SONG CONTEST BLOG

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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Presumably in response to EMI’s recent formal complaint and Warner’s lawsuit last year, SeeqPod filed for Chapter 11  with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of the Northern District of California two days ago.  The music search engine which rolled out an attractive pay-for-play advertising programme for artists is liquidating its assets by selling its source code to developers for $5000, perhaps encouraging many services just like SeeqPod to emerge in the future.  Yet another sorry day for the music industry…

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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.

SoundOut, a member of the SliceThePie family, is an innovative platform for music marketing testing, providing its users (independent artists, labels) with detailed consumer research before releasing their music to the public.  Users upload their songs to the site anonymously and the songs are scrutinized in a focus-group environment by members of SliceThePie.  It acts as another means for independent artists and labels to learn about and better target their audience before spending lots of money on going to market with their music.  It’s also an excellent resource to help guide the decision makers as to which song from the album should be the ‘single’.  Whether SoundOut has really gone to bat by ensuring that the necessary focus-group conditions have been met remains to be seen.  However, it is a great idea and, for only $20 – $50, certainly worth a test drive.

The record industry, worth approximately $31 billion globally in 2006, is a large slice of the much broader and more than three times larger ‘music industry‘, worth more than $130 billion.  With record sales dipping and alternative revenue streams coming into significant play, a broader view of the music business, namely the live, gaming and film/television licensing, and publishing sectors, is warranted for budding professionals.  In spite of the bad rep, the record industry remains to be one of the most creatively oriented sectors in media with 20% of its revenues invested in the acquisition and development of new talent.  This is a staggering figure for R&D investment in intellectual property.  Although this investment is still being recouped from record sales, revenue goldmines are being discovered in other media sectors which are increasingly more prominent than the traditional retail sources. Recorded music has become a key influencer in the mobile industry and a pivotal consumer offering in $100 billion worth of broadband subscriptions in 2006. The live performance sector is growing rapidly and its promising, future effect on music merchandising and sponsorship remains to be seen.

While the record industry appears to be an exclusive club, every artist recording and, in one form or another, publishing music is, in fact, a part of it.  As music converges with other media, so does the record industry with other industries.  As such, as more and more artists produce and publish great new music, more opportunities arise for monetizing their copyright without the dependency on actual record sales.

The much-talked-about 360 music deals give labels the traditional percentage of CD and MP3 sales in addition to a cut of ticketing, merchandise, licensing, publishing, and sponsorship opportunities.

In the Web 2.0 Summit, Warner Music Group CEO, Edgar Bronfman, outlined that new artists will have to sign 360 contracts, and that about a third of their signed artists are under such contracts already.

Bronfman expressed that it’s is no longer feasible to pour money into artists when CD sales continue to diminish. Without a stake in the other aspects of an artist’s career, WMG will simply avoid going to market altogether.

We Are Listening have brought together an exceptional panel of judges for an extraordinary international songwriting contest – The Singer/Songwriter Awards – and you only have until the [b]2nd September[/b] to sign up!

Six gifted artists will be flown to London for a luxurious weekend stay at the centrally located, five star myHotel Bloomsbury and an all-inclusive recording session with producer Steve Williams (Sting, Eric Clapton, Seal) at Sphere Studios.

Selected songs will also be represented by We Are Listening and supported through global digital distribution, sync licensing administration and radio promotion.

Artists with a completed master may choose alternative prizes in the form of CD duplication, an 8 week dedicated US radio campaign, 3 months with a music publicist, film and television placements and more.

Catering to all genres of music and artists around the world – signed or unsigned – The Singer/Songwriter Awards is YOUR opportunity to get your music heard, promoted and sold.

[b][link=http://www.wearelistening.org/rules.php]GO![/link][/b]

Popkomm, the European music industry conference and festival, has announced YouLicense.com as one of the finalists for the ‘Innovation in Music & Entertainment Award’.

YouLicense.com is an online network for music artists, publishers, labels and other content owners to conduct business directly with media buyers. The online destination allows artists to upload their music, bio and copyright information free of charge. Buyers are then invited to search, bid and license the rights to music they like directly from the artist using customised licensing agreements. There are no fixed fees or terms. It’s an open marketplace.

“Licensing music is a highly complex field. We aim to simplify the process and give equal opportunities to all content owners. In this digital age, people are hungry to license music in the quickest and easiest possible way.” – Maor Ezer, CEO, YouLicense.com

YouLicense.com is non-exclusive and welcomes anyone to upload and offer their music.

www.YouLicense.com

The Independent Music Awards (IMA), an international program that delivers major results for indie releases, recently added new promotional programs that place IMA Winners and Finalists in front of 20 Million music fans and industry decision-makers.

The IMAs also announced the deadline for entries for the upcoming program has been extended. Submissions must now be postmarked by midnight on August 17, 2007.

