Kendall Lettow, Matt Michiels

peermusic Nashville is expanding its Creative team and has tapped publishing executives Matt Michiels and Kendall Lettow as Senior Creative Director and Creative Manager, respectively, as announced today by Michael Knox, Vice President, peermusic Nashville.

“Our company has a rich history, over 90 years strong, of championing songwriters,” said Knox. “Our songwriters know that we are in it for the long haul and that we have a best-in-class creative team to help find talent, develop careers, and ensure a platform for their songs to be noticed. Appointing talented and proven creative executives is an important part of ensuring this standard, and I am very happy to welcome Matt and Kendall to our team.”

Michiels began his career working part-time for Gallimore Productions & Song Garden Publishing founded by producer Byron Gallimore. There he assisted in production coordination on albums by Faith Hill, Tim McGraw and Jo Dee Messina. This led to an opportunity to join Warner/Chappell Nashville in 2004 as Production Manager where he handled all aspects of the catalog for the pub company’s writers and A&R staff. Over the next 13 and half years his role expanded greatly to include song pitching, graphic design for marketing, pitching for film and television, and consulting for the development of Warner/Chappell’s global creative technology solutions. Matt has secured cuts with Ashley Monroe, Dustin Lynch, Michael Ray, Jason Aldean, Ryan Hurd, and Lindsay Ell among others. He is a native of Meridian, Mississippi and holds a B.A. in Music from The University of Alabama.

Lettow holds a degree from the Recording Industry Management program at Middle Tennessee State University and has worked in the Nashville music publishing community for eight years working in the Creative departments of Kobalt Music, Still Working Music, and THiS Music where she managed writers and pitched songs, landing song placements with major label country artists. Most recently, Lettow held a creative position at the publishing company MV2 Entertainment.

peermusic Nashville’s office is led by Michael Knox – a music industry veteran who knows a thing or two about making a hit. Knox has 20 #1 songs under his belt as a producer, over 40 million singles and 18 million albums sold during his career. In addition to discovering Jason Aldean, being a top publisher and having an artist management business, Knox’s production credits include Jason Aldean, Thomas Rhett, Trace Adkins, Montgomery Gentry, Kelly Clarkson, Ludacris, Luke Bryan, Eric Church, Frankie Ballard, Josh Thompson, Tyler Rich, Michael Tyler, as well as the late, legendary Buddy Knox, who is also his father. Knox has also served on the ACM Board of Directors (current), CMA Board of directors and GRAMMY Special Committees.

Country music pioneer, Jimmie Rodgers, was one of the first writers signed to peermusic back in 1927 by the company founder Ralph S. Peer and would later become one of the first performers inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Over 90 years later, the company still publishes the Rodgers catalog, and has even has signed a descendant of Jimmie Rodgers, Michael Tyler, to a publishing deal. In the summer of 1927, Peer also recorded The Carter Family and other acts in a series of sessions known as The Bristol Sessions, which Johnny Cash once called “the single most important event in the history of country music.” Peer also played a role in founding BMI, an early champion of country music. Today, Knox ensures that the company’s rich history of championing songwriters with its Nashville office remains as strong as ever.

On Saturday (Jan. 27), the Copyright Royalty Board released its ruling on mechanical rates for songwriters for 2018-2022. The court decided in favor of an increase in the overall percentage of revenue paid to songwriters, from 10.5 percent to 15.1 percent over the next five years, marking the largest increase in the Copyright Royalty Board’s history.

The decision stems from a trial that took place from March through June 2017 with the National Music Publishers Association and the Nashville Songwriters Association International, representing interests of music publishers and songwriters against Amazon, Apple, Google, Pandora and Spotify.

Additionally, the CRB removed the Total Content Cost (TCC) cap, giving publishers the benefit of a true percentage of what labels are able to negotiate in the free market resulting in significantly higher royalties for songwriters. The CRB also increased the TCC rate resulting in the most balance between record label and publishing rates in the history of mechanical licensing. In addition, the CRB granted a late fee which will dramatically alter the licensing practices of digital music companies.

NMPA President & CEO David Israelite stated, “We are thrilled the CRB raised rates for songwriters by 43.8% – the biggest rate increase granted in CRB history. Crucially, the decision also allows songwriters to benefit from deals done by record labels in the free market. The ratio of what labels are paid by the services versus what publishers are paid has significantly improved, resulting in the most favorable balance in the history of the industry. While an effective ratio of 3.82 to 1 is still not a fair split that we might achieve in a free market, it is the best songwriters have ever had under the compulsory license. The court also decided in our favor regarding a late fee which will force digital music services to pay songwriters faster or be subject to a significant penalty. The bottom line is this is the best mechanical rate scenario for songwriters in U.S. history which is critically important as interactive streaming continues to dominate the market.

“The decision represents two years of advocacy regarding how unfairly songwriters are treated under current law and how crucial their contributions are to streaming services. We thank the songwriters who shared their stories with the court and helped illustrate how badly these rate increases are needed. While the court did not grant songwriters a per-stream rate, the increases in overall rates and favorable terms are a huge win for music creators.”

Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) Executive Director Bart Herbison said, “Songwriters desperately need and deserve the rate increases resulting from the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) trial. The CRB was a long and difficult process but songwriters and music publishers together presented a powerful case for higher streaming royalty rates. The Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) thanks our songwriter witnesses Steve Bogard, Lee Thomas Miller and Liz Rose whose testimony was compelling.”

Sony/ATV Music Publishing CEO Martin Bandier said, “As the leading music publisher, we believe that overall this is a very positive ruling by the CRB as it will deliver an unprecedented topline rate increase for songwriters and publishers over the next five years. While we are disappointed not to get the per-stream rate that we wanted, the planned rate increases go a long way to fairly compensate our songwriters for the essential contribution they make to streaming’s success story.”