Angola where she participated in the area’s cause to help fight malaria. Underwood’s visit was part of American Idol’s “Idol Gives Back” charitable endeavors. A special video package will air on American Idol tonight (5/12), to help show viewers how their donations have helped with various relief programs.
While in Angola, Underwood visited an all-girl orphanage in Luanda where the girls performed songs and poetry after she delivered bed nets and backpacks with school supplies to the orphanage. Underwood also participated in a community bed net giveaway in Ngangula, and wrapped up her 3-day trip by visiting a health center in Luanda where pregnant women received malaria counseling and treatment. American Idol and the Charity Projects Entertainment Fund (CPEF) partnered last year to raise awareness and funds for organizations that provide relief programs to help children and young people in extreme poverty in America and Africa. ExxonMobil sponsored Underwood’s most recent trip to Africa.

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Kami Knake to Topspin

Kami Knake, formerly Director of Digital Sales and Marketing for Warner Bros. Records in Burbank and in Nashville, has left the company. Knake is now consulting for Topspin, a technology-driven marketing, management, and distribution platform for the direct-to-fan channel. She is also consulting on online marketing  and sales for brands, bands, and managers. Artists wanting help growing their online business and reach Knake at butrmgmt@gmail.com or at kknake@topspinmedia.com.

CMT is partnering with Dish Network to bring country stars to Dish Network subscribers it was announced today (5/11) by Ira Bahr, Chief Marketing Officer for DISH Network and Mary Beth Cunin, Senior Vice President of Programming Strategy for CMT. Under the deal, six episodes of the CMT series Invitation Only will have exclusive premiere windows on Dish Network’s new CMT-branded franchise, CMT Front Row Only on DISH Network. The one-hour, monthly series kicks off on Dish Network on Tuesday, June 2 with Darius Rucker. Upcoming episodes will feature Reba McEntire, Brad Paisley and Sugarland, with more to be announced. Invitation Only features country stars performing before a small studio audience in Nashville, taking questions from fans and delivering candid answers. Previous episodes on CMT have featured Keith Urban and Alan Jackson. The Dish Network/CMT partnership also includes content from CMT Crossroads and the upcoming 2009 CMT Music Awards.

As part of its ongoing strategic mission of being a resource for the country music industry, the Country Music Association is launching “CMA Industry InSite,” a monthly online educational series for CMA members. The first episode — on publishing — will be available Monday, May 18 on CMA’s member Web site (MyCMAworld.com). Future topics include personal management, record labels, radio, social networking, entertainment law, and touring. New episodes will be posted on the third Monday of the month. CMA members will also be able to submit questions to the panel of experts interviewed for each episode. The series was developed by CMA’s Artist Relations Committee, chaired by Kix Brooks of Brooks & Dunn, to lay a foundation for how the various business interests within the industry function. The series is produced by digital marketing firm Hi-Fi Fusion.

“Initially, this information was available to new artists on DVD, but the format made the information obsolete very quickly and did not allow us to keep pace with the changing face of the industry,” Brooks said. “Housing the series online and archiving the episodes once they are posted enables us to routinely update the material to stay current with changing business trends.”

It was also important to the Artist Relations Committee that the project reach beyond the artist community and become a tool that could be easily accessed at any time by CMA’s entire membership. Each segment, which is 8-10 minutes long, features specialists from that field. Each month, a new segment will be rolled out to the community with the opportunity to submit questions to the experts with the answers posted online.

Participants in the publishing episode include: Chris DuBois, Partner, Sea Gayle Music; Rusty Gaston, General Manager/Partner, This Music; Ree Guyer Buchanan, President/Owner Wrensong Publishing/WE Records; Pat Higdon, President, Universal Music Publishing Group; Victoria Shaw, President/Owner AvaRu Music; Troy Tomlinson, President/CEO, Sony/ATV Music Publishing Nashville.