For the past 7 years, the Independent Music Awards has helped indie artists & releases worldwide overcome mainstream obstacles & reach larger audiences & opportunities.

Supporting nearly 50 album and song categories in a variety of music genres spanning Punk to New Age and design categories including Music Video & Swag, IMA Winners benefit from yearlong promotion, marketing & distribution programs via print, broadcast & online initiatives.

Winners & Finalists credit the program with boosting their visibility among festival bookers, club talent buyers, radio programmers, distributors, industry insiders and fans. Past Winners & Finalists include: Speech, Lacuna Coil, Mary Gauthier, Sugarcult, Chris Whitley, Richard Julian, Eleni Mandel, The Mooney Suzuki , Girlyman, Dan Bern, Sweet Honey in The Rock, Bitter:Sweet and God Forbid.

New Sponsors Will Place IMA Winners

Produced by Music Resource Group, publisher of The Musician’s Atlas & co-sponsored by mega retailer, Borders Books & Music; online retail giant eMusic; radio promotion gurus, The Planetary Group; digital networks, ManiaTV & HavocTV; Burnside Distribution; social networking community, Trig.com and radio tracking service, MediaGuide, IMA Winners are promoted to more than 20 Million music fans & key industry players including Radio Programmers, Talent Buyers, Film, TV & Gaming Music Supervisors and Music Press.

Judges For The 7th Annual IMA Program Include: Ray Davies, Suzanne Vega, Les Claypool, Snoop Dogg, Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Mavis Staples, Frank Iero (My Chemical Romance), Angelique Kidjo, Tim Pagnotta (Sugarcult), Duncan Sheik, Judy Collins, Rob Wasserman, Chuck Comeau (Simple Plan), Charlie Musselwhite, Mobb Deep, Susan Tedeschi, MickDeth (18 Visions), Martin Atkins (Public Image Ltd./Nine Inch Nails), Ice-T, Carrie Hughes (MTV Music Supervisor), Anthony DeCurtis (Rolling Stone Contributing Editor), Kevin Lyman (Vans Warped Tour Creator/Producer), Stefan Goldby (Mania TV Music Programming), Chris Douridas (Tastemaker/KCRW DJ), Mike Errico (Blender.com Editor).

Program Highlights Include:

• Winning songs and contact information are promoted to over 10 million Borders Books & Music customers in 12 consecutive weekly “Shortlist” opt-in eNewsletters. The artist’s own releases will be available for purchase at the BordersStores.com site.

• The IMA Winners “Now Hear This” CD is promoted to more than 1 Million eMusic subscribers.

• IMA Jukeboxes feature artist music and contact info. All IMA Finalists are included in the Vox Populi Jukebox which allows music fans to vote for their favorite songs.

• The Winners of this Vox Populi Poll are also promoted to press and industry.

New Sponsors Will Place IMA Winners

• 10,000 copies of the IMA Winners CD compilation is distributed to music fans & industry pros at international music conferences, festivals, Spring Break & other events throughout the year.

• The sampler, promoted at 650+ US & Canadian college & public stations by leading promotions company, The Planetary Group, routinely places in the Top 1-25 CMJ charts.

• Winners & Finalists to be promoted to more than 9 Million viewers at digital broadcast sites including ManiaTV.com & HavocTV.com.

• Winners & Finalists to be promoted to Trig.com, MySpace & other social networking communities.

Entries must be postmarked by midnight August 17, 2007.

Prince angers British music retailers with a promotional distribution deal that will make his latest album, “Planet Earth”, worthless for traditional CD stores in the UK, a sector in the music industry already facing rapidly declining CD sales.

Last Sunday, The Mail on Sunday, a British tabloid with an estimated 2.9 million copies sold, packaged “Planet Earth” with its newspaper as an unprecedented promotional giveaway.

Sunday papers are a British gem and often include various added-value magazines, digests, CDs and other eye-catching purchase incentives at a premium price point. This, however, is the first time we see an artist release an entire album in exclusive association with a newspaper as opposed to the traditional or even modern, digital means.

It is not yet clear how much Prince was paid for this campaign and how he intends to milk it (i.e. UK tour, merchandising). This controversial step appears to mirror Paul McCartney’s alliance with Starbucks earlier in the year. I think that while record companies are scrambling for marketing ideas and music retailers fighting for dear life, artists – and a new breed of artist managers – are crossing over to alternative media for mass, public penetration and leaving a weeping music infrastructure for dust.

To the determent of music retailers, the potential for something like this is obvious and exponential. Let’s face it, Prince is not where he used to be – neither is Paul McCartney – so a massive push by a media giant to blitz its readership with a new product may generate some very satisfying, financial returns for all. All except the music retailers, that is.

Is the album any good? It doesn’t matter. When 2.9 million people receive the same CD, on the same day, around the same time, the artist formerly known as.. is, now, the artist at the very fore.