SONG CONTEST BLOG

Two weeks ago, Panos Panay, Founder and CEO at Sonicbids, announced that 10,000 Sonicbids members will receive their part of $4 million of unclaimed digital performance royalties collected and distributed by SoundExchange, the non-profit organization that collects royalties from satellite and internet radio.

Sonicbids members can check if they are on the ‘list’ and how much is owed to them by logging into their Sonicbids account.  If they are on the list, they must then register with SoundExchange to claim payment.

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Labels aren’t doing very well at the moment.  In fact, they’re darn right horizontal on their deathbeds.

People don’t want to pay for music anymore.

Children are being sued for copyright infringement.

Every digital music startup in the last three years has flopped.

It’s grim.

Yet there’s never been a better time to start a label.

Go ahead, sign a few acts – no one else will.

Nobody expects an advance or a fat tour bus.  It’s budget airlines all the way.

Invest in talent while it’s cheap and ubiquitous.

Don’t know how to do it?  Plenty of executives out of the job.  Go talk to one.

Four tips to get you started:

1. Quit your day job. Nobody will take you seriously if you’re doing something else 9 to 5.

2. Stick with what you know. If you lack people skills, avoid public relations.  Focus on your strengths and, when you can, develop or outsource your weaknesses.

3. You’re in business. Act that way.  Get organized.  Lots of stupid people own hugely successful businesses.  You too can create a successful business.

4. Pick great acts. Treat them well.  Work hard for them and they will show you returns.

Music is a safe bet.  There will always be money in it.

Now go make some!

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MTV is leveraging its massively successful Rock Band game to independent artists by introducing Rock Band Network, Rock Band’s own music catalogue and store which budding and established musicians can submit their material for review by Rock Band’s music supervisors.  Artists will have total control over the music they submit, from mixing and editing for game related uses to pricing individual tracks for retail.  It’s a potentially incredible opportunity to publish and market your music to a very large, loyal and highly-targeted music-loving demographic.

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Billboard and Music Week recently released their 1st Quarter publishers rankings and share report.  Bug Music ranks at #6 on Billboard’s Top 10 Publisher Airplay chart, holding 2.82% of the U.S. radio airplay chart share, a whopping increase of 70% over 4th Quarter figures last year.  During the same period, Bug Music was responsible for 10% of the songs on the Billboard Country 100 and ranked #5 on Billboard’s Top 10 Rock Publishers.   In the UK, a matching chart dominance and upward curve can be traced.  CEO, John Rudolph, attributes revenue growth to the persistent drive of old skool music publishing activities in conjunction with new business model speculation.

“Bug Music is a music company made of amazing writers, artists, and songs.  We recognized the need a few years ago to not only be aggressive in developing our traditional music publishing business, but to be more inventive in utilizing our partners and their songs by diversifying the role of an independent music company,” said Rudolph. “We believe the turmoil of the economic climate today has afforded us great opportunities to create new models for the future ranging from releasing records to developing brands around songs.”

For those in the know, Bug Music is a music publishing leviathan, most notably for its 2007 acquisition of Windswept Music and Trio/Quartet catalogs, adding 250,000 copyrights to its name including “The Real Slim Shady”, “Fever”, “What a Wonderful World”, “Stormy Weather”, “I Walk the Line”, “Summer in the City”, “Under the Boardwalk”, “Lust for Life” and many other mega-hits.  Recent deals include a joint venture with Nashville-natives, Kings of Leon, and a co-publishing relationship with Kara DioGuardi, the American Idol Judge and one of the highest earning songwriters in the world.

Taking the company’s 34-year tenure and size into consideration, with offices in Los Angeles, New York, Nashville, London and Munich, Bug Music is refreshingly hip and open-minded, pursuing new technologies to cater to their publishing administration and publically detailing their approach to new acquisitions and client engagement.

Now, let’s check out DioGuardi’s bod again for those who missed it live:

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TuneCore, the indie-friendly digital distribution company which secured $7 million in venture capital in October 2008, has partnered with Musicnotes.com to offer lead sheet music transcription and retail services for TuneCore artists selling more than 25,000 songs per quarter, Musicnotes.com announced on their blog yesterday.  Since its inception in 2000, Musicnotes.com has sold over five million sheet music downloads at an average of $4.95 per transaction.

“The music industry began in many ways with the selling of sheet music. The irony of the intertwining of digital downloads with sheet music is not lost on both companies,” said Jeff Price, founder and CEO of TuneCore.

TheMusicSnob recently published a post which frowns upon PumpAudio’s changes to its standard licensing agreement, specifically the shift in the 50/50 split to 65/35 in favour of PumpAudio.  The post also highlights the practice of ‘Re-Title Publishing’ (also known as ‘Derivative Publishing’) where the song title is registered under an alternate title (e.g. Fields of Gold -> Gold Fields) on the cue sheet so that PumpAudio can collect a portion of the royalties.
 
PumpAudio was one of the first pre-cleared searchable music libraries that considered submissions from independent artists.  The company was acquired by Getty Images in 2007 for $42 million along with a catalogue of 20,000 independent artists.   Although the recent shift from 50/50 to 65/35 is bad news for the artist, it is a reflection of deflated upfront synchronization license fees in an increasingly competitive media landscape and down economy.

Re-Title Publishing is an accepted industry practice and serves two principle purposes:  It allows the broker to collect backend royalties in addition to frontend fees and protects the songwriter by ensuring that the broker only collects monies for the commercial use(s) he procures.  To combat any public confusion that this may cause and benefit the songwriter’s marketing efforts, many films and TV shows offer a “gratis” cue where the original song title is used as opposed to the derivative title in the screen credit roll or music soundtrack release.

