David Renzer, Chairman & CEO, Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) has announced the promotion of Pat Higdon to President for Universal Music Publishing Group, Nashville. Most recently, Higdon served as Executive Vice President/General Manager for UMPG Nashville. In this new role, Higdon will preside over the company’s country music publishing activities, reporting to Renzer. The list of top writers that have trusted their song careers in Higdon’s hands includes Don Schlitz, Josh Turner, Dave Loggins, Troy Verges, Rivers Rutherford, Radney Foster, Shooter Jennings, Monty Powell, Matraca Berg, Anders Osborne, Gary Harrison, Troy Seals, Shawn Camp, Tim Mensy, and many more.

A Nashville native, Higdon broke into the music industry in the early ‘70s as a recording engineer at Nashville’s Woodland Sound before moving to Cedarwood Publishing. He then spent seven years with MCA Music, rising to MCA’s Vice President of Nashville operations. In the late `80s, he moved to Warner/Chappell Music, where he served as Senior Director of Creative Services. In 1989 Higdon founded Patrick Joseph Music as a joint venture with Warner/Chappell. He established a similar relationship in 1992 with Los Angeles-based Windswept Pacific Entertainment. The success of Patrick Joseph Music’s boutique catalog caught the attention of Universal Music Publishing Group and Higdon was tapped to run the Nashville operation in 1999. In his position with Universal, Higdon manages a catalog that spans the width of the musical landscape, from the 1940’s Folk/Blues of the Delmore Brothers, the 1950’s and 1960’s classics of Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash and Buddy Holly, country classics from Webb Pierce, Brenda Lee, Mel Tillis, and the works of Bob McDill, Pat Alger, Dickey Lee, Kostas, Mel Tillis, Marijohn Wilkin, Stephanie Bentley, Matraca Berg, Gary Burr, Troy Verges, Craig Wiseman, Emmylou Harris, Ed Hill, Marcus Hummon, and many more.

“What we’ve achieved is a testament to this company’s artists, songwriters, catalogues, and employees,” said Higdon. “I’m pleased to build on the great results we’ve achieved artistically and commercially over many years. I firmly believe in the mantra of great songs and great songwriters and have always invested in careers for the long haul. We’re building a catalogue at UMPG that I believe will weather the test of time.”

ole, Canada’s largest independent music publisher has announced the launch of musicnow, the company’s new state-of-the-art song search database. Debuting today (5/4), on the ole website at www.olemm.com, musicnow is a user-friendly e-tool for artists, producers, music supervisors, film directors and video game producers who need to locate and instantly license music from the ole catalog. musicnow is a powerful search engine using multiple criteria to search for music, including genre, tempo, era and style. Users can request a quote directly from their handheld or contact ole’s administration department directly, with the goal of same-day clearance turnaround. musicnow provides access to ole’s 40,000-plus songs, including hits like Taylor Swift’s “White Horse,” Alannah Myles’ “Black Velvet,” Lone Star’s “I’m Already There” and Kelly Clarkson’s “Miss Independent.”

“You can stream audio directly from the site, even without being a registered user,” said ole Senior Creative Manager Elizabeth Spear. “We’re tagging criteria to all of the songs so that people can find what they’re looking for by lyrical theme, genre style, mood, tempo – pretty much anything.”

One of the musicnow’s “smart” functions is the ability to find a song in a similar style. “If you search for a song by Dream Warriors you’ll get that selection and will also find songs that “sound like” or are similar to that song.”

With offices in Toronto, Nashville and Los Angeles, ole is one of the world’s largest independent, full-service music publishers.