Music licensing, a seemingly clandestine industry bisect, is a lucrative business for songwriters and PumpAudio was pivotal to lowering the barrier of entry for upstart and unsigned artists.  YouLicense followed suit with an ‘open’ music licensing marketplace and transparent business model.

Details on licensing music for TV and film.

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Now here’s a novel idea: SongVest is a bidding platform for music copyrights.  Bidders have the opportunity to own a stake in their favorite published songs and, in turn, collect the royalty cheques.  The highest bidders also receive a personlised plaque to put up on their wall and show off their claim to music fame.  The songwriter or copyright owner retains a majority stake in the song up for auction, therefore, retaining full control of its use.  The songwriter also sets the minimum bidding price which, as you would expect, may be in the tens of thousands of dollars for a small piece of a commercially successful song.

SongVest positioned itself as a ‘memorabilia’ offering as opposed to a copyright market.  This is a unique approach to tapping into music fans desperate to own a piece of something they love as opposed to a community seeking to capitalize on copyright transfers and administration.  Both scenarios are viable, though.

The essence of owning a piece of copyright is to ensure that the copyright is associated with something broadly admired, reputed, and very well known.  Indie’s hoping to gain coverage out of this venture are unlikely to succeed.  For SongVest, getting A-list songs is paramount and they seem to be on their way having already featured songs made famous by Carrie Underwood, Ozzy Osborne, Cher, Ringo Star, and The Monkees.

From hotel lounges to corporate advertising campaigns, music is an integral part of creating a unique identity.  Businesses commission their own music to strengthen their brand in a number of capacities, including audio logos and signatures, gongs, jingles, theme tunes, and orchestral underscores.

The Cologne Bonn airport in Germany signifies the beginning of music in airport branding.  Several frustrating hours of delay at this airport in the mid-1970’s prompted Brian Eno to produce a record of calming music intended for public environments called “Ambient 1: Music for Airports”.  Its success paved the way for a new musical niche of ambient and ‘chill-out’ music.  In 2003, Cologne-based group, “plus49”, partnered with a design firm to create music specifically for the Cologne-Bonn Airport, a collaborative effort inspired by Eno.  The band wrote on-hold music for the telephones, elevator tunes, an airport speaker gong, and a short musical snippet called “Happy Sky” which aired prior to every overhead announcement at the terminals. Their song, “Symbols & Gateways”, dedicated to the launch of the Germanwings Airbus is, today, the airport’s theme song and featured on an album of airport-themed music.

Airports are, quite literally, a city’s gateway.  Although most of the passengers passing through them are unaware, airports invest considerably in a unique musical identity which, in turn, becomes synonymous with the destination itself.  Leaving a strong musical impression has become tantamount to providing a powerful customer service or shopping experience which helps to promote the city’s culture and attitude.  Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), for instance, traces its theme tune back to a 1970’s chart topper called “L.A. International Airport”, written by Leanne Scott and performed by Susan Raye.  For its 75th anniversary, LAX commissioned a change in the chorus to make the song more upbeat and ‘welcoming’.  During 2003, Southwest Airlines gave each of its arriving LAX passengers a CD copy of the song.

Arguably, the most ambitious airport music program is attributed to Austin- Bergstrom International Airport in Texas.  The airport hired a music coordinator to oversee its four live music venues and ensure that its passengers enjoy only local music, an approach now shared by many airports around the world to promote their local cultural assets.

Due to the ubiquity of music in today’s society – music is simply everywhere we go – brand managers and music coordinators have to work much harder and invest more money to ensure that their client, be it Heathrow Airport or Coca Cola, is tapping into an audience that will buy [and fly] with greater confidence if appropriate and assuring music accompanies the experience, a matter of increasing emphasis during a down economy.

Ethan Diamond, the brain behind OddPost, the web mail service acquired by Yahoo! and, more recently, founder of Bandcamp, dispatched a newsletter today announcing the band portal’s new feature-set and recent upgrades.  The free publishing platform boasts nifty and relevant tools for artists and band promoters to optimize their online presence and provide an uber-cool experience for fans and new comers.  Armed with features such as domain redirection to a unique domain name within the site, fan email capturing on transactions, and IP licensing control (courtesy of Creative Commons) associated with the variety of ways to transmit music files, Bandcamp is set to become a popular choice for the brand conscious and online promotion savvy music community.  In addition to Bandcamp’s visual bells and whistles and you-control-your-music ethos, the company focuses on pertinent music file meta-tagging and artist profile-specific search engine optimization for its individual members.  Did I mention that it’s free?  Bandcamp is really quite simple, down to earth, and rather wonderful.

The Singer/Songwriter Awards from We Are Listening is a prestigious international songwriting contest that takes place six times a year and attracts songwriters and performing artists from across the globe.  The songwriting contest boasts a music industry panel  of the highest caliber and offers a range of songwriting, recording and marketing related prizes for unsigned and professional artists.  For lyricists, We Are Listening has developed a lyrics-only songwriting contest called the Lyric Writer Awards, the first independent songwriting contest to offer a co-writing and publishing deal, and takes place four times a year.  Songwriters that write in any language other than English have also been catered to with a world music song contest called the World of Music Awards, a songwriting contest for foreign-language and instrumental composers that reflects the rich variety of music and culture from every corner of the world.

Founded in 2004, We Are Listening provides aspiring and established artists with relevant music industry opportunities and artist development services.  In addition to its songwriting contest initiatives, We Are Listening caters to fledgling songwriters with a unique approach to music education through professional feedback and on-going evaluations.  Armed with a 37-strong panel of the music industry elite, We Are Listening is quickly becoming one of the leading independent music companies in the new music economy.